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Cargando... Venice: A New Historypor Thomas F. Madden
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. A very readable history of the Republic of Venice, with many amusing anecdotes about the sailors, grave robbers, merchants, bankers, noblemen, crusaders and looters (and many people who belonged to several of these categories) that shaped the course of Venetian history. ( ) Thomas Madden’s Venice: A New History is an ideal history of this unique city providing a solid framework of the city’s history in a very readable format. The author’s love for the city is infectious and the reader is left with a new appreciation of this ancient city. Parts of the book I valued the most include: • The early Venetians were driven to settle on the islands and sandbars of the lagoon as a way to escape the attackers that swept through Europe during the 9th century. • The Venetians exploited the characteristics of the lagoon (e.g. shallow waters with narrow channels) to successfully defend their city against attackers for many centuries. • Venice needed to balance its relationships with Constantinople and with Rome. Although it was located in Italy, it showed a greater affiliation to Constantinople for much of its history. • Venice was an entrepreneurial city devoted exclusively to trade. Because it had no agricultural basis for much of its history, it never developed the landed nobility class like the rest of Europe. Considerable complications ensued when Venice began to extend itself onto the mainland including conflicts with other Italian cities. • Venice had extensive trading relations with the Ottoman empire. The author provides a fascinating analysis of the delicate dance needed to maintain these relations despite support for crusaders. • Venice was a Republic for most of its history in contrast to the monarchies throughout Europe at the time. Because many writers have painted a different and darker picture of the city’s government, the author spends a considerable amount of time explaining how the city’s government really worked. • Napoleon claimed to have liberated Venice during his Italian campaigns but most Venetians felt that they had considerably less freedom after he appeared. • Finally, the author provides a good overview of the environmental challenges facing the city as well as their challenges in dealing with floods of tourists. The book also provides a nice review of European and Mediterranean history from the perspective of Venice. The book also provides a concise story of Venice’s influence on art and music. What makes this book so successful is that it is a Goldilocks book: not too many details and not too few details. As a result, it is easy to follow the thread of the city’s history. The reader is left with both a true understanding of the history and with a hunger to learn more. I have fallen in love with ancient Venice thanks to this book. It was the oldest republic in the world, for 1300 years its people opposed a strong central government. The author destroys old myths about its “all-powerful” doges who were nothing of the sort. Doges were chosen by a process so complex no one of power could possibly influence it “other than God,” and were replaced easily. Not until Napoleon—who “forced” liberty on it (another myth because according to the author they were the most free people through antiquity)—did one man force the Venetians to erect a statue to one man in St Mark’s Square. Napoleon. It didn’t last long. Venice was formed when Romans escaped to its islands fleeing Attila the Hun. Because land was scarce, there was no landed gentry, and thus no nobility, unlike everywhere else in the ancient world. And yet the people were and are noble. An excellent book!! By the way, the narrator was fantastic as well. I just don’t have enough praise for this book. While I’m not as enamored with Venice’s modern history (no fault of the author’s of course), I now cannot wait to see it in a few weeks!! sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
Overview: An extraordinary chronicle of Venice, its people, and its grandeur. Thomas Madden's majestic, sprawling history of Venice is the first full portrait of the city in English in almost thirty years. Using long-buried archival material and a wealth of newly translated documents, Madden weaves a spellbinding story of a place and its people, tracing an arc from the city's humble origins as a lagoon refuge to its apex as a vast maritime empire and Renaissance epicenter to its rebirth as a modern tourist hub. Madden explores all aspects of Venice's breathtaking achievements: the construction of its unparalleled navy, its role as an economic powerhouse and birthplace of capitalism, its popularization of opera, the stunning architecture of its watery environs, and more. He sets these in the context of the rise and fall of the Byzantine Empire, the endless waves of Crusades to the Holy Land, and the awesome power of Turkish sultans. And perhaps most critically, Madden corrects the stereotype of Shakespeare's money-lending Shylock that has distorted the Venetian character, uncovering instead a much more complex and fascinating story, peopled by men and women whose ingenuity and deep faith profoundly altered the course of civilization. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)945.311History and Geography Europe Italy and region VenetiaClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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