Masterful!

This book brilliantly succeeds in presenting a synthesis of the history of city and suburbia, in terms of built form and transportation but mainly with respect to the multiplicity of activities that they support.

Information is organized chronologically, each chapter focussing on a theme and a given city but diverging as needed to increase thoroughness and reader interest. Thus, we are led from Uruk in 4000 BC to Lagos in the 21st century. Essential cities such as Athens, Rome, Baghdad, London, Paris and New York are covered but so are less well-known places like Harappa, Lübeck and Warsaw. Care is taken to cover the whole planet, with a point of view that is not blindly Western, for instance regarding Malacca and Tenochtitlan. Overall, liveliness and freshness of approach are striking.

Admittedly, the topic is so vast that such a work can only be a cross-section. Thus, many historically significant cities such as Vienna, Naples, Calcutta, Buenos Aires and Washington are barely mentioned, if at all. Still, the amount of information conveyed is so massive that many will find it profitable to read the book twice.

In the audio version, the narrator does a fine job at being vivacious throughout. He must be commended for the efforts he makes in adequately pronouncing foreign words in French, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, etc.

This book will not disappoint anyone interested in cities or in history in general, no matter his or her level of prior knowledge, from novice to expert.

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