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Andrew Leach's Rome is the first book in Polity's exciting new 'Cities in World History' series, which aims to provide the general reader and traveller with historically informed companions to the world's greatest cities. Most city guides are good on practical details but very thin when it comes to recounting the histories of cities and contextualizing the buildings and sites for which they are famous. These new books from Polity bridge the gulf between guide and history by offering concise and accessible accounts written by some of the world's leading historians.
Rome has a history unmatched in richness by any city on the globe. It looms large in the word's cultural imagination, and for millennia it has been a meeting point of great cultures, a place where myth mixes freely with history, leaving neither unscathed. In this compact history, Leach demonstrates what most visitors to the Eternal City will instinctively understand: that the buildings, streets, monuments and gardens of this ancient city give the visitor moments of direct communion with its past. He reveals the long, twisting history of Rome through its ruins, art works and monuments, its metro stations and modern apartment blocks. Each chapter takes the reader on a physical journey invoking Rome in different moments of its life. Engaging historical narrative is supplemented with maps and photos, making Rome an indispensable companion for those who want to dig below the city's surface.
List of contents
Map of Rome
Preface
Introduction: Thinking about Seeing
1 A Matter of Foundations
2 The Roman Empire
3 A Middle Age
4 Return to Rome
5 The Capital of Italy
Selected Sources
Chronology
Notes
Credits
Index of Works
Index of Places
Index of Names
About the author
Andrew Leach is Professor of Architecture at the University of Sydney.
Summary
Andrew Leach s Rome is the first book in Polity s exciting new Cities in World History series, which aims to provide the general reader and traveller with historically informed companions to the world s greatest cities.
Report
"In this unconventional and sagely written guide to Rome, Andrew Leach captures the pulsating memory that is embodied in the history of Rome and its urban scene, and the mixture of the sublime and the trivial that are somehow inextricably united in this great theatre of the world."
Maristella Casciato, Getty Research Institute
"This is an ambitious and exhilarating introduction to three millennia of the city's history. The reader is taken on a non-stop journey from the boundary drawn by Romulus to the curves of Zaha Hadid's MAXXI, encountering Rome's main characters and its most famous buildings along the way."
Pippo Ciorra, University of Camerino
