The City: A Global History

I thought this book was incredibly succinct and packs in an amazing amount of ideas in a short space. The topic, the history of the city, is obviously an incredibly vast topic but Kotkin somehow manages to hit most major themes and cover an incredible amount for the short length. The incredible array of sources he brings to this task is nothing short of incredible- just check out the 36 pages of notes for a 160 page book. As a history major I was surprised by how much I learned from this book as it help to fit many historical events into a broader context. I can't help but think that many readers were put off because he advances some controversial thesis. On example of this is the value of scared space in a city. I think his justification for such a thesis is well founded and explained well. It is not something he is preachy with rather something he clearly shows through the historical record and would be a mistake to leave out. I was impressed with the gutsiness of it especially considering the trendiness of pluralism in academia nowadays that forgets the value of faith sometimes. I was also impressed with his writing ability which helps keep the book flowing and interesting. I for one now want to read more by this author.

In this short book, Kotkin explores two central points: 1) that the urban experience is universal, transcending space, culture and time; and 2) that what characterizes successful cities has remained unchanged from the earliest times, namely the creation of sacred space, the provision of basic security, and the hosting of commercial markets. He then provides a vast and rapid sweep through millennia of urban history. As the author clearly states, this text was intended as an introductory guide rather than an analysis, and he very much succeeds in setting readers on the footpath of further study. While it is true that every subject is handled on a superficial level, what Kotkin chose to discuss was well-distilled and demonstrates his vast knowledge of the field. He supplies readers with a chronology and, more importantly, a suggested reading list. Anyone interested in approaching urban history should begin with this book.

Cities are the fulcrum of civilization. In this short, authoritative yet winningly informal account, urbanist Joel Kotkin examines the evolution of cities and urban life over thousands of years. He begins with the religious roots of urbanism in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and China, and takes us to emergence of the Classical City; Byzantium and the cities of the Middle East; the rise of Venice and subsequent commercial city-empires; theindustrial city (from London to Shanghai to Detroit); and on to the post-industrial, suburban realities of today. He concludes with a shrewd diagnosis of the problems and crises facing cities in the 21st-Century. Unlike other books on cities, Kotkin's is truly global in scope (even Lewis Mumford confined his vision to the West). For Kotkin, cities are not merely "machines for living" but embodiments of the highest ideals: how we can live, cooperate and create together. In looking at the history of city life as a continuous whole, THE CITY is nothing less than a breathtaking account of the human achievement itself.

I generally find Joel Kotkin a great read. I loved The New Geography. I don't always agree with him, but I'm honored that the Los Angeles Times is his home newspaper and I look forward to seeing him on the op-ed pages. I'm also aware that the books in the Modern Library Chronicles are supposed to be short introductions - primers - on a given subject. Given all of that, The City: A Global History is not the book it could have been. Kotkin, usually a dynamic writer, gives us a somewhat bland history of the city. Towards the end of the book, the colorless recitation of history gives way to a more dynamic read, but many readers probably aren't going to give the book that much of a chance. And even though he sets the reader up with a decent hypothesis about why cities succeed - sacred, safe, and busy - he doesn't tie up all the empirical evidence well enough for evaluation purposes. The word "sacred" is a big problem. Kotkin defines sacred and the city in the introduction, but his use of the word throughout the book zigs and zags between multiple meanings. I went on a trip to Washington, D.C. with students from my high school last fall. We toured the city and ultimately sang in Constitution Hall on September 11. Most of my students are very religious and I'm not, but I think most of the folks who went on that trip would say that Washington, D.C. fits the definition of "sacred." After reading The City, I'm not sure what Professor Kotkin would think. Since I can't give fractional stars, I'm rounding up my 3.5 star rating to 4 stars. I learned a lot of history from The City, but given Joel Kotkin's written record, I was hoping for a lot more.

In this very short volume, Joel Kotkin outlines the 5,000 plus year history of the city and notifies us that what was fundamental to the cities of ancient Sumeria is still the case today: cities - to be successful - must be sacred, safe, and busy. It seems a truism that a city needs some "socially important myths" to hold together large diverse groups of people. City planners today, according to Kotkin, do not take into account the sacredness of a place. How can they? Can you imagine a city planner calling for a more Christian city? or a more Islamic or Jewish city? or a more multiculural city? In these secular times, the latter is about the only thing they can attempt. But Kotkin considers multiculuralism a form of separatism. I say let the sacredness arise from the cultural ideas and pracitices of the citzens, not from the city planning office. That a city needs security and a vibrant business community seems a truism so true that I won't belabor the point here. The most interesting point made in the book concerns the impact of technology - especially telecommunications - on cities. For the first time in history global megacities no longer have the advantage of size and scale. With computers and telecommunications, businesses can now process and transmit information anywhere - the periphery of the urban centers, small towns, to places anywhere in the world. Moreover, businesses can locate anywhere in the world - anywhere they have skilled workers. The urban center is no longer necessary to operate a global business, in fact, it is no longer desirable. The growth of the urban periphery and small towns as corporate centers has been called the rise of the "telecity." Anyone who has followed real estate prices of areas 30 to 50 miles outside of urban centers over the last 20 years is well aware of this trend. These areas are called "exurbs" and they are attractive to young people who want to start families and businesses. They are characterized by spacious single story industrial and office parks rather than densely packed skyscrapers. They are more affordable and more conducive to growth. A more lively account of the exurbs can be found in David Brooks' "On Paradise Drive." The exurbs are hot. As corporations are moving their headquarters to the exurbs, megacities are looking for other sources of growth and revenue, and they are looking mainly at tourism and entertainment. San Francisco, New York, Rome, Paris, and London now consider tourism, entertainment, and other cultural activities as their most promising industries. Business and political leaders are promoting these cities as "cool." The goal is to attract artists, bohemians, and other hipsters in order to create new loft spaces, good restaurants, nightclubs, galleries, and museums. Kotkin is not optimistic about the long-term economic health of cool cities. He calls them "ephemeral" cities, by pointing out that New York's Silicon Alley and San Francisco's Multimedi