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Tristram Hunt - Building Jerusalem (2nd Hand Hardback)
Synopsis
Subtitled : The Rise & Fall of the Victorian City.
Victorian cities, so long the object of derision as a byword for deprivation, are now celebrated as an urban ideal. They are widely heralded among modern planners and politicians for their active citizenship, local democracy, and civic spirit. This is a history of the ideas that shaped not only London, but Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Sheffield and other power-houses of 19th-century Britain. It charts the controversies and visions that fostered Britain's greatest civic renaissance.
From Manchester's deadly cotton works to London's literary salons, a brilliant exploration of how the Victorians created the modern city. By 1851, more than half of Britain's population lived in cities, and even as these pioneers confronted a frightening new way of life, they produced an urban flowering that would influence the shape of cities for generations to come.
Drawing on diaries, newspapers, and classic works of fiction, Hunt shows how the Victorians translated their energy and ambition into realizing an astonishingly grand vision of the utopian city on a hill - the new Jerusalem.
He surveys the great civic creations, from town halls to city squares, sidewalks, and even sewers, to reveal a story of middle-class power and prosperity and the liberating mission of city life. Vowing to emulate the city-states of Renaissance Italy, the Victorians worked to turn even the smokestacks of Manchester and Birmingham into sites of freedom and art. And they succeeded - until twentieth-century decline transformed wealthy metropolises into dangerous inner cities.
An original history of proud cities and confident citizens, "Building Jerusalem" depicts an unrivalled era that produced one of the great urban civilizations of Western history
Details
- Format : Thick 2nd Hand Hardback with Dust Jacket
- Condition : Very Good
- Category : Non-Fiction - Britain
- Published : 2004 (This Edition 2005 - Metropolitan Books, USA)
- ISBN : 9780805080261
- SKU : B002605
- PPC : SP900gm
- RRP : $32.50
- Quantity Available : 1 only.
1st US Edition, 1st Printing.
External Reviews
"This is a book for anyone who loves cities; their chaotic enthusiasm and massive contradictions as well as their enduring ability to both create and solve the most complex of societies' problems." - Sunday Herald.
"There is a great deal to admire here . . . the most inspiring chapters describe the great campaigns for social reform." - Roy Hattersley.
" . . . a lively analysis of the Victorian city. Hunt brings alive his cast of Victorian city-builders, physical, political and intellectual. He describes what they were like as people, and how their thoughts were translated into steam-age brick, iron, terracotta, marble and glass . . . a lucid and questioning book." - New Statesman.