City of Walls

City of Walls
Author: Teresa P. R. Caldeira
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 512
Release: 2000
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780520221437

"This is an extraordinary treatment of a difficult problem. . . . Much more than a conventional comparative study, City of Walls is a genuinely transcultural, transnational work—the first of its kind that I have read."—George E. Marcus, author of Ethnography Through Thick & Thin "Caldeira's work is wonderfully ambitious-theoretically bold, ethnographically rich, historically specific. Anyone who cares about the condition and future of cities, of democracy, of human rights should read this book."—Thomas Bender, Director of the Project on Cities and Urban Knowledges "City of Walls is a brilliant analysis of the dynamics of urban fear. The sophistication of Caldeira's arguments should stimulate new discussion of cities and urban life. Its significance goes far beyond the borders of Brazil."—Margaret Crawford, Professor of Urban Planning and Design Theory, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University "Caldeira's insight illuminates the geography of the city as well as the boundaries—or the lack of boundaries—of violence."—Paul Chevigny, author of Edge of the Knife: Police Violence in the Americas "An extraordinary account of violence in the city. . . . Caldeira brings to this task a rare depth of knowledge and understanding."—Saskia Sassen, author of Globalization and Its Discontents "An outstanding contribution to understanding authoritarian continuity under political reform. Caldeira has written a brilliant and bleak analysis on the many challenges and obstacles which government and civil society face in new democracies."—Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Director of the Center for the Study of Violence, University of São Paulo and Member of the United Nations Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights

Walls

Walls
Author: David Frye
Publisher: Scribner
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2019-08-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501172719

“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.

The Age of Walls

The Age of Walls
Author: Tim Marshall
Publisher: Scribner
Total Pages: 3
Release: 2019-10-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1501183915

Tim Marshall, the New York Times bestselling author of Prisoners of Geography, offers “a readable primer to many of the biggest problems facing the world” (Daily Express, UK) by examining the borders, walls, and boundaries that divide countries and their populations. The globe has always been a world of walls, from the Great Wall of China to Hadrian’s Wall to the Berlin Wall. But a new age of isolationism and economic nationalism is upon us, visible in Trump’s obsession with building a wall on the Mexico border, in Britain’s Brexit vote, and in many other places as well. China has the great Firewall, holding back Western culture. Europe’s countries are walling themselves against immigrants, terrorism, and currency issues. South Africa has heavily gated communities, and massive walls or fences separate people in the Middle East, Korea, Sudan, India, and other places around the world. In fact, more than a third of the world’s nation-states have barriers along their borders. Understanding what is behind these divisions is essential to understanding much of what’s going on in the world today. Written in Tim Marshall’s brisk, inimitable style, The Age of Walls is divided by geographic region. He provides an engaging context that is often missing from political discussion and draws on his real life experiences as a reporter from hotspots around the globe. He examines how walls, borders, and barriers have been shaping our political landscape for hundreds of years, and especially since 2001, and how they figure in the diplomatic relations and geo-political events of today. “Marshall is a skilled explainer of the world as it is, and geography buffs will be pleased by his latest” (Kirkus Reviews). “Accomplished, well researched, and pacey…The Age of Walls is for anyone who wants to look beyond the headlines and explore the context of some of the biggest challenges facing the world today, it is a fascinating and fast read” (City AM, UK).

City of Walls

City of Walls
Author: Teresa P. R. Caldeira
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 508
Release: 2000
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0520221435

"This is an extraordinary treatment of a difficult problem. . . . Much more than a conventional comparative study, City of Walls is a genuinely transcultural, transnational work—the first of its kind that I have read."—George E. Marcus, author of Ethnography Through Thick & Thin "Caldeira's work is wonderfully ambitious-theoretically bold, ethnographically rich, historically specific. Anyone who cares about the condition and future of cities, of democracy, of human rights should read this book."—Thomas Bender, Director of the Project on Cities and Urban Knowledges "City of Walls is a brilliant analysis of the dynamics of urban fear. The sophistication of Caldeira's arguments should stimulate new discussion of cities and urban life. Its significance goes far beyond the borders of Brazil."—Margaret Crawford, Professor of Urban Planning and Design Theory, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University "Caldeira's insight illuminates the geography of the city as well as the boundaries—or the lack of boundaries—of violence."—Paul Chevigny, author of Edge of the Knife: Police Violence in the Americas "An extraordinary account of violence in the city. . . . Caldeira brings to this task a rare depth of knowledge and understanding."—Saskia Sassen, author of Globalization and Its Discontents "An outstanding contribution to understanding authoritarian continuity under political reform. Caldeira has written a brilliant and bleak analysis on the many challenges and obstacles which government and civil society face in new democracies."—Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Director of the Center for the Study of Violence, University of São Paulo and Member of the United Nations Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights

“If City Hall’S Walls Could Talk”

“If City Hall’S Walls Could Talk”
Author: Greig Smith
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 115
Release: 2010-11-16
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 1456807048

The author was a participant, and elected official for over 32 years, in the government of the City of Los Angeles. This book is an effort to commemorate some of the truly intriguing, funny, and down right goofy stories that have helped the City of Angels gain its reputation as an eclectic city often called LA-LA LAND. Stories from recent years as well as some wild, funny, and fascinating stories from its history. It was Smiths desire to document a collection of short stories that are not intended to be a literary giant, but rather a very enjoyable read.

Walls

Walls
Author: Marcello di Cintio
Publisher: Catapult
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2013-08-19
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1593765657

What does it mean to live against a wall? Travel to the world’s most disputed edges to meet the people who live alongside the razor wire, concrete, and steel and how the structure of the walls has influenced their lives. In this ambitious first person narrative, Marcello Di Cintio shares tea with Saharan refugees on the wrong side of Morocco’s desert wall. He meets with illegal Punjabi migrants who have circumvented the fencing around the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. He visits fenced-in villages in northeast India, walks Arizona’s migrant trails, and travels to Palestinian villages to witness the protests against Israel’s security barrier. From Native American reservations on the U.S.-Mexico border and the “Great Wall of Montreal” to Cyprus’s divided capital and the Peace Lines of Belfast, Di Cintio seeks to understand what these structures say about those who build them and how they influence the cultures that they pen in. He learns that while every wall fails to accomplish what it was erected to achieve – the walls are never solutions – each wall succeeds at something else. Some walls define Us from Them with Medieval clarity. Some walls encourage fear or feed hate. Some walls steal. Others kill. And every wall inspires its own subversion, either by the infiltrators who dare to go over, under, or around them, or by the artists who transform them.

City Making

City Making
Author: Gerald E. Frug
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 267
Release: 2001-02-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 140082334X

American metropolitan areas today are divided into neighborhoods of privilege and poverty, often along lines of ethnicity and race. City residents traveling through these neighborhoods move from feeling at home to feeling like tourists to feeling so out of place they fear for their security. As Gerald Frug shows, this divided and inhospitable urban landscape is not simply the result of individual choices about where to live or start a business. It is the product of government policies--and, in particular, the policies embedded in legal rules. A Harvard law professor and leading expert on urban affairs, Frug presents the first-ever analysis of how legal rules shape modern cities and outlines a set of alternatives to bring down the walls that now keep city dwellers apart. Frug begins by describing how American law treats cities as subdivisions of states and shows how this arrangement has encouraged the separation of metropolitan residents into different, sometimes hostile groups. He explains in clear, accessible language the divisive impact of rules about zoning, redevelopment, land use, and the organization of such city services as education and policing. He pays special attention to the underlying role of anxiety about strangers, the widespread desire for good schools, and the pervasive fear of crime. Ultimately, Frug calls for replacing the current legal definition of cities with an alternative based on what he calls "community building"--an alternative that gives cities within the same metropolitan region incentives to forge closer links with each other. An incisive study of the legal roots of today's urban problems, City Making is also an optimistic and compelling blueprint for enabling American cities once again to embrace their historic role of helping people reach an accommodation with those who live in the same geographic area, no matter how dissimilar they are.

Victory on the Walls

Victory on the Walls
Author: Frieda Clark Hyman
Publisher: Bethlehem Books
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2005-01-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1883937965

Thirteen-year-old Bani, though born in Jerusalem, has lived from infancy with his uncle in beautiful Susa, the city of the Persian King Artaxerxes. Now, his Uncle Nehemiah wants to leave his position of high honor as Cupbearer to the King to return to Jerusalem, a city in ruins and beset by every kind of trouble! Nehemiah's request of the king, permission to return to help his own people, could so easily—in an empire riddled with political intrigue—be misconstrued as treasonous scheming. Bani himself is given an unexpected part to play, the outcome of which is to forever change his life. Seen through the eyes of Bani, this novel dramatizes a turning-point of history, in 445 BC, when—through confrontation and daring risks—Judaism was re-established in the Promised Land, and purified for her unfolding mission.

Cities and Citizenship

Cities and Citizenship
Author: James Holston
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1999
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780822322740

An expanded edition of the Public Culture special issue, which explores current meanings and contestations of citizenship in relation to the urban experience.