FREE SPQR: A HISTORY OF ANCIENT PDF

Mary Beard | 608 pages | 07 Apr 2016 | Profile Books Ltd | 9781846683817 | English | London, SPQR: A History of - Wikipedia

Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. In SPQRan instant classic, Mary Beard narrates the "with passion and without technical jargon" and demonstrates how "a slightly shabby Iron Age village" rose to become the "undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean" Wall Street Journal. Hailed by critics as animating "the grand sweep and the intimate details that bring the distant past vividly to life" E In SPQRan instant classic, Mary Beard narrates the history of Rome "with passion and without technical jargon" and demonstrates how "a slightly shabby Iron Age village" rose to become the "undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean" Wall Street Journal. Hailed by critics as animating "the grand sweep and the intimate details that bring the distant past vividly to life" Economist in a way that makes "your hair stand on end" Christian Science Monitor and spanning nearly a thousand years of history, this "highly informative, highly readable" Dallas Morning News work examines not just how we think of ancient Rome but challenges the comfortable historical perspectives that have existed for centuries. With its nuanced attention to class, democratic struggles, and the lives of entire groups of omitted from the historical narrative for centuries, SPQR will to shape our view of Roman history for decades to come. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published September 6th by Liveright first published October 19th More Details Original Title. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about SPQRplease sign up. Two questions: 1 does this book read like a textbook? And 2 how unbiased is it? I want neither. Skye 1 It SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome doesn't read like a textbook. I just finished taking a "History of Literature" class where we had several textbooks, and now I' …more 1 It definitely doesn't read like a textbook. I just finished taking a " Literature" class where we had several textbooks, and now I'm reading SPQR the day after my final exam, I might add for pleasure because it feels like a fun and dynamic re-working of all I have just SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. You could definitely read it for bed or at the beach without feeling bored at all. So from one perspective, you could say she goes out of her way to give a fair picture of Roman history-- one that includes women, children, non-Romans, and pretty much anyone else who is usually ignored by Roman histories. It's a book on Europe so it's about Europe hardly a fault of the bookbut I wouldn't say it's Eurocentric because she ties in connections to today and, occasionally, other civilizations. I think it's the fairest, best Roman history book you could find if you don't want a textbook and want a fair representation of history. Hi Martha I agree about history being a keen interest in many genres. Another book to add to my growing list of ' to read' books. Was this a relatively easy book to read? Were the chapters not too long? SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome like setting myself a chapter a day as an aim. See all 14 questions about SPQR…. Lists with This Book. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Jul 28, Sean Gibson rated it really liked it. I have a weird thing with acronyms. The minute I see one, I start thinking what it might stand for, and there are no rational limitations to what that particular SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome of letters might encompass. To wit—here is what I thought this book might be about before I actually read the subtitle a I have a weird thing with acronyms. To wit—here is what I thought this book might be about before I actually read the subtitle and summary: Samuel Pembroke Quit Racquetball: Wherein a gang of aging white investment bankers get mad at their friend, who decides to forego their Wednesday evening racquetball game to spend more time with his family. Seven SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Queens SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Wherein a magical kingdom in a faraway land determines who wears the crown and rules the land by rolling ladies of a particular size and shape down a steep hill to see who gets to the bottom first. I suppose some of you are wondering about the book, and whether it was any good…if so, you should know better than to read my reviews for any sort of useful content. That said, there is much to admire in the scope and breadth of Ms. And there are a lot—a LOT—of players in this drama, and exhaustive detail, which makes it a scholarly delight, but something of a slog to get through at times. Unlike those septuagenarians our poor vixen tried to love up on, who tend to round down. View all 56 comments. Mary Beard writes about how Rome grew, not about why it collapsed. That focus is rare in books about Rome. And she doesn't look at Rome out of admiration, or as a guide to how the world works the past repeats in the present, etc. There is no simple 'Roman' model for us to follow p. As she notes early in the book, to explore Rome from our vantage point is like walking a suspension with the familiar on one side and the utterly alien on the other side. And she spends time on both views. The book begins at around 63 BCE at the time when , consul of Rome, stopped a threat to the state by Catiline, an upper class failed politician. It begins then not because the event was sufficiently dramatic though it wasbut because a significant body of Roman writing exists from that time. Although she analyzes Rome's beginning, she does it from the point of view of era because of the SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome of records. And the book ends in BCE with Caracalla's decree extending citizenship to all free men living within the Empire. Given that Rome's founding took place, according to Roman historians, in what we call BC, and that SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome empire in the west did not end until AD and the dispossession of Augustulus, her focus is on the central part of Roman history: the period when Roman power was sustainable. Beard writes well and accessibly. She concentrates on humanity, especially those Romans who rarely receive much attention. She makes quite clear how the western view of Rome has shifted over time. The book is well worth buying and consulting, but, first, it is worth reading for the sheer pleasure of seeing a first-class mind at work. View all 20 comments. Feb 27, David Gustafson rated it did not like it. In spite of her incessant, unsubstantiated opinions, in spite of her chatty conjectures, in spite of her tenuous statements directly followed by her own contradictory analytics, Mary loves talking to herself in spite of the absolutely needless references to contemporary culture and politicians, Mary Beard's "SPQR" is worth reading with a golf-ball size grain of salt if one is a devout Roman history nerd, a blizzard is raging outside your SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome and the snowplows have yet to drop by. Somehow, en In spite of her incessant, unsubstantiated opinions, in spite of her chatty conjectures, in spite of her tenuous statements directly followed by her own contradictory analytics, Mary loves talking to herself in spite of the absolutely needless references to contemporary culture and politicians, Mary Beard's "SPQR" is worth reading with a golf-ball size grain of salt if one is a devout Roman history nerd, a blizzard is raging outside your window and the snowplows have yet to drop by. Somehow, enough interesting historical tidbits, that the devout nerd probably already knows by heart, manages to survive Beard's merciless writing to keep the reader awake. Roman history will endure even this boob tube babble that scholars are unlikely to find very useful. View all SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome comments. Given the 5o years Mary Beard poured into the crafting of this book, and my own interest in the subject SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, I was SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome to give this four stars, but kept getting hung up by the author's decision to fall sway to the modern trends in academia of giving a postmodernist veneer to any narrative. Plenty of reviewers have given Beard the equivalent of four or five stars, but when someone says this is SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome definitive history of Rome from the pre-republic kings to Caracalla, I'd have to say "No, not r Given the 5o years Mary Beard poured into the crafting of this book, and my own interest in the subject matter, I was tempted to give this four stars, but kept getting hung up by the author's decision to fall sway to the SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome trends in academia of giving a postmodernist veneer to SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome narrative. Plenty of reviewers have given Beard the equivalent of four or five stars, but when someone says this is a definitive history of Rome from the pre- republic kings to Caracalla, I'd have to say "No, not really. This book is valuable because Beard reinforces the message again and again that we cannot rely on the prose, even , of Roman and Greek writers from the time in question, because of the natural human tendency to exaggerate and tell half a tale. Reliance on such histories must be backed up by finds from archaeologists and other sources. She tries to fill in the blanks by offering alternative interpretations of what may have happened. But in so doing, her story lacks a strong sequential narrative. I am not expecting Mary Beard to be Gibbon-lite, and I am SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome comfortable with nonlinearity. But taking the chapter "Fourteen Emperors" as an example, she is so busy letting us know where 's Twelve Emperors might be faulty, we never get a clear idea of the fourteen emperors between Tiberius and . Earlier in the book, she shies away from giving a history of the year of four emperors, perhaps because the civil war surrounding them was too complex. There are valuable pieces of information in this book. Beard shows how the tales SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Roman kings prior to the republic are no more reliable than the stories of being suckled by a she-wolf. In fact, the early kings are as legendary as the Tuatha De Denaan in Ireland, and have to be accepted as little more than fairy tales. Beard's description of the slow corruption of the during the republic, and its eventual conversion to a showcase for fake democracy during the empire, reminds us of our own SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome democracies in the modern era. It also should remind us that there was no golden age of Rome when its Senate was virtuous and incorruptible. The problem was not simply that the republic, like Greece, was a democracy only for propertied men. The problem was that Rome never enjoyed a democracy at all. Beard's final chapter, "Rome Outside of Rome," provides some useful signposts on the difficulty of maintaining a far-flung empire. Yet we never get a solid sense of the continuous revolts among the Legion members and colonial governors, and the wars with Germania, Dacia, and the British Celts under Boudicca. SPQR - Wikipedia

Uh-oh, it looks like your Internet Explorer is out of date. For a better shopping experience, please upgrade now. Javascript is not enabled in your browser. Enabling JavaScript in your browser will allow you to experience all SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome features of our site. Learn how to enable JavaScript on your browser. NOOK Book. A sweeping, "magisterial" history of the from one of our foremost classicists shows SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Rome remains "relevant to people many centuries later" Atlantic. In SPQRan instant classic, Mary Beard narrates the history of Rome "with passion and without technical jargon" and demonstrates how "a slightly shabby Iron Age village" rose to become the "undisputed hegemon of the Mediterranean" Wall Street Journal. Hailed by critics as animating "the grand sweep and the intimate details that bring the distant past vividly to life" Economist in a way that makes "your hair stand on end" Christian Science Monitor and spanning nearly a thousand years of history, this "highly informative, highly readable" Dallas Morning News work examines not just how we think of ancient Rome but challenges the comfortable historical perspectives that have existed for centuries. With its nuanced attention to class, democratic struggles, and the lives of entire groups of people omitted from the historical narrative for centuries, SPQR will to shape our view of Roman history for decades to come. Home 1 Books 2. Read an excerpt of this book! Add to Wishlist. Sign in to Purchase Instantly. Members save with free shipping everyday! See details. A popular blogger and television personality, Beard is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. Related Searches. Being Elvis: A Lonely Life. Elvis Presley is a giant figure in American popular culture, a man whose talent and fame were matched only by View Product. From prehistoric Mexico to modern Istanbul, Mary Beard looks beyond the familiar canon of Western imagery to explore the history of art, religion, and humanity. Italianissimo: Italian Cooking at Its Best. All you need is to love to cook, pay close attention Joy Enough: A Memoir. Hallmann, Brooklyn Rail in Maker of Patterns: An Autobiography through Letters. Written between and the late s, the postwar recollections of renowned physicist Freeman Dyson have been celebrated Our Declaration: A Reading of the SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome of. No one has ever written a book on the Declaration quite No one has ever written a book on the Declaration quite like this one. Dorothea Lasky is one of the most talented American poets of her generation. Liveright Publishing Corporation. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome |

Beard was profiled in The New Yorker last year expertly, by Rebecca Meadyet her renown has not fully made the leap over the Atlantic Ocean. By necessity this book is, more often than not, a history of great men. Early on, at least, Roman peasants left few historical traces. Wood and straw do not survive the way marble does. Women were subordinate to their husbands and left behind little writing. Beard pays rapt attention. She is a debunker and a complicator. Do not come to this book for grand vistas, magisterial certainty or pinpoint war strategy. She refers to the Battle of Actium in 31 B. She will not be of that sort. She is so subtle, hedging every bet, that the ceiling fans sometimes cease to circulate the air. Beard is competent and charming company. That means not just the slavery, the filth there was hardly any such thing as refuse collection in ancient Romethe human slaughter in the arena and the death from illnesses whose cure we now take for granted; but also the newborn babies thrown away on rubbish heaps, the child brides and the flamboyant eunuch priests. She pulls us into the faculty lounge and remarks about debates that can make or end academic careers. She is consistently but not deformingly alert to irony, to satire, to humor in its high and low forms. Sometimes she merely has to supply the details. Just as often the humor is a SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome of her myth-busting stride across the territory. You come to Ms. They are idiosyncratic and SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, which is to say, pleasingly hers. Home Page World U.