Today, for the first time in history, the majority of people in the world live
in cities. The implications and challenges associated with this fact are
enormous. But how did we get here? From the origins of urbanization in
Mesopotamia to the global metropolises of today, great cities have marked the
development of human civilization. The Great Cities in History tells their
stories, starting with the earliest, from Uruk and Memphis to Jerusalem and
Alexandria. Next come the fabulous cities of the first millennium: Damascus and
Baghdad, Teotihuacan and Tikal, and Chang'an, capital of Tang Dynasty China. The
medieval world saw the rise of powerful cities such