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Triumph of the City
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Triumph of the City

How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier

Edward L. Glaeser
Penguin Group (USA), 2011
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Editorial Rating

8

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  • Innovative

Recommendation

Harvard economics professor Edward Glaeser revels in cities. He loves the historical, cultural and economic forces that intersect to create cities, he loves what makes them fail or succeed, and he loves the collaborative exchange of ideas and energy that only cities offer. His wide-ranging, storytelling approach provides illustrative tales and resonant factoids, all in support of his main contention: Cities are healthier for people, economies and the environment than any other mode of living. Glaeser makes a strong, entertaining case as he travels around the world and through time. His episodic, anecdotal style both obscures and reveals his work’s intent. The evocative history he unearths makes his theoretical points with more force than his attempts to plainly state his concepts. In fact, his conjectured solutions to urban problems read as academic, and he offers no practical plans to translate them into action. But those are smaller issues within an amusing read. getAbstract recommends his welcome distillation of current thinking about cities to those who live in one, who might be considering living in one or who swear they never would.

Summary

Proximity in an Urban World

More than 50% of all people now live in cities. Urbanity can be harsh, but it endures because city space is necessary, fulfilling and efficient. People flock to the financial and cultural opportunities of cities. Despite expanding exurbs and myths of cottage living, 243 million Americans live in urban environments, covering only 3% of the nation’s land.

New York City’s harbor made the area a natural transportation hub, and it grew as such. The city’s fortunes fell as import-export business shifted to other harbor and railroad urban centers, and New York remade itself as a manufacturing city. When manufacturing became cheaper elsewhere, the city transformed once more, becoming a capital of information, and demonstrating a dominant component of a successful city: It brings diverse cultures and ideas together closely enough to collaborate. New York “introduces...the central paradox of the modern metropolis – proximity has become ever more valuable as the cost of connecting over long distances has fallen.” Though you can Skype with your business partner half a continent away, you need a city to connect to others who might inspire you.

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About the Author

Edward Glaeser is the Glimp Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

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