Vertical: The City from Satellites to Bunkers Hardcover – Illustrated, 11 Oct. 2016

This is a splendid alternative take on geography both its breadth of topics and its emphasis on the vertical rather than the horizontal.It is thought provoking and as another reviewer suggests really quite disturbing in many ways. Having worked in Notting Dale in the late 60's and 70's I remember all the guff about 'vertical streets' as Victorian housing was pulled down to be replaced by some awful tower blocks (including Grenfell Tower of course).Graham spatters his text with quotes, of variable quality I felt. On p158 he writes: Real estate specialist William Murray puts it succinctly: ' Supertall buildings are gigantic logos - brand identifiers for the countries that built them. They create a skyline, a marker and a recognizable shape that help us to remember, relate to and form positive associations about a place'. Succint??And on p163 an example of Graham's own prose style: 'Also important to the rise of the new towers are the complex ways in which their ascent is lauded by a myriad of supine, superficial and boosterist media and architectural media. These endlessly reinforce discursive formulations simplistically equating vertical height with power, wealth, importance, quality or modernity'. Isn't height vertical; what is boosterist? Isn't this just a bit long-winded?It is worth wading through for its ideas but stylistically I really struggled!

This book takes an unusual and illuminating view of cities and their development. The style is quite variable, heavy going in places but mainly very readable and engrossing. The running thread making explicit our metaphorical use of terms relating to the vertical, upper and lower, high and low etc. is particularly thought provoking. BUT did anyone proof read this book? There are so many grammatical and typo errors! I counted six by page 55, then gave up counting. Here is an example from page 211: 'It transforms the bewitching world into by which one 'was possessed' into a text that lies before one's eyes.' How could a proofreader have missed that first into?

Unusual take on Cities

An incredible and thought-provoking book. Vertical forces us to look at the world in a new way; it can be rather daunting but the author has really put his finger on something here; and lots of nice photos help too!

With the large volume of books on cities and urbanism, you might have thought it was impossible to find a fresh spin on the topic. This book however takes as its theme verticality, from bunkers, to lifts, from drones, to skyscrapers.Ten years in the writing, and done with what looks like the assistance of several university departments, this is beyond impressive. For example did you know that it has been estimated that on average fully twenty tonnes of toxic mining waste must be dredged out of the earth, processed and disposed of to produce the gold necessary to make a single, ten gram, eighteen carat gold ring, or that elevator music was introduced partly to alleviate passenger worries after the removal of elevator operators.I do read a lot of books about cities and urbanism, and this still struck me as fresh and authoritative. It is written from a resolutely left wing perspective, so neo-liberalism and gentrification are very bad things.I have marked down slightly because the book portrays such a relentlessly hopeless dystopia that it can become quite depressing. I found the material on drones and migrant labour building cities in the desert particularly harrowing. This is an important book that deserves to be widely read, it includes a wealth of fascinating material but a lay reader might find it overly long and downbeat.Rem Koolhaas with Delirious New York and Geoff Manaugh with his Burglar’s Guide to the City tread slightly similar ground with a lighter touch.

Excellent critical account about key developments in cities - technology, development, governance - from a great author. There were a few things that rankled a little (I got fed up with the number of people introduced as 'urban theorist' and so on), but this is a really good book. Like all the best, it acts as a gateway to much more, with links and references that are really useful. I particularly like the way it cuts through all the property developer spin and tells it like it is for those of us who still retain the loose distinction of citizenship of these cities. I'd have liked even more about the hot money pouring in to London, New York and so on, because that seems to shape my experience of living in my city. But that's not even a quibble. No hesitation in recommending this, and I look forward to reading more by Stephen Graham.