Urban World History: An Economic and Geographical Perspective

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PUQ, 2009 - Social Science - 629 pages
Does the long history of urbanization present identifiable regularities through time and space? Are there long-run trends in the development process? In the complex evolution of human societies are there other determining factors than political decisions, statesmen, wars, economic crises, religions, races, cultures, languages, and sociological values? Is the geographical space a simple setting or a major element of the urban world's evolution? Those are some fundamental questions this book addresses in an original way that mixes historical facts, a world scope, an encyclopedic culture, reflections, and space-economic theory. From Çatalhöyük and Jericho to London, São Paulo, Los Angeles, Johannesburg, Shanghai and Tokyo, it reconstitutes the fascinating journey of the urban evolution.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Chapter 1 From the Beginning s of Agriculture and Urbanization to the First Urbexplosions
21
Chapter 2 Understandins the First Urban Revolution
113
The Roman and Chinese Empires
131
Chapter 4 Understanding the Dynamics of Urban Evolution
167
Islam Out to Conquer the Great and Asian Corridors
181
Chapter 6 Understanding Topodynamic Inertia
229
Europes Fight for Survival
243
Chapter 11 The Age of Automobile and the Triumph of the American Corridor
441
Chapter 12 Understanding Topodynamic Corridors
511
Chapter 13 Poles and Route s through History
521
Conclusion The Broad Patterns of History
549
Bibliography
563
Appendix 1 Tables of Demographic Evolution
575
Appendix 2 Cities by Types
593
Appendix 3 Silk Road Network Synthesis
601

Chapter 8 The Discovery of America and the Return in Strength of the Occident
297
Chapter 9 The Advent of Motorized Transportation and the Second Urban Revolution
351
Chapter 10 Understanding the Impact of Motorized Transportation
417

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