{"product_id":"9780385690980","title":"Metropolis","description":"\u003cb\u003eA captivating narrative journey through twenty-six world cities and  across seven thousand years that shows how city living has sparked  humankind's greatest innovations--from bestselling and award-winning historian Ben Wilson.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuring the two hundred millennia we've been on the planet, nothing has  shaped us more profoundly than the city. In a fascinating narrative that  ranges through cities famous and forgotten, acclaimed historian Ben  Wilson tells the glorious story of how urban living has allowed human  culture to flourish. Beginning with Uruk, the world's first city, he  shows that cities created such a blossoming of human endeavor--new  professions, new forms of art, worship, and trade--that they  kick-started civilization itself. Despite outbreaks of plague and war,  and outlasting empires, the city endured and new cities sprang up to  capture the inimitable energy of human beings together.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWilson  reveals the innovations nurturned amid the density of urban centers  over the centuries: civics in the agora of Athens, global trade in  ninth-century Baghdad, finance in the coffeehouses of London, domestic  comforts in the heart of Amsterdam, peacocking in Belle Epoque Paris. In  the modern age, the skyscrapers of New York City inspired utopian  visions of community design, while the trees of twenty-first-century  Seattle and Shanghai point to a sustainable future in the age of climate  change. Page turning and irresistible, \u003ci\u003eMetropolis\u003c\/i\u003e is a history of cities that is also a history of how humanity lives.","brand":"Ben Wilson","offers":[{"title":"Doubleday Canada |  Paperback \/ softback | Trade paperback (US) |  2021-10-12","offer_id":44151544021247,"sku":"9780385690980","price":24.95,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/products\/BNCImageAPI_9a6b47b4-d9c4-44aa-a585-270b37c5c41c.jpg?v=1635737957","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9780385690980","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}