Metropolis is an overview of city life through human civilization. It is a really excellent book on a subject that should be written about more. The author gives an overview of city life through the chronicles of ancient and modern cities and their populations. Ben Wilson starts with Mesopotamia and takes us all the way to Shanghai and Lagos and brings the reader into the life of the city inhabitant through human history, which has both changed magnificently but also not changed that much in purpose. It is entertaining, nostalgic and uplifting and being a person who has always lived in cities, found it comforting.
I really enjoyed Metropolis, there is much to get out of this book. There is history, economics, sociology and biology. When one steps back the city is a remarkable human construct that is a complex adaptive system of remarkable scale. Despite occasional ebbs and flows, city life is what an increasing part of human civilization is part of and the author reminds the reader of why. Reading through the descriptions of life in Athens and the Roman Baths and how such social infrastructure was installed throughout the empire reminds the reader that cities were built with human needs influencing city architectures. The author also highlights that when the opportunity of cities vs country side relatively improved cities could easily be overwhelmed by inflows of people leading to then affluent exodus to the suburbs. Such ebbs and flows have always been part of how cities are built. One learns of the difference between European and Asian and even Latin America city administration, with European having the worst hygiene. The author details how life expectancy and health was always worse in cities but still was attractive as it improved mobility and broadened the horizons of its inhabitants. The author gives the reader a tangible window into how despite the complications of dense living, human creativity is more easily brought to bloom in a city. The author also discusses how destroying a city is almost impossible with a chapter on the attempts to destroy cities during the WWII by both Allies and Axis, neither of which succeeded. The author highlights a key point which is that the buildings don't make up the city but the people do and their ability to regenerate the infrastructure can be remarkable. In particular one learns of how power was restored along with running water to fire bombed cities at great speed and how in cities like Hiroshima schools quickly recommenced. The book is filled with remarkable reminders of the resilience of populations in the face of adversity, of which cities are central examples. The author then moves on to concepts like suburbanization and the changing nature of how city populations desire more to be embedded in nature rather than replacing it. The case study of LA and its sprawling expanse is discussed with a lot of reference to modern culture and socio-economics. The author ends with a discussion of Lagos, one of the most undesirable cities to live in the world but is on a trajectory to be the largest city in the world over the next 20 years. The author brings up the top down model of city optimization, including the Chinese city growth model, but sides with the concept of the city as a living organism that will solve its own problems with the right administration rather than the administration making decisions on behalf of the population. The author then weaves back the need for city populations to live with nature rather than independent of it as an issue of ecology and how our ability to navigate climate change will be dependent on our ability to manage our resource usage which will depend on city life.
Overall Metropolis gives a perspective on city life through human civilization and how it has been a center of our heritage and a likely foundation of our future. It is entertaining and informative and filled with perspective that will be of interest to a wide audience. One will appreciate the relevance of the city more and the inevitability of evolution within cities as the needs of the populations change with changing circumstances. This is book is a must read for a wide audience.
Metropolis: A History of the City, Humankind's Greatest Invention
4.5 | 474 ratings
Price: 19.69
Last update: 02-24-2025
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A. MenonSynthesis of city life through human civilization with lessons on city administration for the future
BookloverBrilliant read: thought-provoking, informative and entertaining
Richard FyfeEasy to Read
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