The Great Cities in History

Fülszöveg

Simon Schama on Amsterdam Washington * Jan Morris on New York Colin Thubron on Samarkand * John Julius Norwich on Constantinople Venice Felipe Fernandez-Armesto on Mexico City Barcelona * A. N. Wilson on London Philip Mansel on Paris * Thomas Pakenham on Dublin Magnus Linklater on Edinburgh * Orlando Figes on Moscow Misha Glenny on Vienna Budapest * Bettany Hughes on Athens Ebba Koch on Agra * Lesley Downer on Kyoto Tokyo Frances Wood on Beijing
and over fifty more great cities in history, from Alexandria to Sydney and from Angkor to Shanghai, brought to life by some of the world's most eminent writers, scholars and historians


1
i I

THE
GREAT CITIES IN HISTORY
edited hy
JOHN JULIUS NORWICH
From the origins of urbanization in Mesopotamia to the global metropolises of today, great cities have marked the development of human civilization — Babylon and Nineveh, Athens and Rome, Istanbul and Venice, Timbuktu and Samarkand, their very names are redolent of history... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Simon Schama on Amsterdam Washington * Jan Morris on New York Colin Thubron on Samarkand * John Julius Norwich on Constantinople Venice Felipe Fernandez-Armesto on Mexico City Barcelona * A. N. Wilson on London Philip Mansel on Paris * Thomas Pakenham on Dublin Magnus Linklater on Edinburgh * Orlando Figes on Moscow Misha Glenny on Vienna Budapest * Bettany Hughes on Athens Ebba Koch on Agra * Lesley Downer on Kyoto Tokyo Frances Wood on Beijing
and over fifty more great cities in history, from Alexandria to Sydney and from Angkor to Shanghai, brought to life by some of the world's most eminent writers, scholars and historians


1
i I

THE
GREAT CITIES IN HISTORY
edited hy
JOHN JULIUS NORWICH
From the origins of urbanization in Mesopotamia to the global metropolises of today, great cities have marked the development of human civilization — Babylon and Nineveh, Athens and Rome, Istanbul and Venice, Timbuktu and Samarkand, their very names are redolent of history and romance.
The Great Cities in History tells their story through time, beginning with the earliest, from Uruk and Thebes, to Jerusalem and Alexandria. Then come the fabulous cities of the first millennium: Damascus and Baghdad in the days of the Caliphates, Teotihuacan and Maya Tikal in Central America, and Chang'an, capital of Tang Dynasty China. The medieval world saw the rise of powerful cities: Palermo and Paris in Europe, Benin in Africa and Angkor of the Khmer. Entering the early modern world, we journey to Islamic Isfahan and Agra, and Prague and Amsterdam in their heyday, before arriving at the phenomenon of the contemporary mega-city: London and New York, Tokyo and Barcelona, Los Angeles and Sao Paulo.
An incredible galaxy of over fifty distinguished authors, including Jan Morris, Colin Thubron, Simon Schama, Orlando Figes, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Misha Glenny, Adam Zamoyski and A. N. Wilson, evoke the character of each place and explain the reasons for its success. We see what each city would have been like during its golden age: Lisbon in the Age of Discovery, Rome in the Renaissance, Edinburgh in the Enlightenment.
A work of history, but also about art and architecture, trade and commerce, travel and exploration, economics and politics, this is above all a book about people: how they work and play, how they worship - and how, over the millennia, they have managed to live together in close proximity, yet also in harmony and concord. The Great Cities in History is nothing less than a portrait of world civilization.
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