Reading Rybczynski is like spelling his name. Fascinating and frustrating at the same time. His rambling style, excursions and personal anecdotes are interesting but ultimately distracting from the topic at hand. Most vexing are the omissions in his narrative. Does he not know or does he not care?

The book at hand deals with the development of the American city. His key question is: Why aren't North American cities like European ones? Frustratingly, he does not answer the question, presenting a history of urban development of the US in nine chapters: Kevin Lynch's types of cities (ch. 2); Spanish, French and English roots, grid and space (ch. 3); US individualism and aversion to public space (ch. 4); urban parks (ch. 5); railroad stations and public infrastructure (ch. 6); skyscrapers (Ch. 7); suburbs and public housing (ch. 8) and malls (ch. 9). The tenth chapter sees him moving from the Canadian border to Philly's suburbs.

The reader is left to distill the answer to Rybczynski's question himself among the morsels and underdeveloped themes. Most elements that feature prominently in his chapters are present in Europe (and the ignored rest of world) too, so they can not be the answer. As Rybczynski writes himself covered shopping malls existed in Milano and Paris before the US started building them (although the Americans upped the scale). Barcelona has a grid. The love of private space is not uncommon in England and elsewhere ... My explaining factors are geography, energy and government. The availability of unbroken, empty land and cheap energy were enablers. The major cause why US cities look so different from European ones is weak government which could not prevent the worst (broken ghettos and insufficient public infrastructure) and the best (skyscrapers) of US cities.

Overall, a rather weak book by Rybczynski. ( )