City squares : eighteen writers on the spirit and significance of squares around the world Cover Image

Book

City squares : eighteen writers on the spirit and significance of squares around the world / [edited by] Catie Marron.

Summary:

In this important collection, eighteen renowned writers, including David Remnick, Zadie Smith, Rebecca Skloot, Rory Stewart, and Adam Gopnik evoke the spirit and history of some of the worlds most recognized and significant city squares, accompanied by illustrations from equally distinguished photographers. Over half of the worlds citizens now live in cities, and this number is rapidly growing. At the heart of these municipalities is the square - the defining urban public space since the dawn of democracy in Ancient Greece. Each square stands for a larger theme in history: cultural, geopolitical, anthropological, or architectural, and each of the eighteen luminary writers has contributed his or her own innate talent, prodigious research, and local knowledge.

Record details

ISBN: 9780062380203
ISBN: 0062380206
Physical Description: xiii, 287 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm.
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, [2016]
Copyright: ©2016.

Content descriptions

General Note:

"With 93 photographs"--Dust jacket.

Formatted Contents Note:

part one. Culture : the power of place: Introduction / by Michael Kimmelman ; Maidan-e-Pompa, Kabul : resisting the square / Rory Steward ; Place des Vosges, Paris : a private place / Adam Gopnik ; Red Square, Moscow, Grand Market Square, Krak©đw : the past is always present / Anne Applebaum ; Squares of Rome and Venice : the shadow of ideas : circles and squares / Zadie Smith ; Djemaa el-Fnaa, Marrkech : engaging with complexity and diversity / David Adjaye -- part two. Geopolitics : strength in numbers: Introduction / David Remnick ; Tahrir Square, Cairo : lost and found in the Square / Jehane Noujaim ; Rabin Square, Tel Aviv : so empty, so loud / Ari Shavit ; Taksim Square, Istanbul : Byzantine, then and now / Elif Shafak ; Tiananmen Square, Beijing : in search of heavenly peace / Evan Osnos ; Euromaidan, Kiev : a place becomes a movement / Chrystia Freeland -- part three. History : influence on humanity: Introduction / George Packer ; Grand Parade, Cape Town : a speech for the ages / Richard Stengel ; Residential squares, London : a meander through splendor and squalor / Andrew Roberts ; Zócalo, Mexico City : on sacred ground / Alma Guillermoprieto ; Harvard Square, Boston : a city changes, its heart endures / Ann Beattie ; The virtual square : Hacker Square / Gillian Tett.