A Country of Cities

A Country of Cities
Author: Vishaan Chakrabarti
Publisher:
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2013
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781935202172

In A Country of Cities, author Vishaan Chakrabarti argues that well-designed cities are the key to solving America's great national challenges: environmental degradation, unsustainable consumption, economic stagnation, rising public health costs and decreased social mobility. If we develop them wisely in the future, our cities can be the force leading us into a new era of progressive and prosperous stewardship of our nation. In compelling chapters, Chakrabarti brings us a wealth of information about cities, suburbs and exurbs, looking at how they developed across the 50 states and their roles in prosperity and globalization, sustainability and resilience, and heath and joy. Counter to what you might think, American cities today are growing faster than their suburban counterparts for the first time since the 1920s. If we can intelligently increase the density of our cities as they grow and build the transit systems, schools, parks and other infrastructure to support them, Chakrabarti shows us how both job opportunities and an improved, sustainable environment are truly within our means. In this call for an urban America, he illustrates his argument with numerous infographics illustrating provocative statistics on issues as disparate as rising childhood obesity rates, ever-lengthening automobile commutes and government subsidies that favor highways over mass transit. The book closes with an eloquent manifesto that rallies us to build "a Country of Cities," to turn a country of highways, houses and hedges into a country of trains, towers and trees. Vishaan Chakrabarti is an architect, scholar and founder of PAU. PAU designs architecture that builds the physical, cultural, and economic networks of cities, with an emphasis on beauty, function and user experience. PAU simultaneously advances strategic urbanism projects in the form of master planning, tactical project advice and advocacy.

Town & Country: The Queen

Town & Country: The Queen
Author: Victoria Murphy
Publisher: Hearst Home & Hearst Home Kids
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2021-04-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1950785092

“Queen Elizabeth II once said, ‘I have to be seen to be believed.’ Well, here is Her Majesty in all her glory—and in delightful personal detail too. Victoria Murphy has created an invaluable photographic tribute to Britain’s longest serving monarch and to her memorable reign.” —Robert Lacey, historian and biographer After her succession to the throne in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II became respected, celebrated, and beloved around the world. This stunning collection of powerful images illustrates her storied seven-decade reign in all its glory. More than 300 extraordinary photographs, along with insightful commentary by the royal journalist Victoria Murphy, showcase the significant, historic, and intimate moments throughout the Queen’s life, first as a young princess and then as the longest-reigning British monarch. The book covers her war years in service; her marriage to Prince Philip; her coronation—the first to be televised; ​her extensive official travels around the world; the glittering diplomatic occasions and encounters with ​world leaders, dignitaries, and celebrities; the pomp and pageantry of ceremonial events; her role as a fashion icon; her relationships with her parents, King George VI and ​the Queen Mother, and her sister, Princess Margaret; the birth of her son and heir to the throne Prince Charles; family life with her four children, as well as her beloved dogs and horses; and the growing role of her grandson Prince William and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, as they supported the Queen in her public duties. Shown here too are the Crown Jewels as well as the Queen’s personal jewelry collection; a look at the royal palaces and residences; and portraits from the stunning royal weddings that have so enchanted the world. On September 8, 2022, the Queen died peacefully at her home in Balmoral, Scotland. She is survived by her four children, eight grandchildren, and twelve great-grandchildren. Upon her death, Prince Charles ascended to the throne as head of state, starting a new era for the British monarchy. Throughout her rule, with a combination of star power and a profound sense of duty, Queen Elizabeth II steered the British monarchy into the modern era with supreme style and grace. She is truly a queen for all ages and this is the ultimate commemorative book for all royal watchers that captures the triumph and significance of her magnificent reign.

A Good Country

A Good Country
Author: Sofia Ali-Khan
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2022-07-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 059323703X

A leading advocate for social justice excavates the history of forced migration in the twelve American towns she’s called home, revealing how White supremacy has fundamentally shaped the nation. “At a time when many would rather ban or bury the truth, Ali-Khan bravely faces it in this bracing and necessary book.”—Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Homeland Elegies Sofia Ali-Khan’s parents emigrated from Pakistan to America, believing it would be a good country. With a nerdy interest in American folk history and a devotion to the rule of law, Ali-Khan would pursue a career in social justice, serving some of America’s most vulnerable communities. By the time she had children of her own—having lived, worked, and worshipped in twelve different towns across the nation—Ali-Khan felt deeply American, maybe even a little extra American for having seen so much of the country. But in the wake of 9/11, and on the cusp of the 2016 election, Ali-Khan’s dream of a good life felt under constant threat. As the vitriolic attacks on Islam and Muslims intensified, she wondered if the American dream had ever applied to families like her own, and if she had gravely misunderstood her home. In A Good Country, Ali-Khan revisits the color lines in each of her twelve towns, unearthing the half-buried histories of forced migration that still shape every state, town, and reservation in America today. From the surprising origins of America’s Chinatowns, the expulsion of Maroon and Seminole people during the conquest of Florida, to Virginia’s stake in breeding humans for sale, Ali-Khan reveals how America’s settler colonial origins have defined the law and landscape to maintain a White America. She braids this historical exploration with her own story, providing an intimate perspective on the modern racialization of American Muslims and why she chose to leave the United States. Equal parts memoir, history, and current events, A Good Country presents a vital portrait of our nation, its people, and the pathway to a better future.

Thomas Paine's Rights of Man

Thomas Paine's Rights of Man
Author: Christopher Hitchens
Publisher: Grove Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2008-09
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780802143839

Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" has been celebrated, criticized, maligned, suppressed, and co-opted, but Hitchens marvels at its forethought and revels in its contentiousness. In this book, he demonstrates how Paine's book forms the philosophical cornerstone of the U.S.

The Lost Continent

The Lost Continent
Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: VNR AG
Total Pages: 326
Release: 1989
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780060161583

"I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to." And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn't hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of smiling village where the movies from his youth were set. Instead he drove through a series of horrific burgs, which he renamed Smellville, Fartville, Coleslaw, Coma, and Doldrum. At best his search led him to Anywhere, USA, a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by obese and slow-witted hicks with a partiality for synthetic fibres. He discovered a continent that was doubly lost: lost to itself because he found it blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country.

Hella Town

Hella Town
Author: Mitchell Schwarzer
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2022-08-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 0520391535

Hella Town reveals the profound impact of transportation improvements, systemic racism, and regional competition on Oakland’s built environment. Often overshadowed by San Francisco, its larger and more glamorous twin, Oakland has a fascinating history of its own. From serving as a major transportation hub to forging a dynamic manufacturing sector, by the mid-twentieth century Oakland had become the urban center of the East Bay. Hella Town focuses on how political deals, economic schemes, and technological innovations fueled this emergence but also seeded the city’s postwar struggles. Toward the turn of the millennium, as immigration from Latin America and East Asia increased, Oakland became one of the most diverse cities in the country. The city still grapples with the consequences of uneven class- and race-based development-amid-disruption. How do past decisions about where to locate highways or public transit, urban renewal districts or civic venues, parks or shopping centers, influence how Oaklanders live today? A history of Oakland’s buildings and landscapes, its booms and its busts, provides insight into its current conditions: an influx of new residents and businesses, skyrocketing housing costs, and a lingering chasm between the haves and have-nots.

Paris

Paris
Author: Colin Jones
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 478
Release: 2006-04-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 014194191X

'Paris is the World, the rest of the Earth is nothing but its suburbs' - Marivaux In this intelligently-written and supremely entertaining new history, Colin Jones seeks to give a sense of the city of Paris as it was lived in and experienced over time. The focal point of generation upon generation of admirers and detractors, a source of attraction or repulsion even for those who have never been there, Paris has witnessed more extraordinary events than any other major city. No spot on earth has been more walked around, written about, discussed, painted and photographed. With an eye for the revealing, startling and (sometimes) horrible detail, Colin Jones takes the reader from Roman Paris to the present, recreating the ups and downs in the history of the city and its inhabitants. Attentive to both the urban environment and to the experience of those who lived within it, PARIS: BIOGRAPHY OF A CITY will be hugely enjoyed by habitual Paris obsessives, by first-time visitors, and by those who know the city only by repute.

William Cooper's Town

William Cooper's Town
Author: Alan Taylor
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 576
Release: 2018-11-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0525566996

William Cooper and James Fenimore Cooper, a father and son who embodied the contradictions that divided America in the early years of the Republic, are brought to life in this Pulitzer Prize-winning book. William Cooper rose from humble origins to become a wealthy land speculator and U.S. congressman in what had until lately been the wilderness of upstate New York, but his high-handed style of governing resulted in his fall from power and political disgrace. His son James Fenimore Cooper became one of this country’s first popular novelists with a book, The Pioneers, that tried to come to terms with his father’s failure and imaginatively reclaim the estate he had lost. In William Cooper’s Town, Alan Taylor dramatizes the class between gentility and democracy that was one of the principal consequences of the American Revolution, a struggle that was waged both at the polls and on the pages of our national literature. Taylor shows how Americans resolved their revolution through the creation of new social reforms and new stories that evolved with the expansion of our frontier.