Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
Volcanic
- Vesuvius in the Age of Revolutions
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Volcanic
Buy Now for £16.00
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
A vibrant, diverse history of Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples in the age of Romanticism
Vesuvius is best known for its disastrous eruption of 79CE. But only after 1738, in the age of Enlightenment, did the excavations of Herculaneum and Pompeii reveal its full extent. In an era of groundbreaking scientific endeavor and violent revolution, Vesuvius became a focal point of strong emotions and political aspirations, an object of geological enquiry, and a powerful symbol of the Romantic obsession with nature.
John Brewer charts the changing seismic and social dynamics of the mountain, and the meanings attached by travelers to their sublime confrontation with nature. The pyrotechnics of revolution and global warfare made volcanic activity the perfect political metaphor, fueling revolutionary enthusiasm and conservative trepidation. From Swiss mercenaries to English entrepreneurs, French geologists to local Neapolitan guides, German painters to Scottish doctors, Vesuvius bubbled and seethed not just with lava, but with people whose passions, interests, and aims were as disparate as their origins.