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Sapling.info Bookstore (3)
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Liverpool 800: Culture, Character and History
John Belchem (Editor)
(2006)
Paperback - 416 pages
Liverpool University Press
ISBN: 1846310350
Synopsis by Amazon.co.uk:
Liverpool celebrates its 800th anniversary in 2007, and will be European Capital of Culture in 2008. As the city reinvents itself and looks forward, it is also learning from its past. Liverpool 800: Culture, Character & History is written by a team of experts, using the latest historical research to explore the citys distinctive culture and character. This is a path-breaking biography of the city, tracing its society, politics, economy and culture over eight centuries. Fully illustrated and powerfully written, it offers new perspectives on a true World City, as it works to make its future as extraordinary as its past. The books publication will become a centrepiece of the 800 the anniversary Liverpool Year of Heritage celebrations in 2007. Ranging widely over politics and government, famous and infamous personalities, domestic lives and global connections, and culture both high and low, Liverpool 800 offers a warts and all portrait of a city which has inspired contempt (a black spot on the Mersey) and adulation (the centre of consciousness of the human universe) but rarely indifference. Elegantly designed and including over 300 illustrations, many of which have never been published before, Liverpool 800 is a superb anniversary celebration of a great city and its people.
Check Amazon.co.uk for pricing and availability
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The Anxious City
Richard J. Williams
(2004)
Paperback - 296 pages
Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd
ISBN: 0415279275
Synopsis by Amazon.co.uk:
In the western world, cities have, arguably, never been more anxious: realistic anxieties about personal safety, and metaphorical anxieties about the uncertain place of the city in culture are the small change of journalism and political debate. Cities have long been regarded as problems, in need of drastic solutions. In this context, the contemporary revival of city centres is remarkable. But in a culture that largely fears the urban, how can the contemporary city be imagined? How is it supposed to be used or inhabited? What should it look like? What should be its purpose? Which existing forms of urban life might serve as models for a new city? Taking England since WW2 as its principal focus, this provocative and original book considers the western city at a critical moment in its history. Historically among the most urbanised of countries, England is an extraordinary urban laboratory. The energy and thoroughness with which its cities have been transformed in the 1990s have lessons for urban development everywhere. The Anxious City examines the problem of the contemporary city through a series of detailed case studies: Poundbury, Milton Keynes, Liverpool's Albert Dock redevelopment, Trafalgar Square, Canary Wharf, the Great Court of the British Museum, and central Manchester after the 1996 IRA bomb. It deals with some broader cultural phenomena too: the continuing attraction of picturesque aesthetics, and the lure of southern European urbanism (exemplified by the RIBA's canonisation of Barcelona) and the complex, contradictory relationship between urbanism in England and the USA. The experience of these places, the book argues, shows a culture where the idea of the city remains contested: the frantic redevelopment of city centres in the 1990s represented one vision of the city - the city of spectacular consumption, competing in some imaginary urban race with other world cities. But such development took place against continuing suburbanisation and sprawl. In spite of all the building works, the city was still being worked out This book is a cultural history that will be essential reading for anyone interested in the recent history of urban life. It argues that the contemporary city is uniquely anxious, caught between nostalgia for the past, and uncertainty about the future. At a crucial moment in the history of the city, it cuts through the urbanistic propaganda spread by architects and politicians. This unique and challenging study will be of interest to students and practitioners alike.
Check Amazon.co.uk for pricing and availability
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Pevsner Architectural Guides: Liverpool
Joseph Sharples
(2004)
Paperback - 320 pages
Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300102585
Synopsis by Amazon.co.uk:
From the eighteenth to the early twentieth century Liverpool was one of the most prosperous towns in Britain, and one of the greatest ports in the world; for many of its citizens it was also a place of extreme poverty. Economic success is reflected in a wealth of late Georgian housing, extravagant Victorian and Edwardian office blocks, proud civic buildings, suburban parks, churches, and the unique architecture and engineering of the docks. Alongside these monuments stand buildings associated with public health and housing reform, illustrating the other side of Liverpool's story. A frenzy of rebuilding in the 1960s was followed by a long period of decline, now giving way to a new construction boom.
This guide book describes all the architecturally significant buildings in central Liverpool, and gives an account of the city's overall physical development. It includes some suburban areas of outstanding interest, and excursions to notable sites further out. Major buildings - such as the Town Hall, St George's Hall, and the two Cathedrals - are singled out for extended treatment, the streets of the business district are dealt with alphabetically, and the rest of the city - including the docks - is covered in a series of carefully planned walks.
The book is based on Nikolaus Pevsner's original text for the Buildings of England, augmented by close study of the buildings themselves, and extensive new research into published sources and original documents. Illustrated in colour throughout, mostly with specially commissioned photographs, but also with historical images, including building plans, maps, and architects' drawings, it is a detailed, authoritative, and practical guide to the buildings of a city which in 2008 will be European Capital of Culture.
Check Amazon.co.uk for pricing and availability
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