A glorious illustrated history of sixteen of the world's greatest cathedrals, interwoven with the extraordinary stories of the people who built them. 'An impeccable guide to the golden age of ecclesiastical architecture' The Times 'Vivid, colourful and absorbing' Dan Jones 'An epic ode to some of our most beautiful and beloved buildings' Helen Carr The emergence of the Gothic in twelfth-century France, an architectural style characterized by pointed arches, rib vaults, flying buttresses, large windows and elaborate tracery, triggered an explosion of cathedral-building across western Europe. It is this remarkable flowering of ecclesiastical architecture that forms the central core of Emma Wells's authoritative but accessible study of the golden age of the cathedral. Prefacing her account with the construction in the sixth century of the Hagia Sophia, the remarkable Christian cathedral of the eastern Roman empire, she goes on to chart the construction of a glittering sequence of iconic structures, including Saint-Denis, Notre-Dame, Canterbury, Chartres, Salisbury, York Minster and Florence's Duomo. More than architectural biographies, these are human stories of triumph and tragedy that take the reader from the chaotic atmosphere of the mason's yard to the cloisters of power. Together, they reveal how 1000 years of cathedral-building shaped modern Europe, and influenced art, culture and society around the world.

In Tombs in Early Modern Rome (1400-1600), Jan L. de Jong reveals how funerary monuments, far from simply marking a grave, offered an image of the deceased that was carefully crafted to generate a laudable memory and prompt meditative reflections on life, death, and the hereafter. This leads to such questions as: which image of themselves did cardinals create when they commissioned their own tomb monuments? Why were most popes buried in a grandiose tomb monument that they claimed they did not want? Which memory of their mother did children create, and what do tombs for children tell about mothers? Were certain couples buried together so as to demonstrate their eternal love, expecting an afterlife in each other's company?

State Oddities takes a different kind of look at the American nation, spotlighting the fun foibles, peculiarities, and twists in each of the 50 states that are (mostly) united under the Stars and Stripes. State Oddities is a fascinating trip through the 50 states for students studying America, teachers planning classroom activities, and general readers who will enjoy an eye-opening journey through the nation's fun side. It offers a compelling look at the character of America through the individuality of 50 very distinct states that together form the USA. This book paints a picture of the broad sweep of the American story, offering a gateway to the country as it developed into one nation filled with individual states that can be remarkably different from each other, yet unified under such national symbols as the American flag and "The Star-Spangled Banner." The author of State Oddities has become known as a master of "painless history," telling America's story in a sparkling style along with the historian's eye for fascinating detail. On the book's cross-country journey, the reader will find that it differs from other works by taking a fresh look at stories we think we know. Engaging, entertaining, readable, and informative narratives for both students and adults Teacher-friendly entries on each state form the building blocks for history, geography, and social studies projects Lively sidebars add spice to the book Helpful Fact Box overviews for each state Fascinating images in every state entry Bibliographic references and suggestions for further information

Syria's Monuments: their Survival and Destruction examines the fate of the various monuments in Syria (including present-day Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine/Israel) from Late Antiquity to the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. It examines travellers' accounts, mainly from the 17th to 19th centuries, which describe religious buildings and housing in numbers and quality unknown elsewhere. The book charts the reasons why monuments lived or died, varying from earthquakes and desertification to neglect and re-use, and sets the political and social context for the Empire's transformation toward a modern state, provoked by Western trade and example. An epilogue assesses the impact of the recent civil war on the state of the monuments, and strategies for their resurrection, with plentiful references and web links.

View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction.

a[Duranteas] guidebook is a perfect walking-tour accompaniment to help New Yorkers and visitors find, identify and better appreciate statues famous and obscure (honoring, among others, the afather of gynecologya and the general who had an unremarkable military and business career but composed taps, the bugle call). . . . Durante winsomely places 54 monuments in historical and artistic perspective. We learn that a trumpet is an allegory for announcing fame, that the monument to Admiral Farragut in Madison Square Park altered the course of American sculpture, that the figure with the winged hat atop Grand Central Terminal is Mercury and that the statue of Atlas at Rockefeller Center was reviled when it was unveiled in 1937 because it supposedly resembled Mussolini. Letas hope Ms. Durante follows up in the other four boroughs.a
--"The New York Times"

aOutdoor Monuments of Manhattan is a primer on getting to know our city's monuments. . . . Each entry has a uniform structure. It contains a photo, vital stats (year dedicated, size, materials), an aAbout the Sculpturea section, and an aAbout the Subjecta section, as well as a carefully chosen boxed quotation culled from an old book or newspaper that pertains to the subject. . . . Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan is well written, well researched, well thought-out, funny, and often refreshingly original, and will help any interested New Yorker know about the wondrous monuments that dot the city.a
--"New York Sun"

aAnyone whose curiosity has ever been piqued by the peculiar mixture of historical statues that ornament the grounds of Central Park will find Outdoor Monuments byDianne Durante a satisfying read. . . . The entries provide background on each workas origin, explaining, for example, how a statue of the medieval Polish king Jagiello came to be in New York alongside more predictable allegorical and American patriotic figures. A brief history of the subject is also provided, including enough lively anecdotes and obscure facts to entice all readers.a
--"Sculpture Magazine"

a[Durante] tackles her task in the manner of a walking tour. . . . The language of the book is friendly and chatty, as if the author were in front of you, conducting an on-site lecture. . . . The purpose of the book is to encourage people to go and see the wealth of outdoor sculpture in Manhattan, and the book treats this purpose with the enthusiasm the subjects deserve.a
--"The Art Book"

Stop, look, and discover--the streets and parks of Manhattan are filled with beautiful historic monuments that will entertain, stimulate, and inspire you. Among the 54 monuments in this volume are major figures in American history: Washington, Lincoln, Lafayette, Horace Greeley, and Gertrude Stein; more obscure figures: Daniel Butterfield, J. Marion Sims, and King Jagiello; as well as the icons of New York: Atlas, Prometheus, and the Firemen's Memorial. The monuments represent the work of some of America's best sculptors: Augustus Saint Gaudens' Farragut and Sherman, Daniel Chester French's Four Continents, and Anna Hyatt Huntington's Jose Marti and Joan of Arc.

Each monument, illustrated with black-and-white photographs, is located on a map of Manhattan and includes easy-to-follow directions. All the sculptures are considered both as historical mementos and as art. We learn offurious General Sherman court-martialing a civilian journalist, and also of exasperated Saint Gaudens' proposing a hook-and-spring device for improving his assistants' artistic acuity as they help model Sherman. We discover how Lincoln dealt with a vociferous Confederate politician from Ohio, and why the Lincoln in Union Square doesn't rank as a top-notch Lincoln portrait. Sidebars reveal other aspects of the figure or event commemorated, using personal quotes, poems, excerpts from nineteenth-century periodicals ("New York Times," "Harper's Weekly"), and writers ranging from Aeschylus, Washington Irving, and Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi to Mark Twain and Henryk Sienkiewicz.

As a historical account, Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide is a fascinating look at figures and events that changed New York, the United States and the world. As an aesthetic handbook it provides a compact method for studying sculpture, inspired by Ayn Rand's writings on art. For residents and tourists, and historians and students, who want to spend more time viewing and appreciating sculpture and New York history, this is the start of a unique voyage of discovery.

This study explores the multiple ways in which Congressional Cemetery has been positioned for some two hundred years in "the shadow" of the U.S. Capitol. The narrative proceeds chronologically, discussing the burial ground during three periods: a) The antebellum years; b) The years from the end of the Civil War to approximately 1970, when the site progressively deteriorated; c) The period from the early 1970s to 2007, when both public and private organizations worked to preserve the physical site and the memory of what it has been and continues to represent. This monograph on Congressional Cemetery focuses on the dominant narrative associated with the site: its legacy as the first national burial ground in the United States. Given this emphasis, the text presents a political and cultural analysis of the cemetery, with particular focus on the participation of the U.S. Congress. "This book makes historians and many others aware of a fascinating and complicated history. Moreover, it not only details the long history of the cemetery, but it uses it to explore the nature of historic memorials generally in the creation of national memory." Steven Diner, Chancellor of Rutgers University at Newark. "The Johnsons have done an excellent job of mining a wide range of sources and conveying the complex history of an institution that merits documentation... It's stunning to realize what a who's who exists in that space." Howard Gillette, Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University at Camden. "The history of Congressional Cemetery is intimately tied up in the changing demographics of its locale, and its corresponding decline as the neighborhood around Christ Church changed led to its emergence as a cause celebre for historic preservationists." Donald Kennon, Chief Historian for the United States Capitol Historical Society, and editor of The Capitol Dome.