Background
Mary Beard was born on January 1, 1955, in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England, to Roy Whitbread (an architect) and Joyce Emily Taylor (a teacher) Beard.
Mary Beard
32 Town Walls, Shrewsbury SY1 1TN, UK
Mary Beard was educated at Shrewsbury High School.
Sidgwick Ave, Cambridge CB3 9DF, UK
Mary Beard graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts degree: as per tradition, her BA was later promoted to a Master of Arts degree. She remained at Cambridge for her Doctor of Philosophy degree: she completed it in 1982 with a doctoral thesis titled The State Religion in the Late Roman Republic: A Study Based on the Works of Cicero.
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
32 Town Walls, Shrewsbury SY1 1TN, UK
Mary Beard was educated at Shrewsbury High School.
Sidgwick Ave, Cambridge CB3 9DF, UK
Mary Beard graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts degree: as per tradition, her BA was later promoted to a Master of Arts degree. She remained at Cambridge for her Doctor of Philosophy degree: she completed it in 1982 with a doctoral thesis titled The State Religion in the Late Roman Republic: A Study Based on the Works of Cicero.
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
Mary Beard
(This well-established textbook outlines the key factors t...)
This well-established textbook outlines the key factors that every student must assess for a proper understanding of the period of the Late Roman Republic - from the attitudes of the aristocracy and the role of state religion to the function of political institutions.
https://www.amazon.com/Rome-Late-Republic-Mary-Beard/dp/071562928X/?tag=2022091-20
1985
(Very Short Introductions offers an introduction to some o...)
Very Short Introductions offers an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
https://www.amazon.com/Classics-Short-Introduction-Mary-Beard/dp/0192853856/?tag=2022091-20
1995
(This book offers a radical new survey of more than a thou...)
This book offers a radical new survey of more than a thousand years of religious life in Rome, from the foundation of the city to its rise to world empire and its conversion to Christianity. It sets religion in its full cultural context, between the primitive hamlet of the eighth century BC and the cosmopolitan, multicultural society of the first centuries of the Christian era.
https://www.amazon.com/Religions-Rome-History-Mary-Beard/dp/0521316820/?tag=2022091-20
1998
(Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) is the most famous female...)
Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) is the most famous female Classicist in history, the author of books that revolutionized our understanding of Greek culture and religion. A star in the British academic world, she became the quintessential Cambridge woman - as Virginia Woolf suggested when, in A Room of One's Own, she claims to have glimpsed Harrison's ghost in the college gardens. This lively and innovative portrayal of a fascinating woman raises the question of who wins (and how) in the competition for academic fame. Mary Beard captures Harrison's ability to create her own image.
https://www.amazon.com/Invention-Jane-Harrison-Revealing-Antiquity/dp/0674008073/?tag=2022091-20
2000
(The stunning masterpieces of Ancient Greece and Rome are ...)
The stunning masterpieces of Ancient Greece and Rome are fundamental to the story of art in Western culture and to the origins of art history. The expanding Greek world of Alexander the Great had an enormous impact on the Mediterranean superpower of Rome.
https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Art-Greece-Oxford-History/dp/0192842374/?tag=2022091-20
2001
(At once an entrancing cultural history and a congenial gu...)
At once an entrancing cultural history and a congenial guide for tourists, armchair travelers, and amateur archaeologists alike, this book conducts readers through the storied past and towering presence of the most famous building in the world. In the revised version of her classic study, Mary Beard now includes the story of the long-awaited new museum opened in 2009 to display the sculptures from the building that still remain in Greece, as well as the controversies that have surrounded it, and asks whether it makes a difference to the "Elgin Marble debate."
https://www.amazon.com/Parthenon-Mary-Beard/dp/0674055632/?tag=2022091-20
2002
(Read the Bldg Blog interview with Mary Beard about the Wo...)
Read the Bldg Blog interview with Mary Beard about the Wonders of the World series(Part I and Part II) Byron and Hitler were equally entranced by Rome's most famous monument, the Colosseum. Mid-Victorians admired the hundreds of varieties of flowers in its crannies and occasionally shuddered at its reputation for contagion, danger, and sexual temptation. Today it is the highlight of a tour of Italy for more than three million visitors a year, a concert arena for the likes of Paul McCartney, and a national symbol of opposition to the death penalty. Its ancient history is chockfull of romantic but erroneous myths.
https://www.amazon.com/Colosseum-Wonders-World-Keith-Hopkins/dp/0674060318/?tag=2022091-20
2005
(The triumph, Mary Beard contends, prompted the Romans to ...)
The triumph, Mary Beard contends, prompted the Romans to question as well as celebrate military glory. Her richly illustrated work is a testament to the profound importance of the triumph in Roman culture - and for monarchs, dynasts and generals ever since. But how can we re-create the ceremony as it was celebrated in Rome? How can we piece together its elusive traces in art and literature? Beard addresses these questions, opening a window on the intriguing process of sifting through and making sense of what constitutes “history.”
https://www.amazon.com/Roman-Triumph-Mary-Beard/dp/0674032187/?tag=2022091-20
2007
https://www.amazon.com/Pompeii-Life-Roman-Mary-Beard/dp/1846684714/?tag=2022091-20
2008
(Mary Beard's by now famous blog A Don's Life has been run...)
Mary Beard's by now famous blog A Don's Life has been running on the TLS website for nearly three years. In it she has made her name as a wickedly subversive commentator on the world in which we live. Her central themes are the classics, universities, and teaching - and much else besides. What are academics for? Who was the first African Roman emperor? Looting - ancient and modern. Are modern exams easier? Keep lesbos for the lesbians. Did St Valentine exist? What made the Romans laugh?
https://www.amazon.com/Its-Dons-Life-Mary-Beard/dp/1846682517/?tag=2022091-20
2009
(Mary Beard, drawing on thirty years of teaching and writi...)
Mary Beard, drawing on thirty years of teaching and writing about Greek and Roman history, provides a panoramic portrait of the classical world, a book in which we encounter not only Cleopatra and Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Hannibal, but also the common people - the millions of inhabitants of the Roman Empire, the slaves, soldiers, and women. How did they live?
https://www.amazon.com/Confronting-Classics-Traditions-Adventures-Innovations/dp/0871408597/?tag=2022091-20
2013
(What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, ...)
What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, filled with practical jokes and hearty chuckles? Or was it a carefully regulated culture in which the uncontrollable excess of laughter was a force to fear - a world of wit, irony, and knowing smiles? How did Romans make sense of laughter?
https://www.amazon.com/Laughter-Ancient-Rome-Tickling-Classical/dp/0520287584/?tag=2022091-20
2014
https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/1631492225/?tag=2022091-20
2015
(From the internationally acclaimed classicist and New Yor...)
From the internationally acclaimed classicist and New York Times best-selling author comes this timely manifesto on women and power. At long last, Mary Beard addresses in one brave book the misogynists and trolls who mercilessly attack and demean women the world over, including, very often, Mary herself. In Women & Power, she traces the origins of this misogyny to its ancient roots, examining the pitfalls of gender and the ways that history has mistreated strong women since time immemorial.
https://www.amazon.com/Women-Power-Manifesto-Mary-Beard/dp/1631494759/?tag=2022091-20
2017
https://www.amazon.com/Civilisations-How-Look-Faith-seen/dp/1781259992/?tag=2022091-20
2018
Mary Beard was born on January 1, 1955, in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, England, to Roy Whitbread (an architect) and Joyce Emily Taylor (a teacher) Beard.
Beard was educated at Shrewsbury High School, a girls' school then funded as a direct grant grammar school. She was taught poetry by Frank McEachran, the inspiration for schoolmaster Hector in Alan Bennett's play The History Boys. During the summer she would join archaeological excavations, though the motivation was, in part, just the prospect of earning some pocket-money.
At eighteen Beard sat the then-compulsory entrance exam and interview for Cambridge University, to win a place at Newnham College, a single-sex college. She had considered King's but rejected it when she learned the college did not offer scholarships to women.
Beard graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Arts degree: as per tradition, her BA was later promoted to a Master of Arts degree. She remained at Cambridge for her Doctor of Philosophy degree: she completed it in 1982 with a doctoral thesis titled The State Religion in the Late Roman Republic: A Study Based on the Works of Cicero.
Mary Beard is one of Britain’s best-known classicists, Professor at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Newnham College. She has written numerous books on the ancient world including the Wolfson Prize-winning Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town; has presented highly-acclaimed TV series, Meet the Romans and Rome: Empire without Limit; and is a regular broadcaster and media commentator. Mary is one of the presenters for the BBC’s recent landmark Civilisations series. Mary is also a classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement and writes a thought-provoking blog, A Don’s Life.
Beard was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2013 Queen's New Year Honours list for her services to Classical Scholarship. She was awarded the Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to the Study of Classical Civilization.
(Mary Beard, drawing on thirty years of teaching and writi...)
2013(What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, ...)
2014(This well-established textbook outlines the key factors t...)
1985(At once an entrancing cultural history and a congenial gu...)
2002(This book offers a radical new survey of more than a thou...)
1998(Read the Bldg Blog interview with Mary Beard about the Wo...)
2005(Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) is the most famous female...)
2000(The stunning masterpieces of Ancient Greece and Rome are ...)
2001(From the internationally acclaimed classicist and New Yor...)
2017(Mary Beard's by now famous blog A Don's Life has been run...)
2009(The triumph, Mary Beard contends, prompted the Romans to ...)
2007(Very Short Introductions offers an introduction to some o...)
1995Mary Beard is non-religious.
Mary Beard is a socialist. In August 2014, Beard was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue. In July 2015, Beard endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. She said: "If I were a member of the Labour Party, I would vote for Corbyn. He actually seems to have some ideological commitment, which could get the Labour Party to think about what it actually stands for."
In Beard's first year she found that some men in the university still held very dismissive attitudes regarding the academic potential of women, which only strengthened her determination to succeed. She also developed feminist views that remained "hugely important" in her later life, although she later described "modern orthodox feminism" as partly cant.
Quotations:
"Most women over 50 know what women over 50 look like. And they look like me. They can pretend like they don't, but really they look like me. I'm a classicist, not an autocue girl."
"I've been around long enough to know that most people if they want to kill you, they don't send you a tweet first."
Beard married Robin Cormack, a classicist and art historian, in 1985. Their daughter Zoe is a historian of South Sudan and their son Raphael is a scholar of Egyptian literature.
