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Metropolis, a history of the city, humankind's greatest invention, Ben Wilson

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

mapsillustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

Metropolis

bibliography

Ben Wilson

a history of the city, humankind's greatest invention

From its earliest incarnations 7,000 years ago to the megalopolises of today, the story of the city is the story of civilisation. Although cities have only ever been inhabited by a tiny minority of humanity, the heat they generate has sparked most of our political, social, commercial, scientific and artistic revolutions. It is these world-changing, epoch-defining moments that are the focus of Ben Wilson's book, as he takes us on a thrilling global tour of the key metropolises of history, from Urk, Athens, Alexandria and Rome, to Baghdad, Venice, Lisbon, Amsterdam, London, Paris, New York, LA, Shanghai and Lagos. Managing and re-imagining the city is already one of the most pressing issues of the twenty-first century. With over half the world's population now living in cities, and with the cosmopolitanism of the major world metropolises under attack from revived nationalism and hostility to globalisation, it has never been more important to understand cities and the role they have played in making us who we are

adult