Cities are humanity’s greatest invention. As indispensable engines for creativity, innovation, wealth, and connection, they are the loom on which the fabric of civilization is woven. But the global COVID crisis has redefined our relationship to cities in incalculable ways. How permanent are these changes? Are we on the brink of a post-urban world?
In "Survival of the City: Living and Thriving in an Age of Isolation," Professor Edward Glaeser argues that city life will survive, but individual cities face terrible risks and waves of urban failure would be disastrous. They examine the evolution that is already happening, and describe the possible futures that lie before us: What will distinguish the cities that will flourish from the ones that won’t?
The new book is co-authored by David Cutler.
Edward Glaeser is a Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at Harvard University. He has published extensively on cities and their evolution over the last thirty years, and he is the author of "Triumph of the City."