City Walls: The Urban Enceinte in Global Perspective. (Book Reviews).

City Walls: The Urban Enceinte in Global Perspective. Edited by JAMES D. TRACY (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2000; pp. 697. 50 [pounds sterling]).

ACROSS the world, many cities have been walled since early times, whether one thinks of ancient Jericho, the cities of Sumer, those of the Indus valley or of China. Walls became almost indispensable for the definition of an urban community. In classical Chinese a single character denoted both city and wall, while in late medieval Germany we hear `what has a wall around it, that we call a city'. Walls could be of different types: the high stone enclosures of earlier periods, the low stone walls of the Renaissance (more effective defence against cannon), earthen walls, and wooden fortifications. However, they shared common purposes. Walls and gates (and the rituals and activities associated with them) were significant for civic identification, cohesion and status, as well as for military purposes …