This is a dazzling, globe-spanning history of humankind’s greatest invention: the city. From its earliest incarnations 7000 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. It is these world-changing, epoch-defining moments that are the focus of Ben Wilson’s book, as he takes us on a thrilling global tour of the key metropolises of history, from Urk, Athens, Alexandria and Rome, to Baghdad, Lbeck and Venice, to Lisbon, Amsterdam, London, Paris, New York, LA, Shanghai and Lagos.