New York, Chicago, Los Angeles: America's Global Cities

By Janet L. Abu-Lughod

Book Overview

New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles -- for all their differences, they are quintessentially American cities. They are also among the handful of cities on the earth that can be called "global." Janet L. Abu-Lughod's book is the first to compare them in an ambitious in-depth study that takes into account each city's unique history, following their development from their earliest days to their current status as players on the global stage.Unlike most other global cities, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles all quickly grew from the nearly blank slate of the American landscape to become important beyond the nation's borders early in their histories. As a result, Abu-Lughod is able to show the overall effect of globalization on each city's development. While all three are critical to global economics and the spread of American culture to the farthest reaches of an increasingly interlinked world, their influence reflects their individual histories and personalities. In a masterful synthesis of historical and economic information, Abu-Lughod clarifies how each city's global role is -- and will be -- affected by geography, ethnicity of population, political institutions, and tradition of governance. New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles are more than global players: they are also home to forty million people. Abu-Lughod closes the book with a set of vignettes that captures the cities' differences as perceived by one who has lived in them. Bringing together the local and the global in thoroughly unexpected and enlightening ways, this important volume offers fascinating insight into these vital urban centers.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816633355
• ISBN13: 9780816633357
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Length: 592 Pages
• Weight: 2.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 7.3" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

A Highly Detailed Account

I enjoyed America's Global Cities and found it relatively readable and engaging. However, I have to second those reviewers who described it as extremely detailed and occasionally dry. This is a scholarly and historically cogent account of New York, Chicago, and LA and their place in the context of globalization; it is not at all summer beach reading, even for those people who enjoy serious non-fiction. That said, if you have any interest in urban history and social policy, your patience will be rewarded in reading this book.

Brilliant Book

I assigned this book for a graduate seminar last year (2002) and it went down very well with a range of social sciences and humanities students. They loved Abu-Lughod's geographically- and historically-specific approach to understanding globalization and urban change. In contrast to some of the universalizing bombast out there in, Janet Abu-Lughod's book helps us to make sense of urban change in these three cities via the astute integration of social, economic and political dynamics at a range of scales. Abu-Lughod was able to take them down into the streets at some points, and then back up to the national and global scales at other points. To be sure there is a mass of detail in the text, but it is knitted together as well as can be given the research questions. My students also appreciated the lack of jargon in the book; a rarity these days in the urban studies field. In short, this is a fine book for students, academics, and laypersons with interests in global urbanization, the history of American cities, the role of cities in the historical development of America, and historically-oriented research methodologies.