Weekly "what are you reading" Thread #79

To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers.

!bookworms

@Newvann can you pls

I'm finally about to finish Ben Wilson's Metropolis (yes, I stopped reading it halfway months ago an re took it this week and I forgot to post this rdrama thread because I was at the beach but today I arrived back at home ).

The book is prime !neolibs material covering the history of the cities since Ancient Mesopotamia while giving a decent emphasis to certain aspects of urban life such cosmopolitanism and as a place for exchange of ideas, but it also covers other interesting stuff like the importance of food trucks (food vendors have existed ancient times and Medieval Baghdad was famous for it, the book has an entire chapter dedicated to Baghdad during the peak of the Islamic Golden Age) or the evolution of recreational spaces such as public bathes and swimming areas (either pools or beaches) as areas for urban socialization regardless of class.

The chapter on 17th century Amsterdam is super interesting as is mentioned as the first global city which was "livable" and designed to improve the standards of it's inhabitants (a benefit of being a urbanized merchant republic in contrast to 1600s Paris and London which despite their status were massive slums with sanitation issues, but he later covers the rebirth of London after the 1666 fire and of course the Paris remodeling of the 19th century under Napoleon III and the Baron Heusmann), with proper cleaning (the people of Amsterdam kept their homes and lanes clean) and urban planning by local authorities.

Also 2 Brazilian cities, Curitiba and Porto Alegre, are mentioned positively by the author @BrasilIguana