Civilisations

Excellent ... an invigorating guide -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian * Beautifully produced and elegantly written ... utterly compelling -- Linda Hogan * Irish Times * Enthralling * Sunday Times * 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 * With such a champion as Beard to debunk and popularise, the future of the study of classics is assured * Daily Telegraph * 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 *