Great Cities: Their History and Culture

by D.K. Publishing

Stunningly illustrated biographies of the world's greatest cities, packed with paintings, photographs, maps, and artifacts

Delve into the social and cultural history of over 75 of the world's most important cities.

From the first towns in Mesopotamia to today's global metropolises, cities have marked the progress of civilization. Written in the form of illustrated "biographies," Great Cities offers a rich historical overview of each featured city, brought to vivid life with maps, paintings, photographs, and artifacts.

The latest title in the series style of Artists, Writers, Philosophers, and Composers, this lavish ebook goes under the skin of cities both ancient and modern--from Babylon and Tikal, Paris, and Palermo to Prague, Amsterdam, Tokyo, and São Paulo. Which ancient civilization founded the precursor to Mexico City? Why was Venice the gateway to the East? What was the Belle Epoque? Which was the first city to build sewers? Great Cities takes you there. Stunning images of city life and key moments in history are complemented by close-ups of revealing details and feature panels that provide additional context.

An ebook not just about history but also about art, architecture, commerce, and politics, Great Cities provides a fascinating insight into what has shaped where we live. Perfect for history, geography, and cartography enthusiasts and a stunning gift for armchair explorers of all ages, it is your window into the world's most fascinating cities.

Genres: History, Travel, Reference, Nonfiction

319 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 31, 2021

About the author

Dorling Kindersley (DK) is a British multinational publishing company specializing in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 62 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a consumer publishing company jointly owned by Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA and Pearson PLC. Bertelsmann owns 53% of the company and Pearson owns 47%.

Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel (including Eyewitness Travel Guides), arts and crafts, business, history, cooking, gaming, gardening, health and fitness, natural history, parenting, science and reference. They also publish books for children, toddlers and babies, covering such topics as history, the human body, animals and activities, as well as licensed properties such as LEGO, Disney and DeLiSo, licensor of the toy Sophie la Girafe. DK has offices in New York, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto and Melbourne.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Sud666 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Cities is a good coffee table book. As someone who enjoys traveling the world and seeing the amazing history and sights of the world, a book like this is vital in deciding where to go and what to see.
This book looks at some of the world's "most fascinating places". Each city has several pages dedicated to it, replete with a condensed history of the city and its development. There are subpanels with additional information of interest. Each section is filled with copious images. While the scope of the entries, due to space, must be brief, this is still a great introduction for readers who may wish to then further explore each individual city.

The First section covers The Centers of Ancient and Lost Civilizations:
Rome; Athens; Istanbul; Jerusalem; Persopolis; Delhi; Hampi; Xi'an; Mexico City; Tikal and Cusco.

The Second covers Great River Cities:
London; Paris; Florence; Prague; Vienna; Berlin; Moscow; Cairo; Varanasi; Bangkok; Quebec City and New Orleans.

The Third section covers Maritime Cities:
Dublin; Amsterdam; Stockholm; Lisbon; Barcelona; Venice; Cape Town; Shanghai; Sydney; San Fransico; New York City; Havana and Buenos Aires.

The Fourth section, Cities by Design:
St. Petersburg; Isfahan; Singapore; Kyoto; Washington D.C. and Brasilia.

The final section covers Modern Metropolises:
Dubai; Beijing; Hong Kong; Seoul; Tokyo and Los Angles.

Each section also has a list (very brief entries) of honorable mentions for each section. A nice book for a collection on different cities. Since 2016 when I was done with all my schooling, I've been wandering around every year. As of 2022 (haven't gone anywhere in 2023 yet, but it's only January) the cities I have visited and explored from this book (including honorable mentions) are: Rome; Athens; Florence; Prague; Vienna; Berlin; New Orleans; Munich; Krakow; Detroit; Amsterdam; Lisbon; Barcelona; Venice; New York City; Copenhagen; Marseille; Boston; Miami; Washington; Philadelphia and Chicago. That may seem a lot. It isn't. There are a lot of cities yet to be explored.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really don't know how some of the cities were chosen but certainly gives insight on many metropolitan areas around the world. Depending on an individual's personal travel experience or curiosity, there may be quite the number of different locations that may not be as well-known as those cities constantly in the news.

Broken into 5 different groups with a number getting the full treatment of 4-8 pages of history, highlights over a timeline from it's founding to 'current' (published in 2021). Numerous photos and paintings of some notable structures and/or monuments along with the city's dominant nickname. Then there are 'more great cities' at the end of it's section which are short blurbs of a few sentences highlighting its 'great' qualities.

So -
*Centers of Ancient and Lost Civilizations - 11 detailed cities and 11 more - Rome, Delhi, Cusco, Athens, and Xi'an for example.
*Great River cities - 12 detailed and 10 more - London, Cairo, Vienna, Varanasi, Quebec City
*Maritime Cities - 13 and 11 - Dublin, Shanghai, Cape Town, Amsterdam, Lisbon
*Cities by Design - 6 and 10 - St. Petersburg, Kyoto, Singapore, Isfahan, Brasilia, Washington DC
*Modern Metropolises - 6 and 10 - Dubai, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Beijing.

Certainly sparked some interest on my part. Need to read more about a number of the mentioned cities. Definitely had to investigate a video of Baku, Azerbaijan's Flame Tower LED nightly light show. Mesmerizing.

2022-221

[John Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book to read to determine more cities that should be on the tourist list – and to review again prior to taking a trip. It is truly amazing how many great cities exist and are worth a visit. Of the 48 cities fully highlighted with a half dozen pages, I visited only 14; and of the 52 cities highlighted as also mentions with just a couple of paragraphs, I visited only 13. The book has the cities in an interesting collection: centers of civilization, great river cities, maritime cities, cities by design, and modern metropolises. Of course, of the first grouping of 11 cities, some do not even exist now but others, like Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem are must see metropolitans with considerable history.

The book has way too much information, but that is not a criticism but just the way a book like this has to be formed. It was interesting to read that the first city, Catalhoyuk, Turkey, was formed 7,000 years ago, Uruk had 50,000 people centuries ago, and Rome hit a population of one million. Many cities, like Tikal and Palenque totally disappeared after being important in earlier centuries. The growth of these cities occurred in short periods of time; take London that had one million by 1801 but grew to three million by 1860.

The origin of these towns was interesting because we think of the cities as they are today, not the blend they were based on colonization, wars, and immigration. The contributors included many examples including the Paris started as a Celtic camp, that Julius Caesar started Florence as a city for military veterans and it grew into a focus of museums and culture, the Prague was torn apart by the 30 year war between Catholics and Protestants before giving Czech identity, and how Venice probably started as a refugee area for those running from Hun’s terrorism.

It would have been instructional for the editors to include a longer introduction with more about overall trends. The fact that so many cities were impacted by invasions from Portugal, the Dutch, the Spanish, or the English could have been highlighted in a bigger manner during the introduction. Perhaps more could have been written in the introduction on how natives were treated and mistreated by those ‘conquering’ lands. It was interesting to read that the Yelamu people were invaded by the Spanish, starting what is now San Francisco. Perhaps a longer introduction would have connected more of the cities and trends.

This is a book I will again read prior to a trip to one of these cities.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up as an audiobook from my local library. I didn't have high expectations-- can you imagine turning a coffee table book into an audiobook? But I was really impressed. It was the perfect read for doing dishes to, and I finished it on a long car trip this past weekend.

It's a fantastic book that gives you a tour of world history through the lens of cities across space and time. You will be reading about Ispahan in ancient Persia in one moment, then Nanjing in China, Dubai, Rio de Janeiro, Reno-- so good! I think I appreciated it more, because I have been reading books about different cultures over the past few years. These allowed me to orient myself in the book more, when I feel it would be harder to retain or appreciate without more background first.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

When they get it right as they have there is nothing to beat a DK book. Wonderfully illustrated with a satisfyingly broad sweep of cities covered. I learnt a lot about so many different countries and cultures. The best endorsement I can give it is that I now want to visit most of those cities I’ve never been to and go back to those I have.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

For what's offered, this subjective book showcasing cities, worldwide, is a beautiful piece. Sections are divided into: Centers of Ancient & Lost Civilizations; Great River Cities; Maritime Cities; Cities by Design; Modern Metropolises. For each city, the name is in big and bold letters and then there is a nickname that I'm assuming DK or one of their Contributors concocted, because for many of these cities, I had never heard that nickname before. There is a 4-6 page essay with subtitles for each city, as well as a historical timeline of the development of the city, color illustrations, photos, quotes, and more!

At the end of each section is a "list" of "More Cities" for that section. For each city, there is a small 1-paragraph piece of information about that city.

At the end of the book is an Index and a list of Acknowledgements.

My only issue is I don't necessarily agree with all of the cities in this book, and I did not read how the cities were selected. The section on Ancient & Lost Civilizations does not count. They did an excellent job with this section, but for the rest, I'm not so sure I agree with all of their choices. Looking at the maps at the beginning of each section, it appears that they did not penetrate to the interior of most countries. Also, they went heavily with European cities, and sparsely with the rest of the world.

Just looking at the United States (since this is where I live), Dallas / Fort Worth / Arlington, TX is one of the Top 5 Metro Areas in the U.S. Comparatively, Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta Metro areas are among the Top 70, in the world, and in the order listed, and none of these made any of the sections of this book. Yet, cities such as Detroit, Minneapolis, and Reno ARE mentioned and are not on any Top Metro list, anywhere. Having said this, Reno, listed under More Cities for the section on Great River Cities does say that it is the "Biggest Little City in the World," so maybe that's why it made a list. As for the rest, who knows?

[A B · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm giving this a generous 2 star rating for two reasons: the brief but intriguing chapter about Hampi, and the sensible organization of the book by city type - ancient, river, port, etc.

However, it's almost a bait-and-switch. These are not stories behind these cities. It's just a compilation of facts wrapped in concerning opinionated language. You would need a book the size of this one for each to do their histories justice.

I expect a book like this to be neutral, but it's written in a passive-aggressive style to the point that I think the English contributors are still butthurt over losing the United States over 200 years ago. The snide remarks about US occupation post WWII in Japan leave out the fact that Japan made an unprecedented attack on Pearl Harbor, so yeah, once the Axis surrendered the Allies Forces were gonna keep an eye on things. In another example, the book laments the impact of US soldiers on the Bangkok bar scene instead of discussing the city's history.

One of the most disturbing sections is on a major Russian city, where the gruesome, completely unnecessary executions of Tsar Nicholas II and his family are watered down to the Reds being afraid the Whites would rescue him, so "he was killed".

Perhaps flip through the book if curious, but aside from Hampi it didn't tell me anything new.

[MK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book introduces the world's ancient and modern cities and historic architecture.

The cityscapes taken by the best photographers are so beautiful that you cannot see them in any other book. Each city is imbued with the culture and thoughts of the people who live there.