Cities Capitalism And Civilization

Cities, Capitalism and Civilization looks at the character and distinctiveness of Western Civilization. R.J. Holton sets out to challenge the belief that cities and urban social classes have formed the main component of the advance of civilization, and the principle dynamic of Western capitalism. This book was first published in 1986.

In what ways are cities central to the evolution of contemporary global capitalism? And in what ways is global capitalism forged by the urban experience? This book provides a response to these questions, exploring the multifaceted dimensions of the city-capitalism nexus. Drawing on a wide range of conceptual approaches, including political economy, neo-institutionalism and radical political theory, this insightful book examines the complex relationships between contemporary capitalist cities and key forces of our times, such as globalization and neoliberalism. Taking a truly global perspective, Ugo Rossi offers a comparative analysis of the ways in which urban economies and societies reflect and at the same time act as engines of global capitalism. Ultimately, this book shows how over the past three decades capitalism has shifted a gear – no longer merely incorporating key aspects of society into its system, but encompassing everything, including life itself – and illustrates how cities play a central role within this life-oriented construction of global capitalism.

Using the theoretical tools drawn from historical materialism and deconstruction, Tzouvala offers a comprehensive history of the standard of civilisation.

Front cover images: Bob Hawke, ACTU Congress, 15 September 1979 (Fairfax, © Michael Rayner); Gough Whitlam on the steps of Parliament House, 11 November 1975 (Australian Labor Party); Paul Keating, National Press Club, March 1996 Election Campaign (Newspix); John Curtin, wartime rally, 1942 (Fairfax).Graham Freudenberg, Australia's greatest speechwriter, says "the Australian Labor Party was built on speeches." This book brings together great Labor speeches which give voice to the party's enduring values and achievements, and place it and its principal figures at the centre of historic events.There are speeches that stir the imagination and inspire, speeches that appeal to humanity, speeches of sorrow and redemption, speeches that urge moderation and caution, speeches that call for courage in the face of adversity, speeches that seek to mute the trumpet sound of war, speeches that attack the forces of conservatism, and speeches which celebrate and mourn the party's fallen.Chris Watson articulates Labor's purpose as "a light upon a mountain" - four decades beforeBen Chifley's famed "light on the hill" speech John Curtin tells a hushed parliament that "a great naval battle is proceeding"Gough Whitlam declares "It's time" for a new Labor governmentBob Hawke's urges South Africa's apartheid leaders to listen to "the spirit of men and women yearning to be free"Paul Keating's belief in Labor as "the people who can dream the big dreams and do the big things"Kevin Rudd says "We are Sorry" to the stolen generations of Aboriginal AustraliansClip from the author, reproduced with permission from The Australian:http://video.theaustralian.com.au/2305217661/Labors-greatest-speeches

By examining in detail the material life of pre-industrial peoples around the world, Fernand Braudel significantly changed the way historians view their subject. Originally published in the early 1980s, Civilization traces the social and economic history of the world from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution, although his primary focus is Europe. Braudel skims over politics, wars, etc., in favor of examining life at the grass roots: food, drink, clothing, housing, town markets, money, credit, technology, the growth of towns and cities, and more. Volume I describes food and drink, dress and housing, demography and family structure, energy and technology, money and credit, and the growth of towns.

One of The Washington Post's "Favorite Books of 2013" A pioneering exploration of four cities where East meets West and past becomes future: St. Petersburg, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dubai. Every month, five million people move from the past to the future. Pouring into developing-world “instant cities” like Dubai and Shenzhen, these urban newcomers confront a modern world cobbled together from fragments of a West they have never seen. Do these fantastical boomtowns, where blueprints spring to life overnight on virgin land, represent the dawning of a brave new world? Or is their vaunted newness a mirage? In a captivating blend of history and reportage, Daniel Brook travels to a series of major metropolitan hubs that were once themselves instant cities— St. Petersburg, Shanghai, and Mumbai—to watch their “dress rehearsals for the twenty-first century.” Understanding today’s emerging global order, he argues, requires comprehending the West’s profound and conflicted influence on developing-world cities over the centuries. In 1703, Tsar Peter the Great personally oversaw the construction of a new Russian capital, a “window on the West” carefully modeled on Amsterdam, that he believed would wrench Russia into the modern world. In the nineteenth century, Shanghai became the fastest-growing city on earth as it mushroomed into an English-speaking, Western-looking metropolis that just happened to be in the Far East. Meanwhile, Bombay, the cosmopolitan hub of the British Raj, morphed into a tropical London at the hands of its pith-helmeted imperialists. Juxtaposing the stories of the architects and authoritarians, the artists and revolutionaries who seized the reins to transform each of these precociously modern places into avatars of the global future, Brook demonstrates that the drive for modernization was initially conflated with wholesale Westernization. He shows, too, the ambiguous legacy of that emulation—the birth (and rebirth) of Chinese capitalism in Shanghai, the origins of Bollywood in Bombay’s American-style movie palaces, the combustible mix of revolutionary culture and politics that rocked the Russian capital—and how it may be transcended today. A fascinating, vivid look from the past out toward the horizon, A History of Future Cities is both a crucial reminder of globalization’s long march and an inspiring look into the possibilities of our Asian Century.

The city's development from ancient times to the modern age. Winner of the National Book Award. "One of the major works of scholarship of the twentieth century" (Christian Science Monitor). Index; illustrations.