Venice from the Ground Up (Paperback)

by James H. S. McGregor (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
This is an excellent book. The history of the city is recounted as if it were a story, which makes the whole work eminently readable. The history of Venice is as meandering as its canals, and to have achieved an overall straightforward path through it is no small feat. McGregor's book is a perfect introduction to Venice. Italians themselves would read it with profit.
--Piero Boitani, Professor of Comparative Literature at University of Rome La Sapienza (20061210)

[This is a] district-by-district guide to the ancient city's profusion of art, architecture and artifacts integrated with its essential history and dominant cultural themes...A thinking person's guidebook, well supported by illustrations, maps and rich perspectives. (Kirkus Reviews 20070209)

McGregor has written a wonderful historical guide to the city of Venice...He explores the history, architectural landmarks, and artistic achievements of each of the geographical districts that form, arguably, the most beautiful city in the world...Armchair and real-life travelers will enjoy it.
--Robert J. Andrews (Library Journal 20070318)

Whether an armchair traveler or a gondola aficionado, the romantic will enjoy James H.S. McGregor's Venice from the Ground Up. This handsomely produced and always entertaining narrative history of the city of canals is full of useful information for tourists, lovely color photos and detailed maps.
--Jay Strafford and Sue Harris (Richmond Times-Dispatch 20070802)

More than a travel guide, this scholarly yet readable volume by James H.S. McGregor weaves the story of how art and architecture were used to create one of the world's most enduring cities. For the armchair reader and those planning to visit Venice, this second-in-a-series guide (Rome was published in 2005) to the Queen of the Adriatic connects the city's incredible history with daily life.
--Terry Richard (Sunday Oregonian )

James H. S. McGregor marches us through the city, stopping off at his favourite sites, and offering along the way extended discussions of the main features of the medieval and subsequent periods of Venetian history. Moreover, he gives a much fuller account of the city's political structure, its distinctive social patterns, and its cultural commitments than a guide normally allows...This may well be the best short account of the structure of [St. Mark's Basilica] and the programme of its mosaics now in print. It is full of fascinating detail and acute observation...As a sourcebook of fascinating detail about Venice, laced with a splendid invective against Napoleon, this is a work that will profit even long-time visitors.
--Theodore K. Rabb (Times Literary Supplement )

This well written portrait is superbly produced. Color photographs and maps of great quality are included.
--Ann Geracimos (Washington Times )

James McGregor's historical portrait of Europe's strangest and most beautiful city shows how Venice's architecture and character came about in response to the peculiar environmental challenges of its location and its precarious political position. This book is organized topographically and chronologically, allowing the reader to explore the city's monuments and canals through both space and time. (London Review of Books )

Product Description

Venice came to life on spongy mudflats at the edge of the habitable world. Protected in a tidal estuary from barbarian invaders and Byzantine overlords, the fishermen, salt gatherers, and traders who settled there crafted an amphibious 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-turned-upside-down, with its waterways rather than roads, its boats tethered alongside dwellings, and its livelihood harvested from the sea.

McGregor begins with the river currents that poured into the shallow Lagoon, carving channels in its bed and depositing islands of silt. He then describes the imaginative responses of Venetians to the demands and opportunities of this harsh environment—transforming the channels into canals, reclaiming salt marshes for the construction of massive churches, erecting a thriving marketplace and stately palaces along the Grand Canal. Through McGregor’s eyes, we witness the flowering of Venice’s restless creativity in the elaborate mosaics of St. Mark’s soaring basilica, the expressive paintings in smaller neighborhood churches, and the colorful religious festivals—but also in theatrical productions, gambling casinos, and masked revelry, which reveal the city’s less pious and orderly face.

McGregor tells his unique history of Venice by drawing on a crumbling, tide-threatened cityscape and a treasure-trove of art that can still be seen in place today. The narrative follows both a chronological and geographical organization, so that readers can trace the city’s evolution chapter by chapter and visitors can explore it district by district on foot and by boat.

(20061101)

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (April 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674027523
• ISBN-13: 978-0674027527
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #83,580 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Venetian Masterpiece, January 4, 2007

By	Joel M. Babb (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Venice from the Ground Up (Hardcover)

If you have been to Venice or are planning to go, "Venice from the Ground Up" is a great book and necessary for you to own.

Why would a city become established and then flourish in what would seem to be the unlikeliest place--in the middle of a lagoon? In answering this question this excellent book proves the basic concept of the other "From the Ground Up" book, ("Rome from the Ground Up"), that you can't understand a city without knowing how it developed-and understand the interplay of natural and historical forces, and cultural institutions.

Like the earlier book, this one visualizes a city at various moments in its lifespan. In Rome one grasps immediately that a modern city is overlying a classical one. Venice is different because after it consolidated from clusters of islands and channels became defined as canals, a city of waterways instead of streets emerged which presents a bewildering labyrinth to the visitor.

This book is ingeniously well organized to sort it all out. The text presents a development of Venetian architecture, history and society in stages coordinated to the series of clearly legible maps at the end, with the places discussed in the text located in numbered sequence on the map, so that the book can be also be used as a guide to this exploration of Venice in a slice in time, by foot and boat. (Practical information is included on catching the Venetian bus, the vaporetto, etc.)

I also own a thick comprehensive guidebook to the city organized in itineraries in various neighborhoods which I carried around with me in Venice--but "Venice from the Ground Up" is more valuable in understanding what you are seeing, which is more a matter of perspective and context than of minutiae.

This is still a very complete and scholarly book, elegantly designed, illustrated with wonderful historic prints and paintings and beautiful contemporary photographs which seem to keep you moving between the present and the past. The author is a sparklingly inventive writer, and his descriptions are as vivid as paintings. I had to read through just to find out how the story of Venice would arrive at our own day.

I love Canaletto's paintings, and this book has enlivened his paintings for me in new ways. If you love Venice, or are planning to go there, you need to have this book to enhance your understanding or renew your love of this amazing city.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great architectural guidebook, February 15, 2007

By	Peter K. Solecki (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Venice from the Ground Up (Hardcover)

This book is not a typical guide - where to eat and sleep - but rather a detailed architectural guide with enough history mixed in to put it all into context. Having explored most of the sites discussed, I found that the author gives excellent insight into the buildings, adds detail that enhances visits and turns the buildings that would otherwise blend into the city into treasures. A must for architecture fans and those who want to explore beyond the traditional half day in the St. Marks area.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book of Venice , July 5, 2008

By	Roloide (Mexico City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Venice from the Ground Up (Hardcover)

After reading throughfully several books of Venice (both English and Spanish) this one provided insightful information, perfect tips, great history coverage. Highly recomended if you want to learn about Venice or planning a trip there.