Eric Kaufmann
Planting the Urban Jungle
A History of Future Cities
By Daniel Brook
W W Norton 457pp £20
The acronym BRIC has always struck me as odd, lumping together dynamic, rising Brazil, China and India with Russia, a demographically shrinking kleptocracy reliant on natural resources. In A History of Future Cities, Daniel Brook makes a more sensible move, tossing Russia and Chindia together with a twist of Dubai to create a mouth-watering, architecturally tinged work of urban history.
Brook’s entertaining book is less a thesis than a rich description of the social and architectural fabric of four cities: St Petersburg, Shanghai, Mumbai and Dubai. At bottom it is a work of urbanism in which art and science shake hands. In the tradition of Walter Benjamin, urbanism blends storytelling
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
It is a triumph @arthistorynews and my review @Lit_Review is here!
In just thirteen years, George Villiers rose from plain squire to become the only duke in England and the most powerful politician in the land. Does a new biography finally unravel the secrets of his success?
John Adamson investigates.
John Adamson - Love Island with Ruffs
John Adamson: Love Island with Ruffs - The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
literaryreview.co.uk
During the 1930s, Winston Churchill retired to Chartwell, his Tudor-style country house in Kent, where he plotted a return to power.
Richard Vinen asks whether it’s time to rename the decade long regarded as Churchill’s ‘wilderness years’.
Richard Vinen - Croquet & Conspiracy
Richard Vinen: Croquet & Conspiracy - Churchill’s Citadel: Chartwell and the Gatherings Before the Storm by Katherine Carter
literaryreview.co.uk