{"product_id":"triumph-of-the-city-how-our-greatest-invention-makes-us-richer-smarter-greener-healthier-and-happier","title":"Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer  Smarter  Greener  Healthier  and Happier","description":"\u003cp\u003eA pioneering urban economist offers fascinating  even inspiring proof that the city is humanitys greatest invention and our best hope for the future.  America is an urban nation. More than two thirds of us live on the 3 percent of land that contains our cities. Yet cities get a bad rap: theyre dirty  poor  unhealthy  crime ridden  expensive  environmentally unfriendly... Or are they?  As Edward Glaeser proves in this myth-shattering book  cities are actually the healthiest  greenest  and richest (in cultural and economic terms) places to live. New Yorkers  for instance  live longer than other Americans; heart disease and cancer rates are lower in Gotham than in the nation as a whole. More than half of Americas income is earned in twenty-two metropolitan areas. And city dwellers use  on average  40 percent less energy than suburbanites.  Glaeser travels through history and around the globe to reveal the hidden workings of cities and how they bring out the best in humankind. Even the worst cities-Kinshasa  Kolkata  Lagos- confer surprising benefits on the people who flock to them  including better health and more jobs than the rural areas that surround them. Glaeser visits Bangalore and Silicon Valley  whose strangely similar histories prove how essential education is to urban success and how new technology actually encourages people to gather together physically. He discovers why Detroit is dying while other old industrial cities-Chicago  Boston  New York-thrive. He investigates why a new house costs 350 percent more in Los Angeles than in Houston  even though building costs are only 25 percent higher in L.A. He pinpoints the single factor that most influences urban growth-January temperatures-and explains how certain chilly cities manage to defy that link. He explains how West Coast environmentalists have harmed the environment  and how struggling cities from Youngstown to New Orleans can \"shrink to greatness.\" And he exposes the dangerous anti-urban political bias that is harming both cities and the entire country.  Using intrepid reportage  keen analysis  and eloquent argument  Glaeser makes an impassioned case for the citys import and splendor. He reminds us forcefully why we should nurture our cities or suffer consequences that will hurt us all  no matter where we live.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44945454759989,"sku":"ByrdShop_159420277X","price":27.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781594202773.jpg?v=1769889803","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/triumph-of-the-city-how-our-greatest-invention-makes-us-richer-smarter-greener-healthier-and-happier","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}