Harvard University Press - TRAVEL

Beijing Time

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Michael Dutton
Hsiu-ju Stacy Lo
Dong Dong Wu
Deeply immersed in the culture, everyday and otherworldly, this anthropological tour, from ancient cosmology to Communist kitsch, allows us to see as never before how the people of Beijing—and China—work and live.
Hardcover May 2008

The Forbidden City

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Geremie R. Barmé
The Forbidden City (Zijin Cheng) lying at the heart of Beijing formed the hub of the Celestial Empire for five centuries. Over the past century it has been celebrated and excoriated as a symbol of all that was magnificent and terrible in dynastic China’s legacy. In this book, Barmé provides a new and original history of the culture, politics, and architecture of the Forbidden City.
Hardcover May 2008

Jerusalem

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Simon Goldhill
Jerusalem is more than a tourist site—it is a city where every square mile is layered with historical significance, religious intensity, and extraordinary stories. It is a past marked by three great forces: religion, war, and monumentality. In this book, Goldhill takes on this peculiar archaeology of human imagination, hope, and disaster to provide a tour through the history of this most image-filled and ideology-laden city.
Hardcover May 2008

City Between Worlds

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Leo Ou-fan Lee
Hong Kong is perched on the fault line between China and the West, a Special Administrative Region of the PRC. Lee offers an insider’s view of Hong Kong, capturing the history and culture that make his densely packed home city so different from its generic neighbors.
Hardcover April 2008

Mean and Lowly Things

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Kate Jackson
In 2005 Jackson ventured into the remote swamp forests of the northern Congo to collect reptiles and amphibians. This book is Jackson’s unvarnished account of her research on the front lines of the global biodiversity crisis—coping with interminable delays in obtaining permits, learning to outrun advancing army ants, subsisting on a diet of Spam and manioc, and ultimately falling in love with the strangely beautiful flooded forest.
Hardcover April 2008

Venice from the Ground Up

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

James H. S. McGregor
Venice came to life on mudflats at the edge of the habitable world. Protected in a tidal estuary from invaders and Byzantine overlords, the fishermen and traders who settled there crafted a way of life unlike anything the Roman Empire had ever known. In an astonishing feat of narrative history, James H. S. McGregor recreates this world, with its waterways rather than roads and its livelihood harvested from the sea. The narrative follows both a chronological and geographical organization, so that readers can trace the city's evolution by chapter and visitors can explore it by district on foot and by boat.
Paperback April 2008

St. Peter's

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Keith Miller
Built by the decree of Constantine, rebuilt by some of the most distinguished architects in Renaissance Italy, emulated by Hitler's architect in his vision for Germania, immortalized on film by Fellini, and fictionalized by a modern American bestseller, St. Peter's is the most recognizable church in the world. This book covers the social, political, and architectural history of the church from the fourth century to the present.
Hardcover October 2007

Washington from the Ground Up

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EDT

James H. S. McGregor
At the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, President Washington chose a diamond-shaped site for the city that would bear his name, along with the burdens and blessings of democracy. Moving chronologically and geographically throughout the District, McGregor tells a tale of two cities: official Washington, whose stately neoclassical buildings expressed the government's power and global reach; and DC, whose minority communities, especially African Americans, lived in the shadows of poverty.
Hardcover October 2007