Description

‘The reigning Queen of Classics’ Spectator

‘Mary Beard is the best in the business’ Dan Snow

‘Excellent’ Guardian

‘Enthralling’ Sunday Times

Britain’s most famous classicist asks: what are civilisations?

Central to this huge question are the ways in which we have depicted the human and the divine from prehistory to the present day. And across such iconic creations as Angkor Wat, the Ravenna mosaics and China’s terracotta army, one ancient representation of the human body still influences (or distorts) how people in the West see not only their own culture but that of others.

From idolatry to iconoclasm, Mary Beard shines her spotlight on the artists who made art, and on those who have used, viewed, or interpreted it – and asked how to look with the eye of faith.

Publisher Review

[Mary Beard is] the best in the business — Dan Snow Excellent … an invigorating guide — Kathryn Hughes * Guardian * Beautifully produced and elegantly written … utterly compelling — Linda Hogan * Irish Times * Enthralling — John Carey [Beard] has always had the sharpest eyes for telling detail and colourful anecdote * Sunday Times * The rock star scholar of Ancient Rome — Jo Ellison * Financial Times * With such a champion as Beard to debunk and popularise, the future of the study of classics is assured * Daily Telegraph * The reigning Queen of Classics * Spectator * Slim yet insightful. . . . Beard expands her view beyond western Europe to offer an admirable survey of cultures from Egypt to China, Judaism to Christianity, centuries past to the modern era, all while emphasizing the significance of the viewer over the artist. . . . As Beard emphasizes the power of the context in which we look at and interpret art, she ultimately suggests that civilization itself is a leap of faith. Beard is having fun in this joyfully accessible primer, backed with a robust appendix, for all interested in a new perspective on religion, art, and history. * Booklist * Praise for Mary Beard: What she says is always powerful and interesting * Guardian * An irrepressible enthusiast with a refreshing disregard for convention * Financial Times * If they’d had Mary Beard on their side back then, the Romans would still have their empire * Daily Mail * [She] implicitly invites us to think about our own world, and about our answers to the question of what makes us human * Sydney Morning Herald * Praise for SPQR: Fast-moving, exciting, psychologically acute, warmly sceptical — Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times * Vastly engaging … a tremendously enjoyable and scholarly read — Natalie Haynes * Observer * Sustaining the energy that such a topic demands for more than 600 pages, while providing a coherent answer to the question of why Rome expanded so spectacularly, is hugely ambitious. Beard succeeds triumphantly … full of insights and delights … SPQR is consistently enlivened by Beard’s eye for detail and her excellent sense of humour * Sunday Times * Masterful … This is exemplary popular history, engaging but never dumbed down, providing both the grand sweep and the intimate details that bring the distant past vividly to life * Economist * Ground-breaking … invigorating … revolutionary … a whole new approach to ancient history — Thomas Hodgkinson * Spectator *