Description
A comparative study of cities that fell into ruin through human involvement.
We have been taught to think of ruins as historical artifacts, relegated to the past by a catastrophic event. Instead, Martin Devecka argues that we should see them as processes taking place over a long present. In Broken Cities, Devecka offers a wide-ranging comparative study of ruination, the process by which monuments, architectural sites, and urban centers decay into ruin over time. Weaving together four case studies-of classical Athens, late antique Rome, medieval Baghdad, and sixteenth-century Mexico City-Devecka shows that ruination is a complex social process largely contingent on changing imperial control rather than the result of immediate or natural events. Drawing on literature, legal texts, epigraphic evidence, and the narratives embodied in monuments and painting, Broken Cities is an expansive and nuanced study that holds great significance for the field of historiography.
A comparative study of cities that fell into ruin through human involvement.
About the Author
Martin Devecka is an assistant professor of classical studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Reviews
The prose is very elegant and lucid, well suited for upper-level undergraduate classes pertinent to matters of pre modern urbanism and thus worth assigning.
-Nathanel Andrade, Binghamton University (SUNY), The Classical Outlook
Book Information
ISBN 9781421438429
Author Martin Devecka
Format Paperback
Page Count 184
Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press
Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press
Weight(grams) 272g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 12mm
