The Unhurried City

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With case studies in each chapter focusing on specific cities, and including maps and photographs, this book is a comprehensive survey of urbanization in South Asia during the last 5000 years.

Arguing that classic geographical descriptions of the city fail to accomodate the crucial aspect of human life, this visualizes the city through the hopes, aspirations, disappointments and pains of international novelists and creative writers.

Globalization, Modernity and The City weaves together broad social themes with detailed urban analysis to explore the connections between the rise of big cities, the creation of a global network and the making of the modern world. It explains the growth of big cities, the urban bias of global flows and the creation of metropolitan modernities. The text develops broad theories of the subtle and complex interactions between urbanization, globalization and modernization in a sweep of the urban experience across the modern world. Thematic chapters explore the making of the modern city in profiles of the growth of urban spectaculars, the role of new flanerie, the traffic issues of the modernist city, recurring issues of urban utopias and the rise of the primate city.

The Tamil Brahmans were a traditional, mainly rural, high-caste elite who have been transformed into a modern, urban, middle-class community since the late nineteenth century. Many Tamil Brahmans today are in professional and managerial occupations, such as engineering and information technology; most of them live in Chennai and other Tamilnadu towns, but others have migrated to the rest of India and overseas. This book, which is mainly based on the authors ethnographic research, describes and analyses this transformation. It is also a study of how and why the Tamil Brahmans privileged status within a hierarchical society has been perpetuated in the face of both a strong anti-Brahman movement in Tamilnadu, and a series of wider social, cultural, economic, political, and ideological changes that might have been expected to undermine their position completely. The major topics discussed include Brahman rural society, urban migration and urban ways of life, education and employment, the position of women, and religion and culture. The Tamil Brahmans class position, including the internal division into the upper- and lower-middle classes, and the process of class reproduction, are examined closely to analyze the congruence between Tamil Brahmanhood and middle classness, which as comparison with other Brahman and non-Brahman groups shows is highly unusual in contemporary India."

Taming the Oriental Bazaar examines the public market-hall as a key architectural feature of colonial South Asia. Representing a transition in the architectural programme, these buildings were meant to be monuments and markers of modernity in South Asia. The book: Explores how market-halls became an essential feature of colonial settlements from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries Discusses public health policies and legislations central to the concerns of market-hall sanitation Reviews the elements of modernity, including institutions and systems established in the nineteenth century as India went from Company to Crown Studies the specific circumstances and histories of market halls in the towns and cities of Bengaluru, Vadodara, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Karachi, Lahore, Chennai, Pune, and others A key text in the study of colonial architecture, this book will be of interest to students, researchers as well as general readers of architecture, colonialism, history of architecture, history of medicine, public health, urbanism, and South Asian studies.

World's Greatest Cities is an illuminating visual guide to 30 incredible cities around the globe—with annotated 3-D reconstructions and cutaway models that allow you to journey right to the soul of each of them. For thousands of years, cities built by humans have reflected their beliefs, their power, their needs, and their desires. Palaces and prisons, churches and mosques, skyscrapers and suspension bridges are the tracks that history, sometimes glorious, often violent, imprints on these cities. But these cities are also the men and women who inhabit them and who stamp a unique character onto each of them. The spirit of each city is also etched in the daily coming and going of the streets, the hustle and bustle of the markets, and in the unhurried discussions of the cafés. Explore the cities of the world today that leave a lasting impression on those who visit them. These cities offer rich architectural heritage and spectacular natural environments. But above all, they have a vitality that makes them unique. They are cities that know how to grow, transform, and reinvent themselves without losing their essence. Feel the heartbeat of the most vibrant and exciting cities around the globe. Skyscrapers, alongside ancient marvels, are beautifully illustrated and perfectly complement the engaging text that describes the creation and history of these celebrated destinations. Cities dissected are Paris, San Francisco, New York; City, Toronto, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro , London, Barcelona, Rome, Venice, Vienna, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Prague, Athens, Moscow, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Dubai, Sydney, Auckland, Cairo, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and all of their landmark sites.

The matriarch of a remarkable African American family, Sally Thomas went from being a slave on a tobacco plantation to a "virtually free" slave who ran her own business and purchased one of her sons out of bondage. In Search of the Promised Land offers a vivid portrait of the extended Thomas-Rapier family and of slave life before the Civil War. Based on personal letters and an autobiography by one of Thomas' sons, this remarkable piece of detective work follows the family as they walk the boundary between slave and free, traveling across the country in search of a "promised land" where African Americans would be treated with respect. Their record of these journeys provides a vibrant picture of antebellum America, ranging from New Orleans to St. Louis to the Overland Trail. The authors weave a compelling narrative that illuminates the larger themes of slavery and freedom while examining the family's experiences with the California Gold Rush, Civil War battles, and steamboat adventures. The documents show how the Thomas-Rapier kin bore witness to the full gamut of slavery--from brutal punishment, runaways, and the breakup of slave families to miscegenation, insurrection panics, and slave patrols. The book also exposes the hidden lives of "virtually free" slaves, who maintained close relationships with whites, maneuvered within the system, and gained a large measure of autonomy.