Can I read Broken Cities : A Historical Sociology of Ruins on EtoBox?

Broken Cities : A Historical Sociology of Ruins by Martin Devecka is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is Broken Cities : A Historical Sociology of Ruins about?

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.

Who reads Broken Cities : A Historical Sociology of Ruins?

Author

Martin Devecka

Publisher

Johns Hopkins University Press

Published

2020

Language

EN

ISBN

9781421438412

Category

nonfiction

Subjects

History, Sociology, Anthropology