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reading_with_matt's review
informative
slow-paced
3.25
A Mixed Bag of Historical Snapshots
The Great Cities in History", edited by John Julius Norwich, offers a diverse collection of snapshots depicting some of the world's most prominent cities at their zenith. Each chapter provides a glimpse into the glory days of these urban centers, showcasing their cultural, political, and economic significance.
While the concept of the book is intriguing, its execution leaves something to be desired. The brevity of each snapshot often leaves the reader wanting more, craving a deeper exploration of each city's history. Additionally, the language used can be overly technical at times, making certain sections challenging to digest.
However, despite its shortcomings, there are moments of brilliance within these pages. The insights provided shed light on lesser-known aspects of these cities' pasts, offering fresh perspectives to even the most seasoned history enthusiasts.
In conclusion, "The Great Cities in History" is a worthwhile read for those interested in delving into the rise and fall of civilization's urban hubs. While it may not provide the depth some readers seek, it serves as a valuable introduction to the rich tapestry of human history woven within these great cities.
The Great Cities in History", edited by John Julius Norwich, offers a diverse collection of snapshots depicting some of the world's most prominent cities at their zenith. Each chapter provides a glimpse into the glory days of these urban centers, showcasing their cultural, political, and economic significance.
While the concept of the book is intriguing, its execution leaves something to be desired. The brevity of each snapshot often leaves the reader wanting more, craving a deeper exploration of each city's history. Additionally, the language used can be overly technical at times, making certain sections challenging to digest.
However, despite its shortcomings, there are moments of brilliance within these pages. The insights provided shed light on lesser-known aspects of these cities' pasts, offering fresh perspectives to even the most seasoned history enthusiasts.
In conclusion, "The Great Cities in History" is a worthwhile read for those interested in delving into the rise and fall of civilization's urban hubs. While it may not provide the depth some readers seek, it serves as a valuable introduction to the rich tapestry of human history woven within these great cities.
torneoluna's review against another edition
3.0
Be aware that this a compilation of entries about cities by different authors and historians who are familiar with the city they cover. It is split into 5 unique time periods with the placement of cities falling into these.
While this is a great idea for a book, the execution leaves much to be desired. As others have mentioned, many of the cities are covered in about 2.5-5 pages. The more “important” ones are typically longer and even have multiple entries under different time periods such as Paris, London, and Istanbul. New York has two entries following each other in the same time period. Towards the modern era, the list gets very eurocentric with Latin American and Asian cities receiving less coverage. There are no African cities listed past Timbuktu (medieval section).
The quality of these entries depends on the authors. Some focus on the actual history of the cities, their culture, and people— these are very enjoyable. A lot do feel like just a rundown of the biggest architectural sites, places, and famous people in the cities. São Paulo’s entry is literally 90% about Paulista Avenue.
The selection is also a little confusing. Why confine it to just these cities? A didn’t really need to hear about Budapest, Lübeck, or Stockholm. But I WOULD have liked to hear about cities like Cape Town, Hong Kong, or San Francisco. I also don’t really think either Paris or London needed two entries. Istanbul was understandable.
Again, there are so many interesting cities this book misses out on, aside from the ones I just mentioned. What about New Orleans, Madrid, Naples, Munich, Vladivostok, Calcutta, Kinshasa, Lagos, Johannesburg, Seoul, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh, Rio de Janeiro, Port-au-Prince, Havana, Bogotá, etc?
Lot of missed potential but still an interesting book to pick up once and a while.
While this is a great idea for a book, the execution leaves much to be desired. As others have mentioned, many of the cities are covered in about 2.5-5 pages. The more “important” ones are typically longer and even have multiple entries under different time periods such as Paris, London, and Istanbul. New York has two entries following each other in the same time period. Towards the modern era, the list gets very eurocentric with Latin American and Asian cities receiving less coverage. There are no African cities listed past Timbuktu (medieval section).
The quality of these entries depends on the authors. Some focus on the actual history of the cities, their culture, and people— these are very enjoyable. A lot do feel like just a rundown of the biggest architectural sites, places, and famous people in the cities. São Paulo’s entry is literally 90% about Paulista Avenue.
The selection is also a little confusing. Why confine it to just these cities? A didn’t really need to hear about Budapest, Lübeck, or Stockholm. But I WOULD have liked to hear about cities like Cape Town, Hong Kong, or San Francisco. I also don’t really think either Paris or London needed two entries. Istanbul was understandable.
Again, there are so many interesting cities this book misses out on, aside from the ones I just mentioned. What about New Orleans, Madrid, Naples, Munich, Vladivostok, Calcutta, Kinshasa, Lagos, Johannesburg, Seoul, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh, Rio de Janeiro, Port-au-Prince, Havana, Bogotá, etc?
Lot of missed potential but still an interesting book to pick up once and a while.
posthumusly's review against another edition
3.0
This book splits the great cities in history into different time periods. I thought that the writing was interesting, but the amount of cities included was much too high. Some cities only had 2-3 pages written on them, which was much too brief. It would have been better to have less cities and more in depth/interesting blurbs.
emmavanweert's review against another edition
4.0
It made me realise how many cities I still have to visit.
cupiscent's review
informative
medium-paced
3.0
An interesting collection of tiny introductory snippets of various places. I admit, I mostly used this as a tasting platter to find topics for further reading, but many of the little pieces were interesting in their own right. (I particularly found the Sydney write-up fascinating, for what was chosen and what was left out.) The paucity of authors native to the non-Euro cities being written about was a bit of a Choice.
libbybruten's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
This is an interesting book but is written by numerous different authors. This meant the book was quite hard to get into because the voice kept changing. I appreciate it needed different authors for research purposes I just don’t like books like this.
annagrac's review against another edition
4.0
This is a collection of essays by various historians on great cities of the past with brief introductions to each era. The essays vary in length from 3 pages to 10ish. They also vary in quality - some authors producing highly insightful and entertaining summaries of hundreds of years of history, others taking inspiration from a Lonely Planet guide introduction.
I recommend this book for two reasons - firstly, the insight that it provides into how cities rise and fall and how power has shifted; secondly, this book gives an opportunity to try out over 50 historians to see if you like their writing style. There are a couple of historians whose books I shall now steer clear of and a few (e.g. A N Wilson and Adam Zamoyski) that I would like to read more from.
I recommend this book for two reasons - firstly, the insight that it provides into how cities rise and fall and how power has shifted; secondly, this book gives an opportunity to try out over 50 historians to see if you like their writing style. There are a couple of historians whose books I shall now steer clear of and a few (e.g. A N Wilson and Adam Zamoyski) that I would like to read more from.
abeanbg's review
4.0
I didn't really learn much and this is very Euro-centric, but it still made for an engaging read. Good coffee table book material.