Metropolis : a history of the city, humankind's greatest invention
by Wilson, Ben, 1980- (Author)
Summary
"From a brilliant young historian, a colourful journey through 7,000 years and twenty-six world cities that shows how urban living has been the spur and incubator to humankind's greatest innovations. In the two hundred millennia of our existence, nothing has shaped us more profoundly than the city.... Full description
- Introduction: The metropolitan century
- Dawn of the city: Uruk, 4000-1900 BC
- The Garden of Eden and Sin City: Harappa and Babylon, 2000-539 BC
- Cosmopolis: Athens and Alexandria, 507-30 BC
- Imperial megacity: Rome, 39 BC - AD 537
- Gastropolis: Baghdad, 537-1258
- Cities of war: Lübeck, 1226-1491
- Cities of the world: Lisbon, Malacca, Tenochitlan, Amsterdam, 1492-1666
- The sociable metropolis: London, 1666-1820
- The gates of hell? Manchester and Chicago, 1830-1914
- Paris syndrome: Paris 1830-1914
- Skyscraper souls: New York, 1899-1939
- Annihilation: Warsaw, 1939-45
- Sounds of the suburbs: Los Angeles, 1945-99
- Megacity: Lagos, 1999-2020.