The Roads To Rome

A History

Catherine Fletcher

$36.99

Paperback

In stock
Ready to ship

QTY:

English

Bodley Head
24 September 2024

Brimming with life and drama, this is the first book to explore two thousand years of European history through one of the most important imperial networks ever built

'All roads lead to Rome.' It's a medieval proverb, but it's also true- today's European roads still follow the networks of the ancient empire, as Rome's extraordinary legacy continues to grip our imaginations.

Over the two thousand years since they were first built, the roads have been walked by crusaders and pilgrims, liberators and dictators, but also by tourists and writers, refugees and artists. Catherine Fletcher shows how the roads - as channels of trade and travel, routes of conquest and creativity - forever transformed the cultures, and intertwined the fates, of a vast panoply of people across Europe and beyond.

The Roads to Rome is a magnificent journey into a past that remains intimately connected to our present. Travelling from Scotland to Cadiz, from Istanbul to Rome, we meander and march through a series of nations and empires that have risen and fallen. Along the way, we encounter spies and bandits, scheming innkeepers, a Byzantine noblewoman on the run, young aristocrats on their Grand Tour, a conquering Napoleon, Keats and the Shelleys, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and even Mussolini on his motorbike.

Reflecting on his own walk on the Appian Way, Charles Dickens observed that here is 'a history in every stone that strews the ground'. Based on outstanding original research, and brimming with life and drama, this is the first book to explore two thousand years of history through one of the greatest imperial networks ever built.

By: Catherine Fletcher
Imprint: Bodley Head
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 29mm
Weight: 502g
ISBN: 9781847928047
ISBN 10: 1847928048
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 24 September 2024
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Catherine Fletcher is a historian of Renaissance and early modern Europe and the author of several previous books, including most recently The Beauty and the Terror- An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance, which was a Book of the Year (2020) in The Times. Catherine is Professor of History at Manchester Metropolitan University and broadcasts regularly for the BBC.

Reviews for The Roads To Rome: A History

Epic and witty ... Fletcher is a thoroughly enjoyable narrator because she peppers her learned prose with wry humour, first-person asides and comparisons between past and present ... The Roads to Rome is a nuanced and perceptive book that interrogates “the stories that we tell ourselves about who we are” -- Tobias Jones * Observer * Roman roads run everywhere, and Fletcher has been on most of them ... It has been her labour of love to crisscross an entire continent ... Fletcher's book is an exemplar of history as travelogue. It presents a familiar panorama - of Europe since antiquity - but from an unfamiliar, even original perspective. -- Miles Pattenden * Literary Review * Elegantly plotted … It is no easy task to condense 25 centuries of history into 300 pages and Fletcher, whose area of expertise is Renaissance Europe, rises to the challenge … For modern Grand Tourists, Fletcher’s book will provide an enjoyable distraction when the journey to Rome gets dull -- Patrick Kidd * The Times * [A] rich narrative of the long afterlife of Rome's roads -- Michael Prodger * New Statesman * [A] terrifically researched, sweeping study into the idea (or conception) of the Roman road * Unseen Histories *