Ken Foote talks about his research with CU Connections.
In Western civilization, memorials honoring soldiers and heroes have been traced to Roman and Greek times, and the tradition remains relevant today. But in the past 20 to 30 years, communities also have commemorated a wider range of heroes, victims and events, such as the recent shooting in Aurora. Ken Foote, a geography professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, has studied the trend and described his research in a book, Shadowed Ground: America's Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy. He spent more than 10 years visiting about 200 sites before he felt he had enough comparative information to write the book, which focuses on the United States and how communities have chosen to deal with turmoil and disastrous events.
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