Kotkin J. The City: A Global History

Modern Library, 2005. — 256 p. — ISBN: 0679603360, 0375756515.If humankind can be said to have a single greatest creation, it would be those places that represent the most eloquent expression of our species’s ingenuity, beliefs, and ideals: the city. In this authoritative and engagingly written account, the acclaimed urbanist and bestselling author examines the evolution of urban life over the millennia and, in doing so, attempts to answer the age-old question: What makes a city great?
Despite their infinite variety, all cities essentially serve three purposes: spiritual, political, and economic. Kotkin follows the progression of the city from the early religious centers of Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and China to the imperial centers of the Classical era, through the rise of the Islamic city and the European commercial capitals, ending with today’s post-industrial suburban metropolis.
Despite widespread optimistic claims that cities are back in style, Kotkin warns that whatever their form, cities can thrive only if they remain sacred, safe, and busy–and this is true for both the increasingly urbanized developing world and the often self-possessed global cities of the West and East Asia.
Looking at cities in the twenty-first century, Kotkin discusses the effects of developments such as shifting demographics and emerging technologies. He also considers the effects of terrorism–how the religious and cultural struggles of the present pose the greatest challenge to the urban future.
Truly global in scope, The City is a timely narrative that will place Kotkin in the company of Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs, and other preeminent urban scholars.Introduction: places sacred, safe, and busy
Origins: the rise of cities in a Global context
Sacred Origins
Mesopotamia
Egypt
India and China
The Americas
Projections of power—the rise of the imperial city
Sargon: the creator of the imperial city
Babylon: the first urban colossus security and urban collapse
China: the enduring urban order
The first commercial capitals
The rise of Phoenicia
“Whose merchants are princes” the roots of phoenician decline
Classical cities in Europe
The Greek achievement Crete
Mycenae: greek precursor
The classical polis
The Greek diaspora
The twilight of the city-states
Alexander and the hellenistic city Alexandria: the first great cosmopolis unraveling of Alexander’s vision
Rome—the first megacity
“The victorious romans”
The making of the imperial city
Rome: the archetypal megacity “a confederation of urban cells”
The eclipse of the classical city
The city of man versus the city of god “all is neglect”
Constantinople: urban survivor
The oriental epoch
The Islamic archipelago Muhammad’s urban vision
The nature of the Islamic city
Damascus: paradise on earth
Baghdad: “crossroads of the world”
Cairo’s golden age from north Africa to the borders of China
India’s Islamic rebirth
Cities of the middle kingdom
Urban tradition in an agricultural society
“The astral center of the universal order”
“Great clouds in the sky”
Opportunity lost the problem of prosperity
The limits of autocracy
The suppression of entrepreneurs
Europe’s reemergence
Western cities reassert their primacy
Europe’s urban renaissance
The sacred roots of the renaissance
The return of the city-states
Venice: “jewel box of the world”
Florence and the emergence of modern urban politics
Imperial cities overcome the city-states
The Iberian ascendancy
Paris: the ultimate European capital city
Cities of mammon
Europe’s expanding urban order
The failure of the Iberian empires
The emergence of the north
Amsterdam: the first great modern commercial city
London the world capitalist capital
The industrial city
The Anglo-American urban revolution
Lancashire: originator of the revolution “with cogs tyrannic” “hero of the age”
Urbanizing the “garden of the world”
New York’s nineteenth-century industrial age emergence
Cities of the heartland
The challenge of “progress”
New York: the ultimate vertical city
“Like a witch at the gate of the country”
America goes high-rise
Industrialism and its discontents the global implications of industrialism
Japan’s sudden industrialization
“The iron monster” reconstructing Japanese cities
The nazi experiment
Russia: the third alternative
The road to revolution
The soviet system “sharpening our axes”
Communism’s urban legacy
The modern metropolis
The search for a “better city”
The promise of Los Angeles
A short history of suburbia “onions fifty to a rope”
A new urban vision “a six room house with a big yard”
Suburbia triumphant the “sleep of death”
Skyscrapers aflame “grand achievements” and their limitations
The final agonies of the industrial city the “universal aspiration”
Argentina and Australia
Britain and the modern “garden city”
Suburbanization in western Europe
The ghettoization of European cities even in Paris
Japanese “garden cities”
The postcolonial dilemma
The colonial legacy
“The urbanization of the countryside”
“European microcosms”
“The halcyon days”
A fateful break in urban history
The rise of squatter cities
Africa’s urban tragedy
“Social time bombs”
“Queens of the further east”
India’s urban revolution
East Asia breaks the mold
Seoul’s emergence
Britain’s successful offspring
Singapore: Asia’s model city
The revitalization of Confucian discourse
Chinese cities under Maoism
The four modernizations and the revival of Chinese cities
Shanghai’s resurgence
Suburbia comes to East Asia
Conclusion - the urban future
Notes
Suggested reading
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