'This brilliant book, with its unique conceptual structure, accessible writing and innovative chapter format, featuring a kaleidoscope of ''insights'' from cities around the world, provides a comprehensive and succinct synthesis of Peter Taylor's unrivalled and systematic urban scholarship. The masterpiece checks off all registers of urban studies as we know them and still provides a pathbreaking perspective on one of humanity's oldest and most enduring achievements: the city.'

- - Roger Keil, York University, Canada,

'Peter Taylor's insightful new book provides an informed synopsis of current debates in urban theory while also taking the reader on a whirlwind tour of actual cities around the world at different historical moments. Theoretical ideas and empirical information are presented with admirable force and clarity. A notable strength of the book is the extended narratives on individual cities that accompany each chapter.'

- - Allen J. Scott, University of California, Los Angeles, US,