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The Devil in the White City

A Saga of Magic and Murder at the Fair that Changed America

by Erik Larson ...

**#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile comes the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death.“As absorbing a piece of popular history as one will ever hope to find.” —San Francisco ChronicleA ... Read more

$12.99 USD

**#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile comes the true tale of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and the cunning serial killer who used the magic and majesty of the fair to lure his victims to their death.“As absorbing a piece of popular history as one will ever hope to find.” —San Francisco ChronicleA
... Read more
City of Quartz

Excavating the Future in Los Angeles

by Mike Davis ...

Series series Essential Mike Davis
This new edition of the visionary social history of Los Angeles is “as central to the L.A. canon as anything that . . . Joan Didion wrote in the seventies” (New Yorker).No metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, “Los Angeles brings it all together.” To detractors, L.A. is a sunlit mortuary where “you can rot without feeling it.” To Mike Davis, the author of this ... Read more

$9.99 USD

This new edition of the visionary social history of Los Angeles is “as central to the L.A. canon as anything that . . . Joan Didion wrote in the seventies” (New Yorker).No metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, “Los Angeles brings it all together.” To detractors, L.A. is a sunlit mortuary where “you can rot without feeling it.” To Mike Davis, the author of this
... Read more
Anti-Eviction

The Fight against Tech-Led Gentrification in San Francisco

by Manissa Maharawal ...

Series Book 61 - California Series in Public Anthropology
A galvanizing story of how everyday people built a powerful anti-eviction movement in gentrified San Francisco.In the early 2010s, San Francisco experienced a tech boom that created both great wealth and great inequality. The city became known for runaway gentrification, a major housing crisis, and an "eviction epidemic" of long-term tenants. Yet these changes also drove an inspiring housing ... Read more

$23.79 USD

A galvanizing story of how everyday people built a powerful anti-eviction movement in gentrified San Francisco.In the early 2010s, San Francisco experienced a tech boom that created both great wealth and great inequality. The city became known for runaway gentrification, a major housing crisis, and an "eviction epidemic" of long-term tenants. Yet these changes also drove an inspiring housing
... Read more
I Deliver Parcels in Beijing

by Hu AnYan ...

Translated by Jack Hargreaves ...

**An Economist Best Book of 2025A Financial Times Best Book of 2025A Sunday Times Best Book of 2025**"Hu Anyan’s I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, translated by Jack Hargreaves, offers an unvarnished dispatch from the front lines of the gig economy...The Cinderella bit of it is that now he can add a new title: internationally best-selling author." —Leah Greenblatt, The New York Times Book Review<stron ... Read more

$15.99 USD

**An Economist Best Book of 2025A Financial Times Best Book of 2025A Sunday Times Best Book of 2025**"Hu Anyan’s I Deliver Parcels in Beijing, translated by Jack Hargreaves, offers an unvarnished dispatch from the front lines of the gig economy...The Cinderella bit of it is that now he can add a new title: internationally best-selling author." —Leah Greenblatt, The New York Times Book Review<stron
... Read more
The South Side

A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation

by Natalie Y. Moore ...

**One of Buzzfeed's 18 Best Nonfiction Books Of 2016**A lyrical, intelligent, authentic, and necessary look at the intersection of race and class in Chicago, a Great American CityIn this intelligent and highly important narrative, Chicago-native Natalie Moore shines a light on contemporary segregation in the city's South Side; with a memoirist's eye, she showcases the lives of these communities ... Read more

$14.39 USD

**One of Buzzfeed's 18 Best Nonfiction Books Of 2016**A lyrical, intelligent, authentic, and necessary look at the intersection of race and class in Chicago, a Great American CityIn this intelligent and highly important narrative, Chicago-native Natalie Moore shines a light on contemporary segregation in the city's South Side; with a memoirist's eye, she showcases the lives of these communities
... Read more
City Planning

A Very Short Introduction

by Carl Abbott ...

Series series Very Short Introductions
City planning is a practice and a profession. It is also a set of goals and--sometimes utopian--aspirations. Formal thought about the shaping of cities as physical spaces and social environments calls on the same range of disciplines and approaches that we use for understanding cities themselves, from art and literature through the social and natural sciences. Surrounding the core profession of ... Read more

$8.99 USD

City planning is a practice and a profession. It is also a set of goals and--sometimes utopian--aspirations. Formal thought about the shaping of cities as physical spaces and social environments calls on the same range of disciplines and approaches that we use for understanding cities themselves, from art and literature through the social and natural sciences. Surrounding the core profession of
... Read more
Rural Versus Urban

The Growing Divide That Threatens Democracy

by Suzanne Mettler, Trevor E. Brown ...

How the urban-rural divide drives partisan polarizationWhy have Americans living in different places come to experience politics as a battle between “us” and “them”? In Rural Versus Urban, Suzanne Mettler and Trevor Brown argue that political polarization is not just about red states and blue states, or coastal elites who alienate those in fly-over country. Instead, polarization permeates every ... Read more

$21.59 USD

How the urban-rural divide drives partisan polarizationWhy have Americans living in different places come to experience politics as a battle between “us” and “them”? In Rural Versus Urban, Suzanne Mettler and Trevor Brown argue that political polarization is not just about red states and blue states, or coastal elites who alienate those in fly-over country. Instead, polarization permeates every
... Read more
Suburban Nation

The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream

by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Jeff Speck ...

The essential handbook for ending suburban sprawl and automobile-based settlement patternsFor a decade, Suburban Nation has given voice to a growing movement in North America to put an end to suburban sprawl and replace the last century's automobile-based settlement patterns with a return to more traditional planning. Founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater ... Read more

$12.99 USD

The essential handbook for ending suburban sprawl and automobile-based settlement patternsFor a decade, Suburban Nation has given voice to a growing movement in North America to put an end to suburban sprawl and replace the last century's automobile-based settlement patterns with a return to more traditional planning. Founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater
... Read more
Mission High

One School, How Experts Tried to Fail It, and the Students and Teachers Who Made It Triumph

by Kristina Rizga ...

"This book is a godsend a moving portrait for anyone wanting to go beyond the simplified labels and metrics and really understand an urban high school, and its highly individual, resilient, eager and brilliant students and educators." -- Dave Eggers, co-founder, 826 National and ScholarMatchDarrell is a reflective, brilliant young man, who never thought of himself as a good student. He always ... Read more

$9.99 USD

"This book is a godsend a moving portrait for anyone wanting to go beyond the simplified labels and metrics and really understand an urban high school, and its highly individual, resilient, eager and brilliant students and educators." -- Dave Eggers, co-founder, 826 National and ScholarMatchDarrell is a reflective, brilliant young man, who never thought of himself as a good student. He always
... Read more
Trash!

A Garbageman's Story

by Simon Pare-Poupart ...

Translated by Pablo Strauss ...

**“Raffish and spirited . . . a nonconformist cri de coeur . . . Usually, comparisons to Bourdain are fatuous. This time it’s accurate . . . It’s been a long time since I’ve read so good and rowdy a memoir about blue-collar work.” — Dwight Garner, The New York TimesA Montreal garbageman's sharp and funny memoir/exposé, in which he attempts to convince people to "stop imagining that your garbage ... Read more

$10.99 USD

**“Raffish and spirited . . . a nonconformist cri de coeur . . . Usually, comparisons to Bourdain are fatuous. This time it’s accurate . . . It’s been a long time since I’ve read so good and rowdy a memoir about blue-collar work.” — Dwight Garner, The New York TimesA Montreal garbageman's sharp and funny memoir/exposé, in which he attempts to convince people to "stop imagining that your garbage
... Read more
Bicycle/Race

Transportation, Culture, & Resistance

by Adonia E. Lugo, PhD ...

Bicycle/Race paints an unforgettable picture of Los Angeles—and the United States—from the perspective of two wheels. This is a book of borderlands and intersections, a cautionary tale about the dangers of putting infrastructure before culture, and a coming-of-age story about power and identity. The colonial history of southern California is interwoven through Adonia Lugo's story of growing up ... Read more

$9.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

Bicycle/Race paints an unforgettable picture of Los Angeles—and the United States—from the perspective of two wheels. This is a book of borderlands and intersections, a cautionary tale about the dangers of putting infrastructure before culture, and a coming-of-age story about power and identity. The colonial history of southern California is interwoven through Adonia Lugo's story of growing up
... Read more
Evicted

Poverty and Profit in the American City

by Matthew Desmond ...

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY • AN OPRAH DAILY BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE PAST TWO DECADESOne of the most acclaimed books of our time, this modern classic “has set a new standard for reporting ... Read more

$14.99 USD

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY • A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY • AN OPRAH DAILY BEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE PAST TWO DECADESOne of the most acclaimed books of our time, this modern classic “has set a new standard for reporting
... Read more
Smack

Heroin and the American City

by Eric C. Schneider ...

Series series Politics and Culture in Modern America
Why do the vast majority of heroin users live in cities? In his provocative history of heroin in the United States, Eric C. Schneider explains what is distinctively urban about this undisputed king of underworld drugs.During the twentieth century, New York City was the nation's heroin capital—over half of all known addicts lived there, and underworld bosses like Vito Genovese, Nicky Barnes, and ... Read more

$28.49 USD

Why do the vast majority of heroin users live in cities? In his provocative history of heroin in the United States, Eric C. Schneider explains what is distinctively urban about this undisputed king of underworld drugs.During the twentieth century, New York City was the nation's heroin capital—over half of all known addicts lived there, and underworld bosses like Vito Genovese, Nicky Barnes, and
... Read more
Life After Cars

Freeing Ourselves from the Tyranny of the Automobile

by Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon, Aaron Naparstek ...

**NATIONAL BESTSELLERFrom the hosts of The War on Cars podcast, a searing indictment of how cars ruin everything—and what we can do to fight back**When the very first cars rolled off production lines, they were a technological marvel, predicted to make life easier and better for all Americans; yet a hundred years later, that dream is running on empty.Instead of unbounded freedom, the never-ending ... Read more

$14.99 USD

**NATIONAL BESTSELLERFrom the hosts of The War on Cars podcast, a searing indictment of how cars ruin everything—and what we can do to fight back**When the very first cars rolled off production lines, they were a technological marvel, predicted to make life easier and better for all Americans; yet a hundred years later, that dream is running on empty.Instead of unbounded freedom, the never-ending
... Read more
Detroit Never Left

Black Space, White Borders, Latino Crossings

by Nicole E. Trujillo-Pagán ...

Series series Latina/o Sociology
A new perspective on the relationship between race and space in DetroitDetroit seemed to experience an explosive rebirth following its bankruptcy, the largest in US municipal history. It was as if the slate had been wiped clean and the color line erased in the nation’s largest Black city. Detroit Never Left explains the relation between racism and space by analyzing the ways opportunities changed ... Read more

$19.99 USD

A new perspective on the relationship between race and space in DetroitDetroit seemed to experience an explosive rebirth following its bankruptcy, the largest in US municipal history. It was as if the slate had been wiped clean and the color line erased in the nation’s largest Black city. Detroit Never Left explains the relation between racism and space by analyzing the ways opportunities changed
... Read more
Rogues' Gallery

The Secret Story of the Lust, Lies, Greed, and Betrayals That Made the Metropolitan Museum of Art

by Michael Gross ...

“Behind almost every painting is a fortune and behind that a sin or a crime.”With these words as a starting point, Michael Gross, leading chronicler of the American rich, begins the first independent, unauthorized look at the saga of the nation’s greatest museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this endlessly entertaining follow-up to his bestselling social history 740 Park, Gross pulls back ... Read more

$9.99 USD

“Behind almost every painting is a fortune and behind that a sin or a crime.”With these words as a starting point, Michael Gross, leading chronicler of the American rich, begins the first independent, unauthorized look at the saga of the nation’s greatest museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this endlessly entertaining follow-up to his bestselling social history 740 Park, Gross pulls back
... Read more
Language City

The Fight to Preserve Endangered Mother Tongues in New York

by Ross Perlin ...

From the co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance, a captivating portrait of contemporary New York City through six speakers of little-known and overlooked languages, diving into the incredible history of the most linguistically diverse place ever to have existed on the planetHalf of all 7,000-plus human languages may disappear over the next century and—because many have never been recorded ... Read more

$14.39 USD

From the co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance, a captivating portrait of contemporary New York City through six speakers of little-known and overlooked languages, diving into the incredible history of the most linguistically diverse place ever to have existed on the planetHalf of all 7,000-plus human languages may disappear over the next century and—because many have never been recorded
... Read more
Fruteros

Street Vending, Illegality, and Ethnic Community in Los Angeles

by Rocío Rosales ...

This book examines the social worlds of young Latino street vendors as they navigate the complexities of local and federal laws prohibiting both their presence and their work on street corners. Known as fruteros, they sell fruit salads out of pushcarts throughout Los Angeles and are part of the urban landscape.Drawing on six years of fieldwork, Rocío Rosales offers a compelling portrait of their ... Read more

$28.49 USD

This book examines the social worlds of young Latino street vendors as they navigate the complexities of local and federal laws prohibiting both their presence and their work on street corners. Known as fruteros, they sell fruit salads out of pushcarts throughout Los Angeles and are part of the urban landscape.Drawing on six years of fieldwork, Rocío Rosales offers a compelling portrait of their
... Read more
Long Live Queer Nightlife

How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution

by Amin Ghaziani ...

It’s closing time for an alarming number of gay bars in cities around the globe—but it’s definitely not the last danceIn this exhilarating journey into underground parties, pulsating with life and limitless possibility, acclaimed author Amin Ghaziani unveils the unexpected revolution revitalizing urban nightlife.Far from the gay bar with its largely white, gay male clientele, here is a dazzling ... Read more

$23.09 USD

It’s closing time for an alarming number of gay bars in cities around the globe—but it’s definitely not the last danceIn this exhilarating journey into underground parties, pulsating with life and limitless possibility, acclaimed author Amin Ghaziani unveils the unexpected revolution revitalizing urban nightlife.Far from the gay bar with its largely white, gay male clientele, here is a dazzling
... Read more
Purging the Poorest

Public Housing and the Design Politics of Twice-Cleared Communities

by Lawrence J. Vale ...

The building and management of public housing is often seen as a signal failure of American public policy, but this is a vastly oversimplified view. In Purging the Poorest, Lawrence J. Vale offers a new narrative of the seventy-five-year struggle to house the "deserving poor."In the 1930s, two iconic American cities, Atlanta and Chicago, demolished their slums and established some of this country ... Read more

$24.49 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

The building and management of public housing is often seen as a signal failure of American public policy, but this is a vastly oversimplified view. In Purging the Poorest, Lawrence J. Vale offers a new narrative of the seventy-five-year struggle to house the "deserving poor."In the 1930s, two iconic American cities, Atlanta and Chicago, demolished their slums and established some of this country
... Read more
Shanghai Nightscapes

A Nocturnal Biography of a Global City

by James Farrer, Andrew David Field ...

The pulsing beat of its nightlife has long drawn travelers to the streets of Shanghai, where the night scene is a crucial component of the city's image as a global metropolis. In Shanghai Nightscapes, sociologist James Farrer and historian Andrew David Field examine the cosmopolitan nightlife culture that first arose in Shanghai in the 1920s and that has been experiencing a revival since the 1980s ... Read more

$12.99 USD or Free with Kobo Plus

The pulsing beat of its nightlife has long drawn travelers to the streets of Shanghai, where the night scene is a crucial component of the city's image as a global metropolis. In Shanghai Nightscapes, sociologist James Farrer and historian Andrew David Field examine the cosmopolitan nightlife culture that first arose in Shanghai in the 1920s and that has been experiencing a revival since the 1980s
... Read more
Hydraulic City

Water and the Infrastructures of Citizenship in Mumbai

by Nikhil Anand ...

In Hydraulic City Nikhil Anand explores the politics of Mumbai's water infrastructure to demonstrate how citizenship emerges through the continuous efforts to control, maintain, and manage the city's water. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Mumbai's settlements, Anand found that Mumbai's water flows, not through a static collection of pipes and valves, but through a dynamic ... Read more

$20.89 USD

In Hydraulic City Nikhil Anand explores the politics of Mumbai's water infrastructure to demonstrate how citizenship emerges through the continuous efforts to control, maintain, and manage the city's water. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Mumbai's settlements, Anand found that Mumbai's water flows, not through a static collection of pipes and valves, but through a dynamic
... Read more
City of Segregation

100 Years of Struggle for Housing in Los Angeles

by Andrea Gibbons ...

A majestic one-hundred-year study of segregation in Los AngelesCity of Segregation documents one hundred years of struggle against the enforced separation of racial groups through property markets, constructions of community, and the growth of neoliberalism. This movement history covers the decades of work to end legal support for segregation in 1948; the 1960s Civil Rights movement and CORE’s ... Read more

$9.99 USD

A majestic one-hundred-year study of segregation in Los AngelesCity of Segregation documents one hundred years of struggle against the enforced separation of racial groups through property markets, constructions of community, and the growth of neoliberalism. This movement history covers the decades of work to end legal support for segregation in 1948; the 1960s Civil Rights movement and CORE’s
... Read more
There Goes the Hood

Views of Gentrification from the Ground Up

by Lance Freeman ...

In this revealing book, Lance Freeman sets out to answer a seemingly simple question: how does gentrification actually affect residents of neighborhoods in transition? To find out, Freeman does what no scholar before him has done. He interviews the indigenous residents of two predominantly black neighborhoods that are in the process of gentrification: Harlem and Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. By ... Read more

$23.09 USD

In this revealing book, Lance Freeman sets out to answer a seemingly simple question: how does gentrification actually affect residents of neighborhoods in transition? To find out, Freeman does what no scholar before him has done. He interviews the indigenous residents of two predominantly black neighborhoods that are in the process of gentrification: Harlem and Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. By
... Read more

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