In 1703, Peter the Great founded his eponymous capital on a Baltic marsh. Modelled on Amsterdam, he believed it would usher in a modernised, Westernised future. In the nineteenth-century Age of Imperialism, the British rebuilt Bombay as a tropical London, while three Western powers made Shanghai look just like home. In our time, the sheikh of Dubai has transformed his desert city into a skyscraper-studded global hub. The cultural & historical threads that connect these cities & their conflicted embrace of modernity are brought into relief in Daniel Brook`s captivating mix of history & reportage
- a story of architects & authoritarians, artists & revolutionaries who take these facsimiles of the West & turn them into crucibles of non-Western modernism. A History of Future Cities is both a crucial reminder of globalisation`s long march & an inspiring look into the possibilities of our Asian Century.