Last Topic: 5:23:35pm, 04/27/2024
Last Post: 6:43:41pm, 04/30/2023
https://www.amazon.com/Metropolis-History-Humankinds-Greatest-Invention/dp/0385543468
Recently I've read Metropolis by Ben Wilson. This book explores in each chapter in chronological order some aspect of urban life and highlights a certain city in history. For exemple, the chapter about 12th century Baghdad explores street food and learning. The chapter about 20th - 21st century Los Angeles talks about the rise of the Suburbs.
Despite it being in chronological order there's some back and forth where he compares the cities of the past with modern ones, but it isn't much of a distraction IMO. Overall, I think it's an amazing book.
I liked most chapters but the ones about the poor living conditions of industrial cities in 19th century Chicago and Manchester, the one about LA and the suburbs were highlights to me. The only one I found to drag on for too long was the one about Rome and the public baths, which could have been shorter.
https://www.amazon.com/Cities-John-Reader/dp/009928426X
I've read a somewhat similar book, Cities by John Reader earlier this year. They both highlight aspects of the city (John's a bit more negative about urban life overall) but Cities feels somewhat disjointed. It's starts talking about ancient sumer, goes into rome but halfway through the book stops following a chronological order, which is odd (going from WW1 to medieval europe). It feels more like a loosely connected collection of essays of urban life. It's not a bad book by any means, but Metropolis was a far more enjoyable read.
There's a classic book about cities called The City In History by Lewis Mumford, but unfortunately there's no Kindle version.
btw if you have any recommendation of other books about urban life, let me know!
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