By the middle of the seventeenth century, London was on the verge of
collapse. Its ancient infrastructure could no longer support its
explosive growth; the English Civil War had torn society apart; and in
1665 the capital was struck by a plague that claimed 100,000 lives. And
then, the following year, the Great Fire destroyed huge swaths of the
city. As Leo Hollis recounts in his stirring history of the period,
modern London was born out of this crucible. Among the catalysts
for this rebirth were five extraordinary men, each deeply influenced by
the Civil War, whose intersecting lives form the heart of London Rising:
famed philosopher John Locke, whose ideas about the individual would
outline a new theory of civil society based on natural rights; diarist
John Evelyn, who insightfully chronicled the tumult and transformation
before him; the polymathic scientist and architect Robert Hooke;
developer Nicholas Barbon, who rebuilt much of the city after the fire;
and Christoper Wren, astronomer, geometer, and the greatest English
architect of his time, whose reconstruction of St. Paul's Cathedral was
the essential symbol of London's rebirth. The city today is in great
part the result of the myriad advances in literature, planning, science,
and social issues forged by these five. Hollis paints a vibrant
portrait of one of the world's greatest cities, and of a generation of
men whose impact on London is unmatched.
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