Rome
The First Book of Foundations
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Michel Serres first book in his 'foundations trilogy' is all about beginnings. The beginning of Rome but also about the beginning of society, knowledge and culture. Rome is an examination of the very foundations upon which contemporary society has been built. With characteristic breadth and lyricism, Serres leads the reader on a journey from a meditation the roots of scientific knowledge to set theory and aesthetics. He explores the themes of violence, murder, sacrifice and hospitality in order to urge us to avoid the repetitive violence of founding. Rome also provides an alternative and creative reading of Livy's Ab urbe condita which sheds light on the problems of history, repetition and imitation. First published in English in 1991, re-translated and introduced in this new edition, Michel Serres' Rome is a contemporary classic which shows us how we came to live the way we do.
About this Author
Michel Serres is a Professor in the History of Science at Stanford University and a member of the Académie Française. A renowned and popular philosopher, he is a prize-winning author of essays and books, such as The Five Senses, Genesis, and Biogea. Randolph Burks is a philosopher specializing in phenomenology and philosophies of the body and nature. He has translated several works by Michel Serres, included Biogea, Variations on the Body and The Hermaphrodite (forthcoming).
Reviews
In this remarkable book Michel Serres doesn't just retell the stories that lie at the foundation of Rome, but takes us back to the very idea of foundation as such. With Livy as his guide, Serres brilliantly traces the way the myth, legend, history, reality and representation of Rome open on to one another. The city itself is described as a multiplicity, as Serres explores the emergence of form in history, time, space, discourse, order, and life.
This long-overdue and meticulous translation of Serres' magisterial work on Rome is essential reading for anyone working in the humanities today. Far more than a book on a city, this is a book about inscription, origins, history, emergence, myth, violence and the multiple flows of time that compose the present. Rome is at once lucid and enigmatic, and - precisely because it is concerned with an irretrievable past - a book for the future.
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