David Frye is a historian who has taken his interest in cultural development (in part) due to walls, constructed to protect groups of people, and written a book called Walls-A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick. It is a bit archaeology and a bit sociology intertwined with cultural history to describe the trends of how civilization developed in major areas throughout history. The Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Chinese, Romans, Ukrainians, Russians and so on.
Written in narrative form, this book is almost like reading a novel. David Frye discusses the lives of Wallers (people who live within walls for protection) and Warriors (the nomads who roam outside the walls, those who wreak havoc on the Wallers). His stories tell of the reasons for walls as well has the way they were built and maintained. He tells of the invasion of the Warriors and how each group of people developed as societies with their own special strengths and weaknesses.
The majority of the book is historical but he does discuss modern walls. Beginning with discussion of the Berlin Wall, he discusses societal reasons and impacts of walls being built today. He brings to light the many thousands of miles of walls being built in the Middle-East; around Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, etc. Also along borders of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Although the Americas are mentioned, these continents do not have the many millennium of historic walled cultures so there is not as much to speak of. He does discuss North American Indigenous nomadic life and how it was impacted by the movement of Europeans onto the continent 500+ years ago.
I wish I were a better writer to explain why this is such a wonderful book.
For me, his discussion of the various interactions between Wallers and Warriors was eyeopening. The development of cultures is fascinating, and walls played a big part in cultural development.
I cannot recommend this book enough if you have any interest in cultural history. Or maybe just a good read. ( )

Cómo las barreras que construimos han definido nuestra historia

La humanidad lleva más de 4.000 años construyendo murallas en todas las regiones del planeta: desde la muralla de Mesopotamia hasta el muro de Trump, pasando por la Gran Muralla China y el Muro de Berlín. Aunque la necesidad de protegerse puede parecer intrínseca a la civilización, no ha dejado de suscitar contradicciones.

Los muros, además de proteger, han trazado una línea divisoria en las sociedades que los construyen: separan a los de dentro de los de fuera, a la civilización de la barbarie y, en ocasiones, a los cobardes de los valientes. Esta panorámica histórica nos muestra que, lejos de considerarse algo anacrónico, la humanidad nunca ha construido tantos muros como en la actualidad.