Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0871138980, Hardcover)

John Reader, author of the seminal book Africa: A Biography of the Continent, now brings us Cities: A Magisterial Exploration of the Nature and Impact of the City from Its Beginnings to the Mega-Conurbations of Today—an eye-opening journey from the earliest settlements in Mesopotamia to the sprawling megalopolises of today—Tokyo, Mexico City, and Sao Paolo. Reader reveals how cities came to be, what made them thrive, how they declined, and how they remade themselves. He debunks long-held theories and shows that the first cities actually preceded and inspired the growth of farming; that trees grow better in cities; and that even though three thousand years separated Imperial Rome from the Sumerian cities, their everyday lives were quite similar and share commonalities with our lives today. Focusing as much on Baron Haussman's creation of the Paris sewers as on his plans for the grand boulevards, on prostitution as on government, on human lives as on architecture, on markets as on cathedrals, Reader gives us a humanistic work fit to stand alongside Lewis Mumford's classic, The City in History. Throughout this stimulating survey, Reader proves a marvelous tour guide to what he calls "the brightest stars in the constellation of human achievement."

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 009928426X, Paperback)

A magisterial study of the city from its beginnings to the mega-conurbations of today.

Cities is a fascinating exploration of the nature of the city and city life, of its structures, development and inhabitants.

From the ruins of the earliest cities to the present, John Reader explores how cities coalesce, develop and thrive, how they can decline and die, how they remake themselves. He investigates their parasitic relationship with the countryside around them, the webs of trade and immigration they rely upon to survive, how they feed and water themselves and dispose of their wastes. The book is a sweeping exploration of what the city is and has been, fit to stand alongside Lewis Mumford’s 1962 classic The City in History.

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0434009628, Hardcover)

A magisterial exploration of the nature of the city from its beginnings to contemporary Cairo, the largest city the world has known.

In his new book, an exploration of the city’s functions and forms, John Reader grounds his work in broad-based research into the city’s achievements and problems and makes extraordinary and thought-provoking connections as to the nature of cities, old and new.

From the ruins of the earliest cities to the present, Reader explores how they develop and thrive, how they can remake themselves, and how they can decline and die. He investigates their parasitic relationship with the countryside around them, the webs of trade and immigration they inhabit, how they feed and water themselves and dispose of their wastes. He focuses as much on Baron Haussman’s creation of the Paris sewers as of his plans for the grand boulevards, on prostitution as on government, on human lives as on architecture, on markets as on cathedrals.

In this sweeping exploration of what the city is and has been, The Anatomy of the City is fit to stand alongside Lewis Mumford’s 1962 classic The City in History.

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0802142737, Paperback)