Both the pictures and the explanations helped me relive the place and time. ( )

A lovely illustrated guide to the building of a Roman city from planing to population limit, with temples, baths. apartments, shop, houses, gutters, sewers, and public toilets. ( )

Amazing little book, if you have kids and this doesn't rock their little world you should probably give them up for adoption. Honestly, makes me cry when I remember what books are used at school to teach kids history. ( )

This is a Macaulay book about the founding and development of a roman city around the time of the first millennium and the techniques and tools they used to arrange the city and the engineering problems and solutions that were traditionally foreseen and addressed. It doesn’t shy away from traditions and roman cultural touchstones which might have been seen in a frontier city of the roman empire that really helps to immerse the reader in the story, shallow though it is, of this city; which, helps to really highlight the similarities of the technique used by the roman architects and engineers when we see how different their society was. ( )

Text and black and white illustrations show how the Romans planned and constructed their cities for the people who lived within them.

lo candido
al nobel per i libri per bambini (anche per quelli già cresciuti)
al nobel per il disegno architettonico
al nobel per la capacità di divulgazione, illustrata semplicissima per chiunque ma straordinariamente accurata, vivace, indimenticabile ( )

Text and black and white illustrations show how the Romans planned and constructed their cities for the people who lived within them.

Nice, easy, somewhat overdue research for the story I'm working on at the moment. It's a great peek into ancient technology and everyday life with a glimpse of politics, too. ( )

6/6 - Z decided to put this aside for a while. He was bored by the topic.

In the book “City” by David Macaulay, the reader is absorbed into the world of the Romans in the imaginary city of Verbonia. The reader is allowed an intimate view of how they planned and built their cities and complexities of design. The author explains in detail everything from the early planning and surveying to the sewage and roads and construction of the Coliseum. This book gives you insight into the everyday lives of Romans and how they built such an elaborate civilization.

Visually impressive and concise, it explains why many of the Roman ruins still stand. You also see how many of their techniques persist today, such as curbs, sewers, and grid-based layouts. It's meant for children, but I think most adults would find it interesting. ( )

Excellent drawings and dense with information. There's no action or excitement, but students who have an interest in classical Roman history will especially appreciate this book. Details of everyday life will surprise students who do not understand the relationship between modern ways and old ones.

City is David Macaulay's second book. Unlike most of Macaulay's other books in this series, rather than a single building, he draws an entire city. It is interesting and I learned a lot, the Romans were more advanced with basic infrastructure like plumbing and heating than I had imagined. I think Macaulay's subject is too broad though, so he isn't able to get into the hyper-detail that otherwise is the strength of his work that makes it so fascinating. It feels like a book for 14 year olds and not enough for the adults. Still, like all of David Macaulay's books, it is well worth it.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd ( )

I love this book! Aimed at kids, its a cool book about how Roman cities were built. If you like it, check out the PBS show that Macauley did, too. ( )

711.4