Items related to Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick
Synopsis
For thousands of years, humans have built walls and assaulted them, admired walls and reviled them. Great Walls have appeared on nearly every continent, the handiwork of people from Persia, Rome, China, Central America, and beyond. They have accompanied the rise of cities, nations, and empires. And yet they rarely appear in our history books.
Spanning centuries and millennia, drawing on archaeological digs to evidence from Berlin and Hollywood, David Frye uncovers the story of walls and asks questions that are both intriguing and profound. Did walls make civilization possible? Can we live without them?
This is more than a tale of bricks and stone: Frye reveals the startling link between what we build and how we live, who we are and how we came to be. It is nothing less than the story of civilization.
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Review
This is history with all the eerie qualities of a short story by Borges: emperors wait for barbarians, labyrinthine complexes of walls are discovered in mysterious deserts. A haunting and brilliant achievement. -- Tom Holland, author of Rubicon and Persian Fire
Frye's marvellous book-timed to coincide with the building of yet another engagingly hateful structure on our southern frontier-was a perfect delight. A mur de force, indeed. -- Simon Winchester
Walls turns 5,000 years of history outside in. Instead of focusing on the centers of civilizations, he illuminates the boundaries where civilizations collide. From ancient Mesopotamia through Rome to the presidency of Donald Trump, Frye brilliantly crafts a unique view of history with valuable lessons for today. -- Jack Weatherford, author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
A provocative, well-written, and-with walls rising everywhere on the planet-timely study., Kirkus
These are good stories and Frye tells them well... A timely and interesting book that reminds us that no matter how solid they are, the walls we surround ourselves with are eventually breached, whatever politicians claim., Financial Times
Readers will find Frye's rumination-on the reasons walls exist and will continue to exist, what they can and cannot do, and their contribution to the growth of civilization-informative, relevant, and thought-provoking., Publishers Weekly
Book Description
In a colourful narrative of invasions, empires, kings, and khans, David Frye presents a bold new theory of civilization: walls haven't just influenced the course of history; they have profoundly shaped the human psyche.
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- PublisherFaber & Faber
- Publication date2018
- ISBN 10 0571348416
- ISBN 13 9780571348411
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages304
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Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick
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Faber & Faber 04/10/2018, 2018
ISBN 10: 0571348416
ISBN 13: 9780571348411
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Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. 'This is history with all the eerie qualities of a short story by Borges: emperors wait for barbarians, labyrinthine complexes of walls are discovered in mysterious deserts. A haunting and brilliant achievement.' - Tom Holland, author of Rubicon and Persian FireHistorian David Frye presents a bold new thesis on how 'civilization' happens-the epic story of history's greatest manmade barriers, from ancient times to the medieval era and into the present.At the dawn of humanity's ascent, there was only bloody conflict: nomadic tribes slashing at each other, and each man bred to a life of struggle and pillage. But then came the invention of the wall, dividing populations into two opposing groups. On one side were those who gained enough of a respite from the clash of arms to think, create, preserve, trade. On the other were the unwalled, warriors driven by the search for plunder.In Walls, historian David Frye shows us what each side gained-and lost-with their decision about how to live. The stars of each chapter are the walls themselves-rising up in places as ancient and exotic as Mesopotamia, Babylon, Greece, China, Rome, Mongolia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Western Europe, and even Central and North America. As we journey across time and place, we discover thousand-mile-long walls in the desert wastes of Turkistan; learn of bizarre Spartan rituals; watch Genghis Khan drive his miles-long horde across the steppe; witness the epic siege of Constantinople; feel chilled at the extermination of French explorers of the lower Mississippi; inhale the gunpowder-scented air of France's Maginot Line; and visit some of the seventy border walls that have been erected in just the past decade.With provocative insight, Walls charts the centuries-long uneasy tension between the walled and unwalled, showing that walls profoundly shape the human psyche. Creativity, vigour, hardiness, the urge to make one's mark-all depend heavily on whether one lives inside or outside a barrier. Frye's clarion call: walls make civilization possible, but if we depend on them too heavily, they also create a dangerous vulnerability. A beguiling, sweeping history of civilisation and what it means to be civilised. It 'turns 5,000 years of history outside in.' Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780571348411
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