right now to me or to historians around the country, i think. >> okay. so look, we've seen what's happened in charlottesville and this is not the first time that there have been heightened emotions surrounding statues of the confederacy or other symbols that elicit tremendous emotion on both sides. do they belong in public places, john? is there a better place for them where historians like yourself, where professors like yourself, where people can learn more about them without using them as rallying cries? >> well, there are a lot of hard judgments to make. i think individual communities are going to make their judgments on their own. there's some guiding principles that we can think about, though, for making those judgments. we can remember our history without celebrating white supremacy. we can ask about what the person honored stands for, what their legacies are. we can ask why the monument was put up in the first place. we can ask whether the person was out of step in his or her