SPQR

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In SPQR, an 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. Download SPQR – kino-fada.fr 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 grouping of letters might encompass.Needless to say, when I picked up SPQR, my brain exploded I mean, how often do you get an acronym with a Q in it Sure, there are some limitations with that, but also possibilities that don t generally arise 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 acr...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, 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 ...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. The Romans were as divided about how they thought the world worked, or should work, as we are There is no simple Roman model for us to follow p 535 She writes about the Romans because they are interesting, because they left us a considerable record, an 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. The Romans were as divided about how they thought the world worked, or should work, as we are There is no simple Roman model fo...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 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 ...Books that span 1000 years of Roman history are usually about the empire s decline this one is how Rome was built Mary Beard s sweep of events goes beyond the consuls, senators, generals and emperors to cover the lives of their spouses, the middle class, the poor, and the slaves She tells what is known and what is not.Starting with Romulus and Remus she gives exactly the background the general reader wants She tells the purported story of their mother their mother s explanation for their bi Books that span 1000 years of Roman history are usually about the empire s decline this one is how Rome was built Mary Beard s sweep of events goes beyond the consuls, senators, generals and emperors to cover the lives of their spo...SPQR tells the history of the first millennium of ancient Rome from the mythical Romulus and Remus in the 8th Century BCE to 212 CE when Roman citizenship was given to every free inhabitant of the empire by Caracalla SPQR stands for the phrase Senatus Populusque Romanus , meaning The Senate and People of Rome Quite a bit of information is included about the lives of the lower classes, slaves, women, and people in the far flung provinces of the Roman empire in addition to the history of t SPQR tells the history of the first millennium of ancient Rome from the mythical Romulus and Remus in the 8th Century BCE to 212 CE when Roman citizenship was given...Let s get this out of the way this is in no way a history of ancient Rome this is a history of Rome from its mythical founding up till the year 212 It s heavily biased towards the Republic and the transition to Imperial structures, so you learn virtually nothing about the last, say, 150 of the years the book claims to cover That s fine, but to say that Beard is breaking new ground by writing about the Republic and early Empire is ridiculous, and to give the book such a broad subtitle is simp Let s get this out of the way this is in no way a history of ancient Rome this is a history ...Senatus Populus Que RomanusRead by Phyllida NashDescription By 63 BCE the city of Rome was a sprawling, imperial metropolis ofthan a million inhabitants But how did this massive city the seat of power for an empire that spanned from Spain to Syria emerge from what was once an insignificant village in central Italy In S.P.Q.R., Beard changes our historical perspective, exploring how the Romans themselves challenged the idea of imperial rule, how they responded to terrorism and revolution Senatus Populus Que RomanusRead by Phyllida NashDescription By 63 BCE the city of Rome was a sprawling, imperial metropolis ofthan a million inhabitants But how did this massive city the seat of power for an empire that spanned from Spain to Syria emerge from what was once an i...I recently resolved to start readingnonfiction again I used to read a ton of it but, for reasons I can t recall or explain, I stopped quite a few years ago, focusing entirely on fiction Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I wanted to broaden my literary horizons again and to explore some areas I d previously neglected.One of those areas is history and where better to start than with the ancient Romans This book came recommended by a friend so I dove right in.One thing became clear q I recently resolved to start readingnonfi...Smart, smart, smart and so readable that you will be tempted to sit up all night in order to finish it Not that I did, of course Okay, I did Because it is history written with common sense, a point of view and a healthy level of snark just to keep things interesting I am not going to sprinkle quotes from SPQR throughout this review because spoilers, but just as an example of her common sense, read the account of Caligula s life and reign Or Nero s She isn t doing revisionist history ne Smart, smart, smart and so readable that you will be tempted to sit up all night in order to finish it Not that I did, of course Okay, I did Because it is history written with common sense, a point of view and a healthy level of snark just to keep things interes...

SPQR
  • English
  • 13 June 2018
  • Paperback
  • 608 pages
  • 1631492225
  • Mary Beard
  • SPQR