Rome: The First Book of Foundations

by Michel Serres, Randolph Burks (Translator)

Overview

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 jourbaney 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472590152
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/19/2015
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the 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).

Table of Contents

The Greatness of the Romans: the Fable of the Termites

THE BLACK AND WHITE: THE COVERING OVER

I. BLACK BOX: The Trampled Multiplicity
II. CITY OF ALBA: The White Multiplicity

THE EMPIRE AND SUFFRAGE: DEATH

III. EMPIRE: The Fragmented Multiplicity
IV. SUFFRAGE: The Assembled Multiplicity

THE EXCLUDED MIDDLE OR THIRD

V. AENEAS, SABINES
TARQUINS, CORIOLANUS: The Composite Multiplicity
VI. WAR AND PLAGUE: The Multiplicity in Representation

CROWDS

VII. IN THE CITY: The Agitated Multiplicity
VIII. IN THE FIELD: The Multiplicity in Peace

Editorial 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.” —David Webb, Professor of Philosophy, Staffordshire University, UK

“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.” —Claire Colebrook, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English, College of the Liberal Arts, Pennsylvania State University, USA

From the Publisher

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.

Claire Colebrook

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.

David Webb