![]() The author’s pointed case study of Hadrian’s Wall shows that it may not have been a defensive success, but that does not mean it didn’t have a defensive purpose, as some scholars have recently argued. There are mysteries associated with the ruins, just as there are with the Great Wall of China, another of Frye’s examples-and one that proves, readily, that where walls go up, people find ways to get around and over them. One of his examples is the Tres Long Mur, a defensive structure built more than 4,000 years ago, stretching across the Syrian desert and shielding some of the world’s oldest towns from marauders from the steppes beyond. Walls, on the other hand, make peace-history offers plenty of examples, he writes, to show that “the sense of security created by walls freed more and more males from the requirement of serving as warriors.” Indeed, by Frye’s account, walls are hallmarks of civilization, if ones that are easily thwarted. ![]() It’s a slogan, writes Frye (Ancient and Middle Eastern History/Eastern Connecticut State Univ.), “designed to give military historians fits.” Bridges, after all, have military purposes: to get across moats and earthworks and to ford rivers into enemy territory. ![]() A sturdy historical tour of walls and their builders-and their discontents as well.īuild bridges, not walls. ![]()
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