Metropolis

A captivating narrative journey through twenty-six world cities and across seven thousand years that shows how city living has sparked humankind's greatest innovations--from bestselling and award-winning historian Ben Wilson.

During the two hundred millennia we've been on the planet, nothing has shaped us more profoundly than the city. In a fascinating narrative that ranges through cities famous and forgotten, acclaimed historian Ben Wilson tells the glorious story of how urban living has allowed human culture to flourish. Beginning with Uruk, the world's first city, he shows that cities created such a blossoming of human endeavor--new professions, new forms of art, worship, and trade--that they kick-started civilization itself. Despite outbreaks of plague and… Keep Reading