35. A Brief History of Venice: A New History of the City and Its People by Elizabeth Horodowich

OPD: 2009
format: 259-page Kindle ebook
acquired: May 24 read: May 25 – Jun 3 time reading: 6:30, 1.5 mpp
rating: 4
genre/style: History theme: Italy
about the author: A professor of history at New Mexico State University, born ~1970?

Starts off so well organized. The chronology is clear, and all the themes are carefully worked in, making for a really terrific history with writing that feels very contemporary and that is of a quality that's hard to find. It didn't last through the whole book, which slows down a lot later. But it remained readable and informative. I recommend this to anyone going to Venice and looking for a quick thorough history. It's really good for that and I'm grateful to have read it during my visit.

Things I knew - Venice was a big deal before the Portuguese rounded Africa. It was a powerful, independent city, with a huge wealth based on controlling east-west trade.

Things I didn't know - Venice wasn't Roman. It was founded as a safe haven from Germanic barbarians, who didn't want to raid a swamp, after the fall of Rome. Venice conquered and controlled Constantinople for ~50 years (roughly from 1200 - 1250). Venice had a really weird system of government, run by a duke, the Doge, with heavily curtailed powers. This lasted about 1000 years, and Venice never had a peasant or popular revolt or uprising. Venice's surrender to Napoleon not only marked the end of its odd governmental structure, but also ruined the city, which became a backwater and tourist destination. Venice only has 60,000 residents, which is typically less the daily number of tourists.

2023
https://www.librarything.com/topic/351556#8167295 ( )

I downloaded this book on the Kindle to read in preparation for a trip to Venice in October 2018. I did not finish it until I was in Venice, and had seen many of the sites. The writing was uninspired and workmanlike, but the history was engaging, and thorough. The main advantage of the book is that it was partially a guide to the sights and a suggestion of places to visit, although I did not take much advantage of it in the few days we were in Venice. ( )

I've been reading novels set in Venice for quite a long time now, but it was only recently that I realized that I actually knew nothing about the history of that fabled city. Enter A Brief History of Venice: A New History of the City and Its People, by Elizabeth Horodowich, a 2009 book that I found in a timely fashion. As the title declares, this is a relatively short (230 pages, not including bibliography and index) book that traces the history of Venice from its beginnings when villagers fled from various "barbarian hordes" in the late Roman period to the current precarious ecological state of the lagoon in which the city is anchored. The rise of the city from a small island town whose inhabitants made a living by collecting and selling salt to a city-state that developed its own empire based on trading by sea and land (and its subsequent fall as the rest of Europe embraced change while Venice remained tradition-bound) is a fascinating tale, and Horodowich tells it well. There are no pictures, which is a bit of a shame, and no footnotes, which is to be expected in a history meant to be read by the casual layperson rather than by serious students of history. But she includes sections at the end of each chapter in which she describes specific parts of the city where a tourist can still find vestiges of the century being discussed in the chapter, which will certainly come in handy if I ever manage to get to Venice! I enjoyed the book and enjoyed the history, and would recommend this to anyone who wants a quick look at how this unique place began, developed and fell. ( )