Events at the Shop
Keeping In, Keeping Out: Walls and the Politics of Division
Wednesday 15 October 2008
Hadrian’s Wall, built in the second century AD to mark the frontier of the Roman Empire and to prevent raids from the north, is just one example of how walls have been used as a way of managing territories and peoples. There have been other examples in China and Berlin, and also more recently in Cyprus and the West Bank. These walls are blunt manifestations of intractable political and historical situations.
A panel of historians and theorists, chaired by LRB senior editor Paul Myerscough, discusses the uses of walls and what they can tell us about the political and military uses of architecture and space.
Introduction
Listen now (9:55)
Neil McGregor, Director of the British Museum, and Paul Myerscough, Senior Editor, London Review of Books, introduce the debate and the panellists.
Panel Discussion I: Why Build Walls?
Listen now (28:22)
Panel Discussion II: Building Bridges, Confounding Geography
Listen now (22:48)
Panel Discussion III: How to Build Your Wall
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Audience Questions
Listen now (16:03)
The Panel
Neal Ascherson’s books include The Struggles for Poland and Black Sea. He is an honorary lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.
Christopher Kelly’s books include Attila the Hun and The Roman Empire: A Very Short Introduction. He is a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
Dr Eyal Weizman is an architect and director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths. He is the author of Hollow Land.
Further Reading
If you enjoyed this event, you may also be interested in:
- Stone Voices – Neal Ascherson
- Attila the Hun – Christopher Kelly
- Hollow Land: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation – Eyal Weizman
- Hadrian: Empire and Conflict – Thorsten Opper
- Memoirs of Hadrian – Marguerite Yourcenar
- Against the Wall – edited by Michael Sorkin
- The Berlin Wall – Frederick Taylor
- Palestinian Walks – Raja Shehadeh
- On the Border – Michel Warschawski
- The Poetry of Robert Frost
- The Great Wall – Julie Lovell
- The Great Wall of China – Franz Kafka
Benjamin Black (John Banville) - The Lemur