Cities

Turning his attention away from his seminal work, "Africa," Reader reveals how cities came to be, what made them thrive, how they declined, and how they remade themselves. He debunks long-held theories and shows that the first cities, and that even though three thousand years separated Imperial Rome from the Sumerian cities, evidence shows that their everyday lives were similar and has something in common with our lives today. Investigating cities' parasitic relationship with the countryside, the webs of trade, and how they feed and water themselves and dispose of their wastes, Reader provides a marvelous tour guide through these "defining artifacts of civilization."