Daniel Brook, A History of Future Cities *** 1/2

A History of Future Cities tells the stories of four cities that were deliberately designed to bring modernity to a self-consciously per-modern society: St Petersberg, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dubai. All four of these cities are Asian, and they all adopted European models of modernity, so Brook characterizes them as being "purposely dis-orient-ed."

The history of each city is fascinating. I was particularly taken with the story of Peter the Great working incognito as a shipbuilder in Amsterdam, earning his carpentry certificate and determining which aspects of Dutch success to import to Russia. He had his forces capture a Swedish seaport and built St Petersberg.

Making connections between the four histories is left largely to the reader. Brook explains his premise in the introduction but leaves his arguments implicit during the narratives. I enjoyed discovering the similarities in how the cities developed but would have liked to hear how Brook interprets the variations. For example, St Petersberg and Dubai were created by their rulers while Shanghai and Mumbai were colonization projects; how does this difference affect their development?

The book raises two main questions:

• Is "modernization" equivalent to "Westernization"?
• Can traditional societies and authoritarian regimes modernize without losing their traditions or power?

Brook does not attempt to answer these tough and still-relevant questions.