From its earliest incarnations 7,000 years ago, to the megalopolises of today, the story of the city is the story of civilisation. Although cities have only ever been inhabited by a tiny minority of humanity, the heat they generate has sparked most of our political, social, commercial, scientific and artistic revolutions.
Join Ben Wilson as he takes us on a thrilling global tour of the key metropolises of history, from Urk, Athens and Alexandria to Baghdad, Lübeck, Lisbon, London, Paris, New York, Shanghai and Lagos, to chart some of these world-changing, epoch-defining moments.
Rich with individual characters, scenes and snapshots of daily life, Metropolis combines scholarship and storytelling giving us an engaging history of the world through an urban lens.
Ben Wilson is the author of the critically acclaimed books What Price Liberty?, for which he received the Somerset Maugham Award; the Sunday Times bestseller Empire of the Deep; and Heyday: The Dawn of the Global Age.
Join Ben Wilson as he takes us on a thrilling global tour of the key metropolises of history, from Urk, Athens and Alexandria to Baghdad, Lübeck, Lisbon, London, Paris, New York, Shanghai and Lagos, to chart some of these world-changing, epoch-defining moments.
Rich with individual characters, scenes and snapshots of daily life, Metropolis combines scholarship and storytelling giving us an engaging history of the world through an urban lens.
Ben Wilson is the author of the critically acclaimed books What Price Liberty?, for which he received the Somerset Maugham Award; the Sunday Times bestseller Empire of the Deep; and Heyday: The Dawn of the Global Age.