New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America's Global Cities

I enjoyed America's Global Cities and found it relatively readable and engaging. However, I have to second those reviewers who described it as extremely detailed and occasionally dry. This is a scholarly and historically cogent account of New York, Chicago, and LA and their place in the context of globalization; it is not at all summer beach reading, even for those people who enjoy serious non-fiction. That said, if you have any interest in urban history and social policy, your patience will be rewarded in reading this book.

I assigned this book for a graduate seminar last year (2002) and it went down very well with a range of social sciences and humanities students. They loved Abu-Lughod's geographically- and historically-specific approach to understanding globalization and urban change. In contrast to some of the universalizing bombast out there in, Janet Abu-Lughod's book helps us to make sense of urban change in these three cities via the astute integration of social, economic and political dynamics at a range of scales. Abu-Lughod was able to take them down into the streets at some points, and then back up to the national and global scales at other points. To be sure there is a mass of detail in the text, but it is knitted together as well as can be given the research questions. My students also appreciated the lack of jargon in the book; a rarity these days in the urban studies field. In short, this is a fine book for students, academics, and laypersons with interests in global urbanization, the history of American cities, the role of cities in the historical development of America, and historically-oriented research methodologies.