The City: A Global History

by Joel Kotkin

If humankind can be said to have a single greatest creation, it would be those places that represent the most eloquent expression of our species’s ingenuity, beliefs, and ideals: the city. In this authoritative and engagingly written account, the acclaimed urbanist and bestselling author examines the evolution of urban life over the millennia and, in doing so, attempts to answer the age-old question: What makes a city great?

Despite their infinite variety, all cities essentially serve three purposes: spiritual, political, and economic. Kotkin follows the progression of the city from the early religious centers of Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and China to the imperial centers of the Classical era, through the rise of the Islamic city and the European commercial capitals, ending with today’s post-industrial suburban metropolis.

Despite widespread optimistic claims that cities are “back in style,” Kotkin warns that whatever their form, cities can thrive only if they remain sacred, safe, and busy–and this is true for both the increasingly urbanized developing world and the often self-possessed “global cities” of the West and East Asia.

Looking at cities in the twenty-first century, Kotkin discusses the effects of developments such as shifting demographics and emerging technologies. He also considers the effects of terrorism–how the religious and cultural struggles of the present pose the greatest challenge to the urban future.

Truly global in scope, The City is a timely narrative that will place Kotkin in the company of Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs, and other preeminent urban scholars.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Cities, Urban Planning, Urbanism, Urban Studies, Sociology

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Described by the New York Times as “America’s uber-geographer,” Joel Kotkin is an internationally-recognized authority on global, economic, political and social trends.

Reviews

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lacks any sort of common theme; very anecdotal for a history book. More of a random collection of historical sketches of ancient towns than a proper book.

[Gutly Yegendurdyyev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mesopotamiýada diniň we ekerançylygyň şäher döredişi, Wenesiýada söwdanyň şäher döredişi, Birmingamda senagatyň şäher döredişi we häzir ösüp başlan post-industrial şäherler... Umuman şol zatlar hakda.

Şäheriň taryhyny erteki aýdýan ýaly edip aňsat dilde düşündirýär. Inçe detallara girenok. Özem şeýle bir aňsat dilde ýazylan welin, iňlis dilini ortaça bilýänem doly düşünip bilermikä diýýän.

[Frederick Heimbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was enjoyable as a driving-around audio book. My interest is in civic design--what works, what doesn't. This book was more of a quick world history with an emphasis on the great metropolises, which was a little disappointing.

There are some interesting insights, such as the way Islamic worship practices makes it an urban-dependent movement. I gained an appreciation for Tokyo's role in the industrialization of Japan, and the disruptive effect upon German culture by the explosive growth of Berlin. Overall, however, the view was too high-level for my interest and lacked the analysis I hoped for. After a while, the rise and fall of one mega-city after another becomes repetitious and indistinct. Stats are cited without much explanation of their significance. The author relies too much on the word "vast".

Maybe great cities succeed or fail due to forces no one really understands. This book certainly didn't increase my understanding much. I was interested in this author because he avoids the usual intellectual's bias against suburban life. Maybe his books The Human City: Urbanism for the Rest of Us, Tribes: How Race, Religion, and Identity Determine Success in the New Global Economy and The New Class Conflict are the ones I should read.

[Taylor Swift Scholar · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the introduction, the author posits that a city must provide three things in order to succeed: an active economy, security, and sacredness, whether it comes from religion, culture, or an awe-inspiring skyline. I would have liked for the author to more explicitly connect and explore these themes throughout the book. Instead, in 160 pages, Kotkin flies through over five millennia of cities. Instead of backing up his claims, he provides an endnote to nearly every sentence if the reader wishes to follow up. The book thus reads like an impressive synthesis of others' scholarship. I learned nifty facts about individual cities and appreciated patterns that Kotkin observed, but I am leaving with zero (sufficiently backed-up) takeaways about the global phenomenon of cities.

[Nicholas Goodfellow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't appreciate the islamaphobia at the end of the book.

[Abbie Simons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn’t get into this at all, and then suddenly did, and by the end was super annoyed by its descriptions of both Africa and the Middle East — it completely ignores the exploitation and disruption of these places and with a 100% straight face acts like they’re just inherently inferior and then sanctimoniously “hopes” that they figure out how to make their cities and people thrive. Pissed me off. But otherwise enjoyed the book as a compact historical primer.

[Nathan Marone]

This short book reads more like a global history with an eye to how cities have influenced the broad sweep of mankind's dealings. The best sections, for my money, were at the beginning and end. In these parts, Kotkin lays out an interesting thesis gives good case studies for it. Great cities require three elements: sacred purpose, security, and commerce. When any one of these things go missing, the city usually falters.

Whenever Kotkin allows himself to dig into the specifics of a particular city (Los Angeles), the book shines. But too often he's trying to cram the entire history of a city like London into 2-3 pages so that he can relate it to broader trends of global history. It just doesn't quite work. That said, I still enjoyed enough of it to justify reading.

[Redsteve · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read, but is not at all in depth, since it's essentially covering the history of urban development throughout the world from appx. 5000 BCE to 2005 in all of 160 pages of text and 37 pages of notes. Obviously not a huge amount of analysis and I question some of the author's conclusions. Probably better as a jumping off point for additional reading. Low 3 stars.

[Gus Lackner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read for anyone with a passing interest in geography, history, or urban life, Kotkin weighs in at 160 pages sans bibliography, but still weaves from the Peloponnesian War to ‘people of the book’ to the city beautiful movement, from Herodotus to Marx, from Cyrus the Great to Napoleon to Deng Xiaoping. You will leave with a brief outline of the major ideas, thinkers, and leaders who influence historians’ understanding of the modern city, and a sufficient basic framework of facts on which informed discussion can be placed.

Kotkin is an anglophile, and he believes Britain is responsible for the invention of the institutions and political technology of the modern city; building on top of metropolitan innovations by medieval Islamic cities, cosmopolitan innovations by the ancient Persians, and civil innovations by the Greeks and Romans. The style is necessarily terse and referential, sacrificing detail for scope and readability. Overall, this spritely review of essential knowledge is a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good, easy, read, like a children's encycloepaedia -- full of fun facts and sharp observations. The narrative is too broad and overarching to really rigourously argue through many of the historical factors Kotkin gives credence to in the (typically) rapid rise and slow decay of cities and civilisations but nonetheless probably a good first explanation of the structural themes to hang a hat on.

His three explanations for a city's longevity bear further thought:
1). Security -- people can safely move about
2). Commerce -- people can make a better living
3). Sacredness -- people feel connected to a larger whole, be it religious, ideological, or even geographical

I want to add a couple things which don't appear prerequisite to a city's dominance, but which appears to crop up frequently in the longer lasting ones:
1). Openness -- diversity of thoughts, cultures, knowledge, and equality of status between different peoples
2). Talent retention (for want of a better term) -- basically the observation that when the better part of society is either abandoning the city to live a more pleasant life elsewhere, or becoming 'rentiers' and earning their keep from simply renting out existing assets rather than thinking about how to value add and build new wealth, it's a a bad sign.

[Yijun Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In only 160 pages, the book covers a very broad temporal and geographical scale: it covers examples in all the major cities over course of the past millennium. Unfortunately, this broad scale means that the book can only offer a brief introduction to each city and its development history. However, it will be a short and enjoyable read for the general public to obtain a comprehensive introduction to global city history. As mentioned by Kotkin, the primary purpose of this book is to attract people further exploring the fundamentals of urban experience and to appreciate the complexity of cities.

Even though there is no detailed methodology in the book that urban planners can directly implement on urban design, after reading the book they will appreciate the cultural background of each city, understand the root cause of urban issues and even gain inspirations to find the solution or best design strategies. I also believe this is a good book for everyone. It teaches us, the global citizens, to appreciate culture background of each city and person surround us.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want a brief insight into why cities rise and fall, this is a great place to start. Some of the advanced vocabulary in the book is tiring (don't get me wrong, I love learning new words), but that didn't make me put it down because the content is well worth the effort. The thing that struck me was how this book really focuses on ancient and eastern cities. It was nice to find a book that wasn't centered on North America. If you are interested in civilization, this is a must read.

Given the civil unrest in America today, it would do all American's good to know the history of cities: how some fell and some rose to greatness. This book explains it.

[Vern Wolfley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good quick read on cities and their evolution and things that make them successful. The thing I found most interesting about the things he identified as being necessary for the successful city, was Sacredness. Everyone knows that security and commerce are important for cities and their growth, but he talked about places having a shared moral vision and that it was this powerful idea that holds cities together.

[Daniel Stepke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was underwhelming, but a good overview of the history of the city. It felt a bit like it was trying to do too much by going over the whole history of the city, but it definitely captured a lot of specifics and the nature of the city. And it was eye-opening in regards to the notions of suburbanization and "squatter cities"--the modern world has failed many in this regard. All in all, interesting book, not the best.

[Tom Leland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly entertaining, full of interesting facts, very well written. I take issue with one deduction he made -- he flat-out said that because in the 1970s 95% of suburbanites were white, therefore "some new suburbanites" and "the developers catering to them" "shared a deep-seated racism". There are plenty of reasons -- yes, many rooted in racism, but on a systemic scale -- why more Blacks weren't living in suburbia.

[Melissa Hutchins · Rating 3 out of 5]

 the process of ascent and decline of cities is both rooted in history and changed by it. Successful urban areas today must still resonate with the ancient fundamentals—places sacred, safe, and busy. This was true five thousand years ago, when cities represented a tiny portion of humanity, and in this century, the first in which the majority live in cities.

Joel Kotkin

[Daniel Cunningham · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of cities a la "Very Short Introductions", though I think this Modern Library series might have actually started first. Kotkin also proposes a kind of theory of cities, but does nothing to really justify or prove it, other than some general gesturing; -1 for that from what would otherwise be a pretty perfect 160 page tour of world (and historical) cities.

[Daryl Feehely · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wid-ranging history of urban civilisation from ancient Mesopotamia to modern Singapore. The author looks at what common attributes define the establishment and growth of cities through the ages, as well as taking a more detailed look at the differences between the different eras. An encompassing primer on how and why cities grow and decline.

[Kølin Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is more of a jumping off point for further reading than a complex exploration of urban living or design. Sometimes an interesting fact would be stated, but before more analysis was presented the author had moved on to a different point or city. I suppose I should have expected as much from someone trying to cover 5,000 years of human dwellings in 160 pages.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. It started with a great chronology of human history and urbanization, and ended with a solid list of recommended reading, that in and of themselves were worth checking out the book. In between, the author provided a compact but dense and deft survey of the major trends in the evolution of cities.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's rare I wish a book were longer however this book is such a skimming of the topic that I kept wanting more information throughout but no here's Rome! Now here's Berlin! They exist and here's an interesting tidbit. Now on to the next city! Less a history of the city in human history than a quick intro to the major cities of the world. Would like a more in-depth study.

[Bill Glover · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are much better books about how cities grow and evolve. When I finished the book I had specific issues that Mr. Kotkin fumbled and blew. However, several months later I can’t remember a thing about it. Skip this one.

[Brian Kovesci · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's just something that didn't sit right with me about this book. It's only 160 pages, the emphasis stays on European subjects for most of the book (what about ancient ME cities?).. it just felt overly simplified and the macro arguments feel weak.

[Chris Devenney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Includes some interesting facts about the world's great civilizations but skims over 10,000 years of urban history in a fairly short book and left me wishing for a deeper dive into the more significant themes.

[Kevin Postlewaite · Rating 2 out of 5]

Talked more about how how some large cities were kinda involved in historical events but I wanted more understanding of how cities themselves changed in response to the events around them so I understood better whey cities are the way they are today.

[Alex Leong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative but dry. It's a quick and accessible overview of the history of urbanisation. Walls by David Frye should be your next read.

[Bruce Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Succinct and surprisingly readable, this book highlights the key role that cities have played in economic, spiritual and social life across history.

[Kevin Minus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was all over the place and annoyingly biased for a history book.

[Bradley Brill · Rating 2 out of 5]

Recorded Books production of 2005, this was nominally worthwhile, despite my keen interest in the subject matter.

[Yuvraaj Bhatter · Rating 4 out of 5]

had to read this for my history class but still loved the content.