Description: Explores how and why the new national capitals (London, Athens and Rome) of the nineteenth century deployed classical architectural forms to represent an idealised urban and national community.
Brief description: Richard Alston is Professor of Roman History at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. He is author and editor of several books including The City in Roman and Byzantine Egypt (2001), and has published articles on the classical influences on modern urbanism, city planning and political theory.
Review Quotes:
"[A] Lively and ambitious study." --Times Literary Supplement
"This is the story of how Western architecture grappled with classicism while the promise of the new struggled to gain traction in key European cities-and how the modern movement ultimately triumphed. Exploring London, Athens, and Italy, particularly under fascist rule, Alston persuades us that the old movement had more to offer than it seemed." --Diane Ghirardo, Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture, University of Southern California, USA "Classicism and the Construction of Capital Cities provides useful overviews of key moments in the urban development of London, Athens, and Rome, and demonstrates how classical ideas and forms were critical to the transformation of these cities at a critical moment in history." --Bryn Mawr Classical Review "Well written and well argued in the main, [this title is a] welcome additions to the literature on Roman death and the impact of death on society, appropriate for specialists and students alike." --The Classical Review