London

by Porter, Roy

• ISBN13: 9780674538399
• ISBN10: 0674538390
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-02-12
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

This dazzling and yet intimate book is the first modern one-volume history of London from Roman times to the present. An extraordinary city, London grew from a backwater in the Classical age into an important medieval city, a significant Renaissance urban center, and a modern colossus. Roy Porter paints a detailed landscape--from the grid streets and fortresses of Julius Caesar and William the Conqueror to the medieval, walled "most noble city" of churches, friars, and crown and town relationships. Within the crenelated battlements, manufactures and markets developed and street-life buzzed. London's profile in 1500 was much as it was at the peak of Roman power. The city owed its courtly splendor and national pride of the Tudor Age to the phenomenal expansion of its capital. It was the envy of foreigners, the spur of civic patriotism, and a hub of culture, architecture, great literature, and new religion. From the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries, London experienced a cruel civil war, raging fires, enlightenment in thought, government, and living, and the struggle and benefits of empire. From the lament that "London was but is no more" to "you, who are to stand a wonder to all Years and ages...a phoenix," London became an elegant, eye-catching, metropolitan hub. It was a mosaic, Porter shows, that represented the shared values of a people--both high and low born--at work and play. London was and is a wonder city, a marvel. Not since ancient times has there been such a city--not eternal, but vibrant, living, full of a free people ever evolving. In this transcendent book, Roy Porter touches the pulse of his hometown and makes it our own, capturing London's fortunes, people, and imperial glory with brio and wit.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

Introduction

Formation to Reformation

Tudor London

War, Plague and Fire

The Triumph of Town: From Restoration to Regency

Commercial City: 1650-1800

Culture City: Life under the Georges

Capitalism in the Capital: The Victorian Age

'The Contagion of Numbers': The Building of the Victorian Capital 1820-1890

Bumbledom? London's Politics 1800-1890

Social Problems, Social Improvement: 1820-1890

Victorian Life

'A Fungus-Like Growth': Expansion 1890-1945

Modern Growth, Modern Government: 1890-1945

Swinging London, Dangling Economy: 1945-1975

Thatcher's London

Conclusion: The London Marathon

Further Reading

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.