Power in Stone: Cities as Symbols of Empire - Hardcover

Parker, Geoffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1780232861 ISBN 13: 9781780232867

Publisher: Reaktion Books, 2014

Synopsis

From ancient Persia to the Third Reich, imperial powers have built cities in their image, seeking to reflect their power and influence through a show of magnificence and a reflection of their values. Statues, pictures, temples, palaces―all combine to produce the necessary justification for the wielding of power while intimidating opponents. In Power in Stone, Geoffrey Parker traces the very nature of power through history by exploring the structural symbolism of these cities.
 
Traveling from Persepolis to Constantinople, Saint Petersburg to Beijing and Delhi, Parker considers how these structures and monuments were brought together to make the most powerful statement and how that power was wielded to the greatest advantage. He examines imperial leaders, their architects, and their engineers to create a new understanding of the relationship among buildings, design, and power. He concludes with a look at the changing nature of power in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries and the way this is reflected symbolically in contemporary buildings and urban plans. With illuminating images, Power in Stone is a fascinating history of some of the world’s most intriguing cities, past and present.

About this title

About the Author:

Geoffrey Parker is an honorary senior research fellow at the University of Birmingham. His books include Sovereign City and Power in Stone, both also published by Reaktion Books.

About this edition

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1780232861
• ISBN 13: 9781780232867
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224