This is one a i'm joshua johnson in washington mitch landrieu the mayor of new orleans made national news last year with a speech about why the city took down four confederate monuments in his new book he argues that it is time for a better south and now is a good time to make this argument new orleans is celebrating its three hundredth birthday this year mayor landrieu's new book is called in the shadow of statues a white southerner confronts history and he joins us now from npr in new york mr mayor welcome to one a thank you so much for having me i wonder when you walk past the places where those statues were a statue of robert e lee one of confederates jefferson davis one of general pg beauregard and an obelisk known as the liberty place monument what goes through your head what goes through your heart when you walk past where those statues were now before when you walk past them now those sites where the statue stood for so long well unfortunately now i can't walk by them and not think about put myself in the shoes of so many other people that have been forced to walk by them for their entire lives and i feel a little bit ashamed that i didn't have a better understanding or appreciation of why they were there who put them there and why really they helped hold new orleans in the south back statues we'll we'll put up on purpose well after the civil war was fought and concluded by a group of people who are called by historians the cult of the loss 'cause those are not my words those a historians words and those monuments will put up after the confederacy lost a civil war which by the way was an attempt to tear america apart destroy the country was a war fought against the united states of america america for the purpose of preserving slavery and when the confederacy lost and not all of the.