Walls : enclosure and ethics in the modern landscape / Thomas Oles.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Oles, Thomas, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Walls.

Walls--Social aspects.

Walls--Moral and ethical aspects.

Landscapes--Philosophy.

Landscapes.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (247 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago, Illinois ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Stone walls, concrete walls, chain-link walls, border walls: we live in a world of walls. Walls mark sacred space and embody earthly power. They maintain peace and cause war. They enforce separation and create unity. They express identity and build community. Yard to nation, city to self, walls define and dissect our lives. And, for Thomas Oles, it is time to broaden our ideas of what they can—and must—do. In Walls, Oles shows how our minds and our politics are shaped by–and shape–our divisions in the landscape. He traces the rich array of practices and meanings connected to the making and marking of boundaries across history and prehistory, and he describes how these practices have declined in recent centuries. The consequence, he argues, is all around us in the contemporary landscape, riven by walls shoddy in material and mean in spirit. Yet even today, Oles demonstrates, every wall remains potentially an opening, a stage, that critical place in the landscape where people present themselves and define their obligations to one another. In an evocative epilogue, Oles brings to life a society of productive, intentional, and ethical enclosure—one that will leave readers more hopeful about the divided landscapes of the future.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

One Good Fences, Bad Walls

Two What Walls Were

Three Constructions of Sovereignty

Four Recovering the Wall

Five Toward an Ethics

Epilogue

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780226199382

022619938X

OCLC:

898070505