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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.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Introduction(p. 1)
• Part 1 Gods, Heroes and Monsters(p. 5)
• 1 Make a Name for Yourself!: The Tower of Babel, Iraq (Born 5,000 BC - Died 323 BC)(p. 7)
• 2 Modernism's Labyrinth: The Palace of King Minos, Knossos, Crete (Born 1900 BC - Died 1400 BC)(p. 39)
• 3 The First War Memorial: The Citadel of Mycenae - The Plain of Argos, Greece (Born 1700 EC - Died 1150 BC)(p. 67)
• 4 The Sun City Also Rises: Akhetaten, Amarna - Egypt (Born 1348 BC-Died 1331 BC)(p. 93)
• 5 Jerusalem Syndrome: The Temple of Jerusalem (Born 950 BC-Died AD 70)(p. 117)
• Part 2 On the Unhappiness of Empires(p. 147)
• 6 The Rise, Decline and Fall of the Cow Pasture: The Forum - Rome (Born 735 BC - Died AD 500)(p. 149)
• 7 The Library of Babel: The Library of Alexandria - Egypt (Born 300 BC - Died AD 650)(p. 173)
• 8 Anarchy's Theatre: The Hippodrome of Constantinople (Born AD 200 - Died 1500 AD)(p. 197)
• 9 The Carpet of the World: Madinat al-Zahra, Cordoba - Spain (Born AD 936 - Died AD 1010)(p. 229)
• Part 3 The King is Dead, Long Live the King(p. 253)
• 10 London Was, But Is No More: Old St Paul's Cathedral - London (Born 1087 AD - Died 166b AD)(p. 255)
• 11 Journey to the Tent at the Centre of the World: Karakorum - Orkhon Valley, Mongolia (Born 1220- Died 1388)(p. 285)
• 12 The House of Diamonds: The Fortress of Golconda - Hyderabad, India (Born 1300 - Died 1700)(p. 313)
• 13 Liberté for Sale: The Bastille - Paris (Born 1356 - Died 1789)(p. 341)
• 14 Virtual City: Vilcabamba, Espiritu Pampa - Peru (Born 1539 - Died 1572)(p. 367)
• Part 4 You Say Utopia, I Say Dystopia(p. 391)
• 15 Little Brother's Big Brother House: The St Petersburg Panopticon - Okhta, Russia (Born 1806 - Died 1818)(p. 393)
• 16 No-Man's City: Kowloon Walled City - Kowloon, Hong Kong (Born 1843-Died 1994)(p. 417)
• 17 The Day the Architecture Died: Pruitt-lgoe - St Louis, Missouri (Born 1951 - Died 1976)(p. 445)
• 18 The Mirrorwall: The Berlin Wall - Berlin, East, and West Germany (Born 1961 - Died 1989)(p. 467)
• 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)(p. 491)
• 20 The Deleted City: GeoCities - The World Wide Web (Born, 1994 - Died 2009)(p. 519)
• Epilogue
• 21 Let the Past Meet the Future: Palmyra - Tadmor, Syria 535 (Born 41BC - Died 2015)(p. 535)
• Endnotes(p. 567)
• Further Reading(p. 621)
• Acknowledgements(p. 634)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Crawford's (-Aerofilms: A History of Britain from Above) latest title is not the first to offer building necrologies: The AIA Guide to New York City has a chapter devoted to demolished structures. Books with the word "lost" in their titles often document the destroyed architectural heritage of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Yet with over 2,000 endnotes covering seven millennia, this may be the first to weave an epic tale of how buildings are devastated by war, because of failed social experiments, or as a result of natural disaster. Five parts, each with a regrettably contrived title ("You Say -Utopia, I Say Dystopia"), contain 20 chapters tracing iconic architecture, from the Tower of Babel to the World Trade Center, with an epilog about recent ruins in Palmyra, Syria. -Crawford shows particular sensitivity to highly charged subjects, such as Israel's control of the Temple Mount since 1967 and the razing of the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St. Louis. VERDICT For a book about buildings, the paucity of illustrations is unfortunate. This will appeal more to social than architectural historians.-Paul Glassman, Yeshiva Univ. Libs., New York © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

This well-researched and evocative work turns history into biography with the fascinating tales of the lives and deaths of 20 structures from around the world. Crawford, who manages communications and publications for Scotland's National Collection of architecture and archaeology, reveals a witty and intelligent literary voice as he attempts to "rebuild these fallen glories in [the] mind's eye and let them live again." The 20 chapters cover the creation and desecration of a wide range of subjects, from the Tower of Babel to GeoCities. Most were destroyed by human hubris, with later attempts at resurrecting the sites often leading to further chaos and destruction. Though some of the early chapters seem more biographies of self-aggrandizing romantics such as Arthur Evans and Heinrich Schliemann, later chapters on the World Trade Center's collapsed Twin Towers and the Islamic State's obliteration of the ancient city of Palmyra reveal dramatic, startling connections between past and present, creator and destroyer, politics and culture. The book is sprinkled with illustrations and photographs, and it concludes with a welcome section offering suggestions for further in-depth reading. Although the book overly is descriptive at times, it's archaeologist approach concludes with a compelling view of the future. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Great buildings arise from all kinds of motivations and fall through forces just as varied. Exploring 21 examples throughout history, Crawford crafts intriguing portraits, beginning with the Tower of Babel and such structures dedicated to the divine as the Temple of Jerusalem and Amarna, the city founded by the heretical pharaoh Akhenaten. Ancient buildings also express power and empire. For Crawford, the Forum of Rome, the Library of Alexandria, and the Hippodrome of Constantinople exemplify the sobering motif of might and impermanence. He reinforces this vision with excursions to the capital of the Mongol empire, Karakorum, the St. Paul's Cathedral that was destroyed in 1666, and ruined citadels in India, Spain, and Peru. Crawford explores the conceit that building design can shape human behavior, using as an example philosopher Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon Prison and mulling over the intended purposes of three short-lived, evocative building projects: the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St. Louis, the Berlin Wall, and the World Trade Center. Crawford's astute, entertaining, and affecting gallery of ruins will appeal to readers drawn to the intersection of history and architecture.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2017 Booklist

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

JAMES CRAWFORD works for Scotland's National Collection of architecture and archaeology. Born in the Shetlands in 1978, he studied History and Philosophy of Law at the University of Edinburgh, winning the Lord President Cooper Memorial Prize. He has previously written a number of photographic books, including Above Scotland: The National Collection of Aerial Photography , Victorian Scotland , Scotland's Landscapes , and Aerofilms: A History of Britain from Above . In 2013, he wrote and acted as design consultant on Telling Scotland's Story , a graphic novel guide to Scottish Archaeology. He lives in Edinburgh.