The Ideal City, attributed to Fra Carnevale, c. 1482. Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

The Ideal City, attributed to Fra Carnevale, c. 1482. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

The City

Volume III, Number 4 | fall 2010

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Painting of a sunlit plaza with people and a bell tower.

Preamble

City Light

By Lewis H. Lapham

When it comes to the medieval cathedral and mosque, the modern skyscraper and the slum, world history is city history.

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Painting of two statues in a grove of trees.

City of Seeds

By Daniel Mason

With an influx of people from all over the world, the city can become a hothouse for foreign flora.

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Map

City Narratives

The tumultuous histories of Algiers, Istanbul, Beijing, and Mexico City.

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1700 | London

Dens of Iniquity

Coffee talk with Thomas Brown.More

325 | Constantinople

Divine Plan

Constantine builds a city in his own image.More

1949 | Boston

Fare Hike

Trapped in the Boston subway.More

Charts & Graphs

Lost Cities

Destroyed but not forgotten.

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Black and white photograph of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig.

Black and white photograph of French writer and film director Marguerite Duras.

Former Prime Minister of United Kingdom Benjamin Disraeli.

Engraving of Roman author and administrator Pliny the Younger.

Photograph of Colin Dickey standing in front of a brick wall.

Photograph of Charles Baudelaire

American composer George Gershwin.

The country only has charms for those not obliged to stay there.

—Édouard Manet, c. 1860

Engraving of Roman author and administrator Pliny the Younger.

German sociologist and philosopher Georg Simmel.

Pliny the Younger & Georg Simmel

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