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    Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick
    Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick
    Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick
    Audiobook9 hours

    Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick

    Written by David Frye

    Narrated by Arthur Morey

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    About this audiobook

    “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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateAug 21, 2018
    ISBN9781508263289
    Author

    David Frye

    When he isn’t translating, David Frye teaches Latin American culture and society at the University of Michigan. Translations include First New Chronicle and Good Government by Guaman Poma de Ayala (Peru, 1615); The Mangy Parrot by José Joaquín Fernandez de Lizardi (Mexico, 1816), for which he received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; Writing Across Cultures: Narrative Transculturation in Latin America by Ángel Rama (Uruguay, 1982); and several Cuban and Spanish novels and poems.

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    Reviews for Walls

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    • 5/5
      Listening to this book will help to wipe away any residue of the 60's "noble savage" romanticism that still influences the academy.

      As he points out, walls (like fences) became necessary when people abandoned hunting and grubbing, became sedentary and commenced farming. Agriculture transformed man from predator to quarry.
      The wall is largely symbolic now, expanded and transformed into borders and laws, but its purpose remains: to protect the lives and property of those inside its circle.
      People like Klaus Schulz of WEF believe that such boundaries are obsolete.
      They think that they can be enlarged and merged under one global, all-encompassing ruling entity. They believe this global management scheme will end crime and ethnic animosity. Property will be obsolete and everything owned communally, or corporately --a concession to mega corporations and a sidelong acknowledgement of our inherent competitiveness .

      The author's treatment of the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire rampages that flourished inside it's weakened boarders should serve as a warning of how disastrous this Global Order will be.
      This time the invasions will originate inside rather from beyond its borders. There will always be an elite in control, an excluded majority who will envy them, and a bitter, marginalized faction armed with the power of having nothing to lose.

    • 5/5
      Excellent read, I was turned onto this book by a podcast "Tides of History " and it didn't disappoint.