In <strong>Cities</strong> the acclaimed historian John Reader takes us on a journey of thecityfrom its earliest example in the Ancient Near East to todays teem... » 

In Cities the acclaimed historian John Reader takes us on a journey of thecityfrom its earliest example in the Ancient Near East to todays teemingcenters of compressed existence such as Mumbai and Tokyo. Cities are home tohalf the planets population and consume nearly threequarters of its naturalresources. For Reader they are our most natural artifacts the civic spirit ofour collective ingenuity. He gives us the ecological and functional context ofhow cities evolved throughout human historythe connection between potterymaking and childbirth in ancient Anatolia plumbing and politics in ancientRome and revolution and street planning in nineteenthcentury Paris. Thisilluminating study helps us to understand how urban centers thrive declineand rise againand prepares us for the role cities will play in the future. «