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Walls : a history of civilization in blood and brick / David Frye.

by Frye, David, 1963- author.

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New York, NY : Scribner, 2019, ©2018.

Fortification -- History -- To 1500.

Military architecture -- History -- To 1500.

Walls -- History -- To 1500.

Military field engineering -- History -- To 1500.

Boundaries -- History -- To 1500.

Earthworks (Archaeology)

Defensive (Military science) -- History -- To 1500.

Civilization -- History.

9781501172717 (paperback) :

1501172719 (paperback)

xii, 292 pages : maps ; 24 cm

First Scribner trade paperback edition.

Introduction : A wall against the wasteland -- Part one. Builders and barbarians. Midwife to civilization : wall builders at the dawn of history : the ancient Near East, 2500-500 BC -- To wall or not to wall? : Greece, 600-338 BC -- "Cries of pain and sadness" : China, 214 BC -- Wallers and warriors : life outside the walls : Eurasia, 2000 BC-AD 1800 -- Part two. The great age of walls. Prologue to the great age of walls : Alexander's gates : timeless folklore -- Walls connect Eurasia : China and central Asia, c. 100 BC -- Hadrian's walls : the Roman Empire, AD 117-38 -- Paradise lost : The Roman Empire, c. AD 300 -- Defenseless behind walls : The Roman and Byzantine Empires, AD 400-600 -- Cycles of walls and despots : China, AD 280-1600 -- Walls and the Apocalypse : Western and Central Asia, AD 500-1300 -- Part three. The world in transition. The horrible bombard : Constantinople, AD 1453 -- Beyond the pale : Ireland, Scotland, and the Russian Empire, AD 1494-c. 1800 -- Fort Brokenheart : South, Central, and North America, prehistory-AD 1800 -- Part four. A clash of symbols. The last battles : China and France, 1933-40 -- "A hell of a lot better than a war" : Berlin, 1961-89 -- Epilogue : "Love your neighbor, but don't pull down your hedge" : Earth, 1990-present.

"With esteemed historian David Frye as our raconteur-guide in Walls, which Publishers Weekly praises as 'informative, relevant, and thought-provoking,' we journey back to a time before barriers of brick and stone even existed--to an era in which nomadic tribes vied for scarce resources, and each man was bred to a life of struggle. Ultimately, those same men would create edifices of mud, brick, and stone, and with them effectively divide humanity: on one side were those the walls protected; on the other, those the walls kept out. The stars of this narrative are the walls themselves--rising up in places as ancient and exotic as Mesopotamia, Babylon, Greece, China, Rome, Mongolia, Afghanistan, the lower Mississippi, and even Central America. As we journey across time and place, we discover a hidden, thousand-mile-long wall in Asia's steppes; learn of bizarre Spartan rituals; watch Mongol chieftains lead their miles-long hordes; witness the epic siege of Constantinople; chill at the fate of French explorers; marvel at the folly of the Maginot Line; tense at the gathering crisis in Cold War Berlin; gape at Hollywood's gated royalty; and contemplate the wall mania of our own era. Hailed by Kirkus Reviews as 'provocative, well-written, and--with walls rising everywhere on the planet--timely,' Walls gradually reveals the startling ways that barriers have affected our psyches. The questions this book summons are both intriguing and profound: Did walls make civilization possible? And can we live without them? Find out in this masterpiece of historical recovery and preeminent storytelling." -- Provided by publisher

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