4.1.1 Cities in Time (2013), Pdf29

This essay, published as the final chapter in Peter Clark (ed.), Oxford Handbook to Cities in World History (2013), assesses the central role that urban development has played in all major theories of world history. It further analyses the elements of continuity, slow change and dramatic upheaval that are contributing to global urbanisation – one of humanity’s greatest achievements: ‘pulsing with creative organisation and disorganisation – and alive’.