Cities by Smith and Perfect City by Berridge

With more than half the world’s population currently living in cities, the United Nations is projecting that proportion to grow to sixty-eight percent (over two-thirds of us) by 2050. Here are two recent books about cities:

CITIES: THE FIRST 6,000 YEARS by Monica L. Smith, an archaeologist and anthropologist on the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles, outlines the reasons for cities’ existence.  She focuses on consumption and materialism while also noting security, employment, entertainment, and diversity as important factors: “urban social life and the entrepreneurial spirit associated with migration constituted a feedback loop that enticed more and more people who were looking to better their circumstances.” Acknowledging the many problems associated with cities (e.g., pollution, noise, crime), Smith draws an intriguing parallel with “another phenomenon that has seemingly sprung out of nowhere and causes a good deal of trouble, yet has become thoroughly interwoven with our lives: the internet.” Given her background, however, the emphasis seems to be on why cities arose and less on how they have evolved. Although her last chapter does peer into the “next 6,000 years,” most of the text seems to be looking backwards. Smith specifically refers to life examples from ancient cities in order to note that “making our own cities better … is likely to involve investment in three things:” social awareness, socioeconomic hierarchies, and the spirit of consumption. CITIES: THE FIRST 6,000 YEARS contains notes and an index and was recently reviewed in The Wall Street Journal in “The Metropolis and the Masses.” 

PERFECT CITY is written by Joe Berridge, a self-described “urban mechanic” who is a partner at Urban Strategies and a Fellow of the University of Toronto's Munk School of Public Policy.  Berridge begins by saying there is no such thing as a perfect city, but he acknowledges their collective importance and says that “they now rival nation states as the places where the social, economic, environmental and political future of the planet will be resolved.” Describing cities as “machines for moving things around,” he then devotes a chapter to the influence of Jane Jacobs (The Death and Life of Great American Cities) whom he met while living in Toronto. Berridge provides a “world urban tour,” chronicling his travels, his impressions, and urban projects in subsequent chapters centered on large international metropolitan areas (New York, Singapore, London, Manchester, Belfast, Toronto, Sydney and Shanghai). In the final chapter he once again notes the long-standing arguments between adherents of Jacobs and Robert Moses, then summarizes questions for the future based on his own “Urban Fixer's Global Search for Magic in the Modern Metropolis.” Of potential interest to students considering a career in urban planning, Berridge’s text is very readable and filled with stories, sentiment and some sweeping statements. Overall, it seems more akin to a travelogue than a book on public policy (he does raise concerns and issues), and although Berridge offers an index there is little help for researchers in terms of notes or bibliography. 

The Design of Childhood by Alexandra Lange

I am looking forward to having THE DESIGN OF CHILDHOOD by Alexandra Lange on our shelves soon. This very interesting text was written by an architecture and design critic who clearly loves history and children. As the subtitle notes, the text explores “how the material world shapes independent kids.” Lange views a child’s world (filled with stuff) as an ever-expanding environment, growing from building blocks to their house to school to neighborhoods and urban centers. She therefore writes about toys (noting parallels from blocks to Legos to Minecraft), about classroom chairs and desks and about parks and playgrounds. The tone is quite conversational and engaging throughout as she weaves in the changing theories about raising children.

It is clear that this book will be of interest to parents and educators. I also think our students taking AP Psych and/or Child Development will certainly be intrigued by this text.  There are many more, though, who will definitely enjoy her description of some of our local architecture, particularly Crow Island School which is a nationally recognized landmark building.  Designed with growing children in mind (the benches in the auditorium are in graduated sizes, for example), the building and staff evoke fond memories for many of our current students.

More non-fiction titles ...

Here, I will describe several new non-fiction books. I have grouped them together because I think that many of these will interest our students, particlularly those working on their Junior Theme research.

TRUTH by Hector Macdonald (March 6, 2018; Little, Brown and Company) is, of course, extremely timely and will add to a number of books already in our collection which deal with Psychology, Critical Thinking, Journalism or Mass Media, Objectivity and Bias. Macdonald subtitles his text “How the Many Sides to Every Story Shape Our Reality” and takes a somewhat unusual stand in arguing that truth actually comes in many forms.  His book is divided into sections titled: Partial truths, Subjective truths, Artificial Truths, and Unknown truths. In each case, he provides examples; these range from the fad of consuming quinoa to King George VI’s speech at the beginning of WWII to pamphlets produced by the Texas Department of State Health Services.  At one point, Macdonald notes that Orwell’s “fears for the integrity of the truth are turning out to be well-founded but misdirected. It is not simply that we are being lied to; the more insidious problem is that we are routinely misled by the truth.” He describes three types of communicators: advocates, misinformers and misleaders, where the latter are deliberately trying to “deploy competing truths to create an impression of reality that they know is not true.”  This lack of black vs. white and true vs false is a difficult concept for our students and I believe that TRUTH with its many business stories (involving labeling, advertising and motivation) will be a popular resource, especially since teachers have often asked us to teach about “fake news” and misinformation while limiting political examples. 

THE SUSTAINABLE CITY by Steven Cohen (Nov. 2017; Columbia UP) is a scholarly work that looks at “the sustainable city from an organizational and public policy perspective.”  Cohen has divided the book into three parts: Concepts, Cases and Conclusions. He defines a sustainable city as one which “facilitates human economic (production and consumption) and social life with the least possible impact on the environment.” He looks at several systems (energy, water, waste, sewage, food, transport and public space) and devotes a chapter to examining the role of local and state governments in setting policy.  His case studies are fascinating, including those from the US, China, Columbia, Japan and Africa. Cohen, a professor at Columbia, is honest enough to say, “While I am confident that the transition to a sustainable and renewable economy will take place in the world’s cities, I am far from confident that I understand how the change will take place.” He calls for more research, discussion and analysis, all of which should appeal to our students interested in the rapidly urbanizing world and related environmental concerns.

 

MELTDOWN by Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik (March 20; Penguin Press) provides an intriguing look at “Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It.”  The authors (a pilot/former derivatives trader and a business professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management), discuss how as systems become increasingly complex and more tightly coupled they are also more prone to failure.  In an engaging, readable way they freshen the mid-80s work of social scientist Charles Perrow with many current day examples (an airliner crash, VW emissions scandal, and the Oscars mix-up among others ). Another connection I made was to Levine’s and Stark’s 2015 op-ed on “Diversity Makes you Brighter.” MELTDOWN  raises awareness of important issues and is likely to appeal especially to fans of writing by Charles Duhigg, Adam Grant and Daniel Pink, all of whom have posted positive review comments. On that side note; mark your calendars: Daniel Pink will be speaking locally in April and I will post those details soon.

The last two books which I will mention briefly deal with international affairs and foreign policy. Again, I can readily see their appeal for students pursuing those topics for Junior Theme. THE RETURN OF MARCO POLO'S WORLD by best-selling author Robert D. Kaplan (March 6, Random House) examines the interplay between cultures and economics/trade through a series of essays.  Kaplan is known as a strategic thinker and while the execution seemed a bit dry at times, the subject matter is fascinating and his text received a starred review from Kirkus. EMPIRE IN RETREAT by Victor Bulmer-Thomas (March 27; Yale University Press) is subtitled, “The past, present and future of the Unites States.”  Bulmer-Thomas provides a thorough review of “empire,” American imperialism, and potential changes in world leadership/standing. One aspect I particularly liked was his discussion of soft, hard and smart power. This is clearly a more scholarly approach, but those are concepts that I found students to be very curious about this year.

Please let us know if you have a non-fiction title to suggest for purchase.