Eminent architectural historian, Jospeh Rykwert looks at the complex story of
the city since the industrial revolution. He draws on sociology, social,
economic and political history and their complex interactions with the history
of architecture. Rykwert's knowledge of world cities is remarkable, and the book
will draw on Shanghai as much as Los Angeles, Rio as well as London, Melbourne
as well as Paris, both in looking at past developments and for models for the
future. His book is also a timely celebration of metropolitan values that have
recently been denigrated: tolerance, liberalism, cultural vitality, pluralism.
It is an important book that no-one with an interest in