The Fifth Edition of the highly successful The City Reader juxtaposes the best classic and contemporary writings on the city. It contains fifty-seven selections including seventeen new selections by Elijah Anderson, Robert Bruegmann, Michael Dear, Jan Gehl, Harvey Molotch, Clarence Perry, Daphne Spain, Nigel Taylor, Samuel Bass Warner, and others – five of which have been newly written exclusively for The City Reader. Classic writings from Ebenezer Howard, Ernest W. Burgess, LeCorbusier, Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs, and Louis Wirth, meet the best contemporary writings of Sir Peter Hall, Manuel Castells, David Harvey, Kenneth Jackson and others.

This edition of The City Reader has been extensively updated and expanded to reflect the latest thinking in each of the disciplinary areas included and in topical areas such as sustainable urban development, climate change, globalization, and the impact of technology on cities. The plate sections have been extensively revised and expanded and a new plate section on global cities has been added.

The anthology features general and section introductions and introductions to the selected articles. New to the fifth edition is a bibliography of 100 top books about cities.

The Fifth Edition of the highly successful The City Reader juxtaposes the best classic and contemporary writings on the city. It contains fifty-seven selections including seventeen new selections by Elijah Anderson, Robert Bruegmann, Michael Dear, Jan Gehl, Harvey Molotch, Clarence Perry, Daphne Spain, Nigel Taylor, Samuel Bass Warner, and others

Part 1: The Evolution of Cities Introduction 1. Kingsley Davis "The Urbanization of the Human Population" 2. V. Gordon Childe, "The Urban Revolution" 3. H.D.F. Kitto "The Polis" 4. Frederick Engels "The Great Towns" 5. Samuel Bass Warner "U.S. Urban History" 6. Kenneth T. Jackson "The Drive-in Culture of Contemporary America" 7. Robert Fishman "Beyond Suburbia: The Rise of the Technoburb" Plate Section 1: The Evolution of Cities Part 2: Urban Culture and Society Introduction 8. Lewis Mumford "What is a City?" 9. Louis Wirth "Urbanism as a Way of Life" 10. Jane Jacobs "The Use of Sidewalks: Safety" 11. W.E.B. Du Bois "The Negro Problems of Philadelphia," "The Question of Earning a Living," and "Color Prejudice" 12. William Julius Wilson "From Institutional to Jobless Ghettos" 13. Elijah Anderson "Decent and Street Families" 14. Robert D. Putnam "Bowling Alone" 15. Richard Florida "The Creative Class" 16. Frederic Stout "Visions of a New Reality: The City and the Emergence of Modern Visual Culture" Plate Section 2: Visions of a New Reality Part 3: Urban Space Introduction 17. Ernest W. Burgess "The Growth of the City" 18. Michael Dear "The Los Angeles School of Urbanism: An Intellectual History" 19. Daphne Spain "What Happened to Gender Relations on the Way from Chicago to Los Angeles" 20. Ali Madanipour "Social Exclusion and Space" 21. Mike Davis "Fortress L.A." 22. J.B. Jackson "The Almost Perfect Town" 23. Robert Bruegmann "The Causes of Sprawl" Part 4: Urban Politics, Governance and Economics Introduction 24. David Harvey, "Contested Cities: Social Processes and Spatial Form" 25. Sherry Arnstein "A Ladder of Citizen Participation" 26. Harvey Molotch "The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place" 27. James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling "Broken Windows" 28. Wilbur Thompson "The City as Distorted Price System" 29. Michael Porter "The Competitive Advantage of the Inner City" 30. Myron Orfield, "Metropolitics" Plate Section 3: Social and Symbolic Uses of Urban Space Part 5: Urban Planning History and Visions Introduction 31. Frederick Law Olmsted "Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns" 32. Ebenezer Howard "Author’s Introduction" and "The Town-Country Magnet" 33. Le Corbusier "A Contemporary City" 34. Frank Lloyd Wright "Broadacre City: A New Community Plan" 35. World Commission on Environment & Development "Towards Sustainable Development" 36. Congress of the New Urbanism "Charter of the New Urbanism" 37. Peter Calthorpe and William Fulton "Designing the Region" and "Designing the Region is Designing the Neighborhood" Part 6: Urban Planning Thoery and Practice Introduction 38. Peter Hall "The City of Theory" 39. Nigel Taylor "Anglo-American Town Planning Theory Since 1945: Three Significant Developments but no Paradigm Shifts" 40. Edward J. Kaiser and David Godschalk "Twentieth-Century Land Use Planning" 41. John Forester "Planning in the Face of Conflict" 42. Paul Davidoff "Advocacy and Pluralism in Planning" 43. Timothy Beatley "Planning for Sustainability in European Cities" 44. Stephen Wheeler, "Urban Planning and Global Climate Change" Part 7: Perspectives on Urban Design Introduction 45. Camillo Sitte "Author’s Introduction," "The Relationship Between Buildings, Monuments, and Public Squares," and "The Enclosed Character of the Public Square" 46. Clarence Perry "The Neighborhood Unit" 47. Kevin Lynch "The City Image and Its Elements" 48. William H. Whyte "The Design of Spaces" 49. Allan Jacobs & Donald Appleyard "Toward an Urban Design Manifesto" 50. Jan Gehl "Three Types of Outdoor Activities", "Life Between Buildings", and "Outdoor Activities and the Quality of Outdoor Space" Plate Section 4: Urban Planning and Urban Design Part 8: Cities in a Global Society Introduction 51. Melvin Webber "The Post City Age" 52. Saskia Sassen "The Impact of New Technologies and Globalization on Cities" 53. Jonathan v. Beaverstock, Richard G. Smith, and Peter J. Taylor, "World City Network" 54. Manuel Castells "The Space of Flows" 55. UN Habitat "The Challenge of Slums" 56. Tingwei Zhang, "Chinese Cities in a Global Society" 57. Neil Brenner and Roger Keil "The Globalization Debates" Plate Section 5: Cities in a Global Society