There are just two points I’d like to take issue with the authors and editors of this topical and otherwise beautifully written book about. Both relate to the front cover and are therefore hard to ignore – the title and the subtitle, both of which strike me as vague and potentially misleading.
Let me explain. ‘Age’ is a polysemantic word that can mean, among other things, an epoch or era as well as duration or length of life. ‘Age of the City’, therefore, constitutes a classic, if unintended, double entendre – not a welcome thing on a book’s front cover. The authors must have had the former meaning (‘era’) in mind, but the title can be easily misconstrued as referring solely to the cities’ history. And whereas ‘Age of the City’ (Bloomsbury Continuum, £20, ISBN 9781399406147) does offer a short, yet entertaining and informative, excursion into the origin of cities, starting with Mesopotamia’s Uruk around 3500 BCE in the chapter ‘Engines of Progress’, its...