Description:A sweeping history of Athens, telling the three-thousand-year story of the birthplace of Western civilization.
Even
on the most smog-bound of days, the rocky outcrop on which the
Acropolis stands is visible above the sprawling roofscape of the Greek
capital. Athens presents one of the most recognizable and symbolically
freighted panoramas of any of the world's cities: the pillars and
pediments of the Parthenon – the temple dedicated to Athena, goddess of
wisdom, that crowns the Acropolis – dominate a city whose name is
synonymous for many with civilization itself.
It is hard not to
feel the hand of history in such a place. The birthplace of democracy,
Western philosophy and theatre, Athens' importance cannot be
understated. Few cities have enjoyed a history so rich in artistic
creativity and the making of ideas; or one so curiously patterned by
alternating cycles of turbulence and quietness. From the legal reforms
of the lawmaker Solon in the sixth century BCE to the travails of early
twenty-first century Athens, as it struggles with the legacy of the
economic crises of the 2000s, Clark brings the city's history to life,
evoking its cultural richness and political resonance in this epic,
kaleidoscopic history.