May 20, In gentle rebuke to those who never saw the good side of a city, urbanist and commentator Kotkin (The New Geography, , etc.) looks at the. 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. The City has ratings and 49 reviews. Fredösphere said: This was enjoyable as a driving-around audio book. My interest is in civic design–what works.
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Jan 21, Maia rated it really liked it Shelves: Very kotkkin history of The City, from the first recorded city of Ur through the cities of each developing country on each continent, and spreading to America — NY, Detroit, Chicago, etc. He concludes with a shrewd diagnosis of the problems and crises facing cities in the 21st-Century.
The author has a bit of a grudge against early Christians for being hostile to earthly cities because of their loyalty to heavenly cities, but such an antichristian bias is lamentably jooel, as is the fact that the author is deeply critical of both the tendencies towards suburbanization that are present around the world and the attempts at cities to attract hipster residents without seeking to appeal to those with familial and commercial loyalties to a given city as opposed to merely a cultural one [1].
Jul 12, Matthew rated it liked it Shelves: From the Hardcover edition. The author writes plainly, a style I enjoy. In an effort to give some kind of perspective to an otherwise poorly written book, the author writes an introduction and conclusion – mostly personal opinions – about what he thinks the book conveys.
Kotkin lays out his theory of what constitutes a successful city: Other editions – View all The City: Preview — The City by Joel Kotkin.
Meditations on the City is the first Urbanophile e-book, featuring provocative essays on the key issues facing our cities, including innovation, talent attraction and brain drain, global soft power, sustainability, economic development, and localism. The author has opinions, which are clearly stated. He ends with his insightful thoughts on the recipe for success; while many declining cities focus on becoming cultural meccas, history shows art runs into economically vibrant cities, not the other way around.
From Babylon and Rome to London, New York and Tokyo, Joel Kotkin examines the evolution of urban life over the millennia in order to establish what made – and makes – a city great. This is an easy-to-read overview of the invention and growth of cities. Apr 07, Rhesa marked it as to-read Shelves: Looking for More Great Reads?
Bill Steigerwald Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
He recommends conur This concise history of cities, from early civilization’s Uruk to Mumbai, Lagos and Houston, flows in lucid and cogent writing. 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 te 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.
The City: A Global History by Joel Kotkin
I gained an appreciation for Tokyo’s role in the industrialization of Japan, and the disruptive effect upon German culture by the kotkih growth of Berlin. This was a good quick read on cities and their evolution and things that make them successful. The author also provides a chronological overview of how different cities emerged and later declined. I think the book could have been so much more enriching with a more thorough discussion of the subject.
It does provide an outline of the development of The City as a human artifact. The author relies too much on the word “vast”. Urbanism for the Rest of UsTribes: He koel currently serving as a guest lecturer at Singapore’s Civil Service College.
Jol I’m eager to see is how the author address the issue of social dynamics found in every civilization with those 3 criterium. Europeans who come here are delighted by our suburbs.
Maybe great cities succeed or fail due to forces no one really understands. Co-authored by Ian Abley Millennial Momentum: Think Civilization instead of SimCity.
R The author writes plainly, a style I enjoy. Jul 10, Liam rated it really liked it. Mar 25, Luke rated it liked it.
Joel Kotkin
Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism’s yearlong study of the future of suburban development. I think the book could have been so much more enriching with a more thorough discussion of This book was recommended to me by one of my professors in college.
Given that the author is quick to praise the city-building of such diverse peoples as the pagan Phoenecians, medieval Muslims, and contemporary Chinese, and also quick to point out that for cities to endure there needs to be security, a thriving commercial life that allows for a good standard of living for citizens, as well as sacred space that provides a sense of belonging and rootedness.
Unfortunately, this broad scale means that the book can only offer a brief introduction to each city and its development history. He also serves as executive editor of yhe website www. The author also spoke of how each city, joe, be successful, needs cityy pillars of Safety, Sacredness, and Busy-ness. Lacks any sort of common theme; very anecdotal for a history book.
Questions?
Featured Kootkin View all subjects. City Journal is a publication of Manhattan Institute. By these standards, contemporary cities fail miserably, and the author is quick tue note the many ways they fail—by catering to a faddish elite, by failing to provide basic infrastructure for citizens or any sort of hope at good wages or safety, and by failing to provide any sort of spiritual core, which the author is only concerned exists in some fashion as he is not a believer in any meaningful sense.
As mentioned by Kotkin, the primary purpose of this book is to attract people In only pages, the book covers a very broad temporal and geographical scale: Stay in Touch Sign up.