Why am I passionate about this?
There are as many ways of thinking about cities as there are people who live in them, and by the end of this century, it is clear we will all be living in cities of one size or another. Cities are in effect the crucibles where all technological and cultural change takes place. They are the drivers of prosperity while also the harbingers of chaos, decline, and war. What makes them fascinating is that as soon as we begin to peel back the layers that compose the city, our understanding of them begins to change: they metamorphose into different conceptions where there is no agreement as to what they are or what they might become.
Michael's book list on cities that are not what they seem
Why did Michael love this book?
Glaeser argues that cities are man’s greatest achievement. Where else can you find the conditions where the progress we have made in urban society come together to provide the kinds of civilization that we have evolved through cultural and scientific progress that appear most clearly in large cities? Technology is key to the 21st-century city in Glaeser’s celebration that he calls the Triumph of the Cities, and this history is reflected in Hall’s book, which follows.
This is a wonderful rapid read, and it complements Jane Jacobs's book below. It brings Jane Jacob's book up to date, but this implies Jane’s book is old fashioned–it isn’t–it is just that her work is over 60 years old, and the examples pertain back to the 1950s and 1960s.
3 authors picked Triumph of the City as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Understanding the modern city and the powerful forces within it is the life's work of Harvard urban economist Edward Glaeser, who at forty is hailed as one of the world's most exciting urban thinkers. Travelling from city to city, speaking to planners and politicians across the world, he uncovers questions large and small whose answers are both counterintuitive and deeply significant. Should New Orleans be rebuilt? Why can't my nephew afford an apartment in New York? Is London the new financial capital of the world? Is my job headed to Bangalore? In Triumph of the City, Glaeser takes us around…