"This is an extraordinary treatment of a difficult problem. . . . Much more than a conventional comparative study, City of Walls is a genuinely transcultural, transnational work—the first of its kind that I have read."—George E. Marcus, author of Ethnography Through Thick & Thin "Caldeira's work is wonderfully ambitious-theoretically bold, ethnographically rich, historically specific. Anyone who cares about the condition and future of cities, of democracy, of human rights should read this book."—Thomas Bender, Director of the Project on Cities and Urban Knowledges "City of Walls is a brilliant analysis of the dynamics of urban fear. The sophistication of Caldeira's arguments should stimulate new discussion of cities and urban life. Its significance goes far beyond the borders of Brazil."—Margaret Crawford, Professor of Urban Planning and Design Theory, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University "Caldeira's insight illuminates the geography of the city as well as the boundaries—or the lack of boundaries—of violence."—Paul Chevigny, author of Edge of the Knife: Police Violence in the Americas "An extraordinary account of violence in the city. . . . Caldeira brings to this task a rare depth of knowledge and understanding."—Saskia Sassen, author of Globalization and Its Discontents "An outstanding contribution to understanding authoritarian continuity under political reform. Caldeira has written a brilliant and bleak analysis on the many challenges and obstacles which government and civil society face in new democracies."—Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Director of the Center for the Study of Violence, University of São Paulo and Member of the United Nations Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights

The construction of urban defences was one of the hallmarks of the late Roman and late-antique periods (300–600 AD) throughout the western and eastern empire. City walls were the most significant construction projects of their time and they redefined the urban landscape. Their appearance and monumental scale, as well as the cost of labour and material, are easily comparable to projects from the High Empire; however, urban circuits provided late-antique towns with a new means of self-representation. While their final appearance and construction techniques varied greatly, the cost involved and the dramatic impact that such projects had on the urban topography of late-antique cities mark city walls as one of the most important urban initiatives of the period. To-date, research on city walls in the two halves of the empire has highlighted chronological and regional variations, enabling scholars to rethink how and why urban circuits were built and functioned in Late Antiquity. Although these developments have made a significant contribution to the understanding of late-antique city walls, studies are often concerned with one single monument/small group of monuments or a particular region, and the issues raised do not usually lead to a broader perspective, creating an artificial divide between east and west. It is this broader understanding that this book seeks to provide. The volume and its contributions arise from a conference held at the British School at Rome and the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome on June 20-21, 2018. It includes articles from world-leading experts in late-antique history and archaeology and is based around important themes that emerged at the conference, such as construction, spolia-use, late-antique architecture, culture and urbanism, empire-wide changes in Late Antiquity, and the perception of this practice by local inhabitants.

The essays presented in this volume, first published in 2000, describe a phenomenon so widespread in human time and space that its importance is easily overlooked. City walls shaped the history of warfare; the mobilisation of manpower and resources needed to build them favoured some kinds of polities over others; and their massive strength, appropriately ornamented, created a visual language of authority. Previous collective volumes on the subject have dealt mainly with Europe, but the historians and art historians who collaborate here follow a comparative agenda. The millennial practice of wall building that branched out from the ancient Near East into India, Europe, and North Africa shows continuities and points of contact of which the makers of urban fortifications were scarcely aware; separate traditions in China, sub-Saharan Africa, and North America illustrate universal themes of defensive strategy and the symbolism of power, each time embedded in a distinctive local context.

A resume of a historical architecture typology, a legacy with a once tremendous importance for the Middle Kingdom.

“A lively popular history of an oft-overlooked element in the development of human society” (Library Journal)—walls—and a haunting and eye-opening saga that reveals a startling link between what we build and how we live. 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.

The Essential Study of the Largest Monument Still to Be Seen in Rome The City Wall of Imperial Rome: An Account of Its Architectural Development from Aurelian to Narses by Sir Ian A. Richmond was first published in 1930 and reprinted in facsimile in 1971. This scarce, essential work on the imperial fortifications of Rome has lost none of its relevance since its original publication. In this new edition, Late Antiquity specialist Torsten Cumberland Jacobsen provides current information about the state of the walls and their preservation, an updated bibliography, and an essay about Sir Richmond and his career.