
Walls
A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick
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Narrated by:
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Arthur Morey
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By:
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David Frye
In Walls historian David Frye tells the epic story of history’s greatest man-made barriers, from ancient times to the present. It is a haunting and frequently eye-opening saga - one that reveals a startling link between what we build and how we live.
With Frye as our raconteur-guide, 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.
A masterpiece of historical recovery and preeminent storytelling, Walls is alternately evocative, amusing, chilling, and deeply insightful as it 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?
©2018 David Frye (P)2018 Simon & SchusterListeners also enjoyed...




















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very interesting historical perspective
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narrator sounds not optimal at 1.5x speed
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This would make a great documentary series!
Grit and Wit
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David Frye wields military, social, and environmental history like brick, mortar, and some as he constructs a comprehensive overview of walls' role as defender, civilizer, and pacifier. His argument is that Walls put a literal barrier between two peoples, those who cilvilized within their high enclosures, and those who remained outside.
This work breaches the barrier between various fields of study and invites it's readers to charge through the gap.
A Face-First Dive into the Importance of Walls
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The code for history
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A must read.
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Yin and Yang
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A boom that will transform how you view all of history.
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The enormous role walls have played throughout the history of civilization cannot be overstated.
Walls were as important as writing, perhaps more so at times. The contrast between those that build walls and those that live on the other side of the wall creates two very different types of peoples.
Read this book! Seriously, if you want to learn about something that is so important in shaping humanity, but is scarcely examined, you will learn things that will change your way of seeing history as a whole.
I think I’m going to listen to it again right now.
Walls is a must read for any history lover.
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Facinating!
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