Selling Jerusalem: Relics, Replicas, Theme Parks by Professor Annabel Jane Wharton* After reading Professor Wharton's most recent book, Architectural Agents ( my review is here ), I knew I needed to read her previous volume, Selling Jerusalem (from 2006). And I'm pleased that I finally did! The book covered a wide swath of topics I find interesting: Israel/Palestine, Early Christianity, architecture (of course), theme parks, and art history. Professor Wharton weaves a dual narrative of how Jerusalem has been "consumed" in the West by means of its images (in the form of relics, reproductions, panoramas, etc) at the same time that that consumption has changed together with changing economic systems (from gifting and barter, to monetary exchange, to late capitalism and globalization). The brief "Conclusion" chapter gives an excellent and succinct recapitulation of the book's arguments: "This text argues that the forms by which Je...
Musings on Architecture, Urbanism, and the Built Environment