The Evolution of Cities: Lessons from Humankind's Greatest Creation

In his recently released book, The City: A Global History, urbanist Joel Kotkin examines the evolution of cities and urban life over thousands of years. Kotkin highlights commonalities and important lessons to be learned from the establishment and growth of our cities. The City explores the religious roots of urbanism in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and China. Kotkin continues by studying the emergence of the Classical City; Byzantium and the cities of the Middle East; the rise of Venice and subsequent commercial city-empires; the Industrial City (from London to Shanghai to Detroit); and on to the post-industrial, suburban realities of today. He concludes with a shrewd diagnosis of the problems and crises facing cities in the 21st-Century.

Participants

• Joel Kotkin
  Irvine Senior Fellow, New America Foundation


• Sherle R. Schwenninger
  Director, Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program, New America Foundation