CITY WALLS THE URBAN ENCEINTE IN GLOBAL PERPECTIVE
The essays presented in this volume, first published in 2000, describe a phenomenon so widespread in human time and space that its importance is easily overlooked. City walls shaped the history of warfare; the mobilisation of manpower and resources needed to build them favoured some kinds of politie...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York
Cambridge University
2000
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Click Here to View Status and Holdings. |
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Add Tag | Summary: | The essays presented in this volume, first published in 2000, describe a phenomenon so widespread in human time and space that its importance is easily overlooked. City walls shaped the history of warfare; the mobilisation of manpower and resources needed to build them favoured some kinds of polities over others; and their massive strength, appropriately ornamented, created a visual language of authority. Previous collective volumes on the subject have dealt mainly with Europe, but the historians and art historians who collaborate here follow a comparative agenda. The millennial practice of wall building that branched out from the ancient Near East into India, Europe, and North Africa shows continuities and points of contact of which the makers of urban fortifications were scarcely aware; separate traditions in China, sub-Saharan Africa, and North America illustrate universal themes of defensive strategy and the symbolism of power, each time embedded in a distinctive local context |
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| Physical Description: | xix, 697 pages illustrations 24 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 647-662) and index |
| ISBN: | 0521652219 |
Cities and urban life