The City: A Global History: 21 (Modern Library Chronicles) - Softcover

Advance Praise for The City

"A compelling and original synthesis that belongs on the urbanist's bookshelf with Lewis Mumford, Peter Hall, and Fernand Braudel."
-Witold Rybczynski, Martin & Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism, School of Design, professor of Real Estate, Wharton School

"No one knows more about cities than Joel Kotkin, and has more to teach us about them. In The City, Kotkin takes us on a brisk and invigorating tour of cities from the Babylon of ancient times to the burgeoning exurbs of today. It is impossible not to learn a lot from this book."
-Michael Barone, senior writer, U.S. News & World Report, and co-author of The Almanac of American Politics

"If you want to understand why the future of American and European cities is mixed at best, if you want to understand why George Bush won the 2004 election, you need to read Joel Kotkin's account of how and why cities have developed and declined."
-Fred Siegel, author of Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life, senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute

"Unique and powerful insights into urban life . . . This book is a great read."
-Bob Lanier, Mayor of Houston, 1992-1998

A dramatic history of cities and of urban life ranges from ancient Mesopotamia to the present day, tracing the evolution of the city from its religious roots in antiquity, to the rise of the classical city and later commercial city-empires, to the industrial urban environment, to the post-industrial, suburban environment of the present day. Reprint. 12,500 first printing.