Metropolis: a history of the city, humankind's greatest invention

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Publisher:
Doubleday
Publication Date:
[2020]
Edition:
First United States edition
Language:
English

Description

"From a brilliant young historian, a colourful journey through 7,000 years and twenty-six world cities that shows how urban living has been the spur and incubator to humankind's greatest innovations. In the two hundred millennia of our existence, nothing has shaped us more profoundly than the city. Ben Wilson, author of bestselling and award-winning books on British history, now tells the grand, glorious story of how city living has allowed human culture to flourish. Beginning in 5,000 BC with Uruk, the world's first city, immortalized in The Epic of Gilgamesh, he shows us that cities were never a necessity, but that once they existed, their density created such a blossoming of human endeavour--producing new professions, art forms, worship and trade--that they kickstarted civilization itself. Guiding readers through famous cities over 7,000 years, Wilson reveals the innovations driven by each: civics in the agora of Athens, global trade in 9th century Baghdad, finance in the coffeehouses of London, domestic comforts in the heart of Amsterdam, peacocking in Belle Epoque Paris. In the modern age, he studies the impact of verticality in New York City, the sprawl of LA and the eco-reimagining of 21st-century Shanghai. Lively, erudite, page-turning and irresistible, Metropolis is a grand tour of human endeavour"--

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ISBN:
9780385543460

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Grouping Information

Grouped Work ID7e63fc78-f71e-4947-ec37-615bd20cb6e1
Grouping Titlemetropolis a history of the city humankinds greatest invention
Grouping Authorben wilson
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2025-07-08 03:19:26AM
Last Indexed2025-07-08 03:21:39AM

Solr Fields

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Wilson, Ben, 1980-
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Wilson, Ben
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"From a brilliant young historian, a colourful journey through 7,000 years and twenty-six world cities that shows how urban living has been the spur and incubator to humankind's greatest innovations. In the two hundred millennia of our existence, nothing has shaped us more profoundly than the city. Ben Wilson, author of bestselling and award-winning books on British history, now tells the grand, glorious story of how city living has allowed human culture to flourish. Beginning in 5,000 BC with Uruk, the world's first city, immortalized in The Epic of Gilgamesh, he shows us that cities were never a necessity, but that once they existed, their density created such a blossoming of human endeavour--producing new professions, art forms, worship and trade--that they kickstarted civilization itself. Guiding readers through famous cities over 7,000 years, Wilson reveals the innovations driven by each: civics in the agora of Athens, global trade in 9th century Baghdad, finance in the coffeehouses of London, domestic comforts in the heart of Amsterdam, peacocking in Belle Epoque Paris. In the modern age, he studies the impact of verticality in New York City, the sprawl of LA and the eco-reimagining of 21st-century Shanghai. Lively, erudite, page-turning and irresistible, Metropolis is a grand tour of human endeavour"--
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Books
format_northbranford
Book
id
7e63fc78-f71e-4947-ec37-615bd20cb6e1
isbn
9780385543460
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ADULT BOOK
last_indexed
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-1
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Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
primary_isbn
9780385543460
publishDate
2020
publisher
Doubleday
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Cities and towns -- History
title_display
Metropolis : a history of the city, humankind's greatest invention
title_full
Metropolis : a history of the city, humankind's greatest invention / Ben Wilson
title_short
Metropolis
title_sub
a history of the city, humankind's greatest invention
topic_facet
Cities and towns
History

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ils:.b26606136BookBooksFirst United States editionEnglishDoubleday[2020]x, 442 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates (some color) : illustrations (some color), map ; 24 cm

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