Customer Reviews
Rebuilding London - By: Cromwell, 30 Jun 2008 
This is well researched & very readable account of the financial, engineering & political problems which had to be overcome in building St Pauls Cathedral. It gives a considerable insight into the forces which shaped modern London & the lives of the prominent people involved.
Nice try, but no cigar - By: T. Burkard, 18 Jun 2008 
Leo Hollis started with a promising concept: showing how innovative intellects combined to shape history at a critical juncture. And there can be no doubt--the Restoration & the Dutch invasion of 1688 were key events that must be understood by anyone who has ever wondered why & how Britain transformed the world. And transform it, it did. Under the Stuarts, Britain was a third-rate power, dependent upon French subsidies. A century & a half later, Britain's industrial, political & financial revolutions had begun the process by which the majority of mankind have been freed from hunger & hardship.
Alas, Hollis hasn't quite pulled it off. The central threads of the book--the rebuilding of London (and more specificallly, St Pauls) after the fire of London--are more symptoms than causes of the remarkable changes that occurred after 1666. Even though I was intrigued by his inclusion of Nicholas Barbon--Britain's first property speculator, & an original thinker who has hitherto received little notice--the book doesn't quite work as a narrative, or as a coherent overview of intellectual, political & commercial change. The subject is just too big. This said, it's not a bad read, & I daresay that non-specialists will learn a lot from it. But it doesn't reallly rank with the many first-class popular histories that are now appearing.
Out of the ashes - a great and well-told story. - By: Bill Hanslip, 02 Jun 2008 
The intricate & human story of the rebuilding of St Paul's after the Great Fire is the drumbeat to which this book marches, & that alone keeps you turning the pages - but it is much more than the story of the vast difficulties Christopher Wren overcame in pushing his vision for the cathedral to its final bold conclusion. Wren's architecture was indeed philosophy as well as politics expressed in stone. Leo Hollis does an expert job of weaving Locke's developing political philosophy into the process, while Evelyn & the increasingly deranged Hooke stride through the burnt-out ruins of London laying the ground for its problematic rebirth. 'The Phoenix' gives an excellent insight into the the seventeenth century turning point that produced modern London & there's a rogue we can alll enjoy hating in Barbon, the prototype of the modern property developer. It's a very good read.
