Fallen Glory - The Lives and Deaths of History's Greatest Buildings

An inviting, fascinating compendium of twenty-one of history's most famous lost places, from the Tower of Babel to the Twin Towers

Buildings are more like us than we realize. They can be born into wealth or poverty, enjoying every privilege or struggling to make ends meet. They have parents-gods, kings and emperors, governments, visionaries and madmen-as well as friends and enemies. They have duties and responsibilities. They can endure crises of faith and purpose. They can succeed or fail. They can live. And, sooner or later, they die.

In Fallen Glory, James Crawford uncovers the biographies of some of the world's most fascinating lost and ruined buildings, from the dawn of civilization to the cyber era. The lives of these iconic structures are packed with drama and intrigue. Soap operas on the grandest scale, they feature war and religion, politics and art, love and betrayal, catastrophe and hope. Frequently their afterlives have been no less dramatic-their memories used and abused down the millennia for purposes both sacred and profane. They provide the stage for a startling array of characters, including Gilgamesh, the Cretan Minotaur, Agamemnon, Nefertiti, Genghis Khan, Henry VIII, Catherine the Great, Adolf Hitler, and even Bruce Springsteen.

The twenty-one structures Crawford focuses on include The Tower of Babel, The Temple of Jerusalem, The Library of Alexandria, The Bastille, Kowloon Walled City, the Berlin Wall, and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Ranging from the deserts of Iraq, the banks of the Nile and the cloud forests of Peru, to the great cities of Jerusalem, Istanbul, Paris, Rome, London and New York, Fallen Glory is a unique guide to a world of vanished architecture. And, by picking through the fragments of our past, it asks what history's scattered ruins can tell us about our own future.

Sommario

INTRODUCTION

PART ONE: GODS, HEROES AND MONSTERS
1 MAKE A NAME FOR YOURSELF!
The Tower of Babel, Iraq (Born 5,000 BC - Died 323 BC)
2 MODERNISM'S LABYRINTH
The Palace of King Minos, Knossos, Crete (Born 1900 BC - Died 1400 BC)
3 THE FIRST WAR MEMORIAL
The Citadel of Mycenae - The Plain of Argos, Greece (Born 1700 BC - Died 1150 BC)
4 THE SUN CITY ALSO RISES
Akhetaten, Amarna - Egypt (Born 1348 BC - Died 1331 BC
5 JERUSALEM SYNDROME
The Temple of Jerusalem (Born 950 BC - Died AD 70)

PART TWO: ON THE UNHAPPINESS OF EMPIRES
6 THE RISE, DECLINE AND FALL OF THE COW PASTURE
The Forum - Rome (Born 735 BC - Died AD 500)
7 THE LIBRARY OF BABEL
The Library of Alexandria - Egypt (Born 300 BC - Died AD 650)
8 ANARCHY'S THEATRE
The Hippodrome of Constantinople (Born AD 200 - Died 1500 AD)
9 THE CARPET OF THE WORLD
Madinat al-Zahra, Cordoba - Spain (Born AD 936 - Died AD 1010)

PART THREE: THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING
10 LONDON WAS, BUT IS NO MORE
Old St. Paul's Cathedral - London (Born 1087 AD - Died 1666 AD)
11 JOURNEY TO THE TENT AT THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD
Karokorum - Orkhon Valley, Mongolia (Born 1220 - Died 1388)
12 THE HOUSE OF DIAMONDS
The Fortress of Golconda - Hyderabad, India (Born 1300 - Died 1700)
13 LIBERTE FOR SALE
The Bastille - Paris (Born 1356 - Died 1789)
14 VIRTUAL CITY
Vilcabamba, Espiritu Pampa - Peru (Born 1539 - Died 1572)

PART FOUR: YOU SAY UTOPIA, I SAY DYSTOPIA
15 LITTLE BROTHER'S BIG BROTHER HOUSE
The St Petersburg Panopticon - Okhta, Russia (Born 1806 - Died 1818)
16 NO MAN'S CITY
Kowloon Walled City - Kowloon, Hong Kong (Born 1843 - Died 1994)
17 THE DAY THE ARCHITECTURE DIED
Pruitt-Igoe - St Louis, Missouri (Born 1951 - Died 1976)
18 THE MIRRORWALL
The Berlin Wall - Berlin, East and West Germany (Born 1961 - Died 1989)
19 NO DAY SHALL ERASE YOU FROM THE MEMORY OF TIME
The Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre - New York City (Born 1973 - Died 2001
20 THE DELETED CITY
GeoCities -The World Wide Web (Born 1994 - Died 2009)

EPILOGUE
21 LET THE PAST MEET THE FUTURE
Palmyra - Tadmor, Syria (Born 41BC - Died 2015)

ENDNOTES
FURTHER READING
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Info autore

James Crawford

Riassunto

James Crawford uncovers the biographies of 20 of the world's most fascinating lost and ruined buildings, from the dawn of civilization to the cyber era. The lives of these iconic structures are packed with drama and intrigue, featuring war and religion, politics and art, love and betrayal, catastrophe and hope.

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: James Crawford
• Editore: Picador
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 30.09.2019
• EAN: 9781250118318
• ISBN: 978-1-250-11831-8
• Pagine: 640
• Peso: 490 g
• Categoria: Scienze umane, arte, musica > Arte > Architettura