Atlas of Cities

Winner of the 2014 AAG Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography, Association of American Geographers One of The Globe and Mail 75 Book Ideas for Christmas 2014 “This fascinating survey effectively complemented and enriched by color maps, charts, and illustrations, celebrates the urban landscape’s past, present, and potential for the future. Intended for the general reader, Knox’s reference is recommended to anyone interested in urban studies and geography.”–Library Journal (Starred Review) “[T]he large format of this coffee-table book provides room for a stunning abundance of photographs, charts, graphs, maps, and other enhancements that make Atlas of Cities as much a visual experience as a narrative one.”–Ray Bert, Civil Engineering “This elegantly illustrated volume is a feast of maps and graphics… Geographers, sociologists, architects, and urban planners have contributed clear thematic chapters, and the result is a book that will encourage readers to think differently about many cities, including their own.”–Graeme Wood, Pacific Standard “A cartographic buffet that lays out how our metropolises came to be and what makes them tick.”–John King, San Francisco Chronicle “[T]his is a volume that could excite exploration of those more flexible sources, and its prose, design and illustration will surely achieve that for some who come across it–perhaps in libraries or classrooms.”–Alan Mabin, Urban Africa “A lavish, exhaustive look at the history, transformation, and future of urban centres around the globe. The perfect book for the Richard Florida–who, coincidentally, wrote the foreword–in your life.”–Globe and Mail “Much more than a book. Through innovative maps, charts, info-graphics and tables, Atlas lays out the cycles of consumption, creation, and decay that drive the living spaces that will soon house three-fourths of the human race, up from today’s half. This book doesn’t tell you about cities, it lets you understand them.”–Dan Bischoff, Newark Star-Ledger “This atlas does not graph the usual geographic shapes of cities, but tries to diagram the many other dimensions within cities around the world. Taking example from many specific cities (such as Istanbul, or Cairo) it tries to dissect, almost like an x-ray, the many organs, tissues, cells, and anatomy of a typical city… This book will likely illuminate your world.”–Kevin Kelly, Wink “The kind of book I imagine anyone in the field of Urban Studies would like to own… Atlas of Cities is not just a well-edited book full of useful didactical maps but also the kind of book that the members of our map-loving species want to have.”–Manuel B, Aalbers, Urban Studies

Paul Knox is University Distinguished Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning and codirector of the Global Forum on Urban and Regional Resilience at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. His many books include Palimpsests: Biographies of 50 City Districts, Cities and Design, and Urban Social Geography.