"A lively, unique, and accessible cultural history of modern cities-- from suburbs, downtown districts, and exurban sprawl, to shopping malls and '"sustainable" developments'-- that allows us to view them through the planning, design, architects, and movements that inspired, created, and shaped them. 'Dream cities' explores our cities in a new way-- as expressions of ideas, often conflicting, about how we should live, work, play, make, buy, and believe. It tells the stories of the real architects and thinkers whose imagined cities became the blueprints for the world we live in. From the nineteenth century to today, what began as visionary concepts-- sometimes utopian, sometimes outlandish, always controversial-- were gradually adopted and constructed on a massive scale in cities around the world, from Dubai to Ulan Bator to London to Los Angeles. Graham uses the lives of the pivotal dreamers behind these concepts, as well as their acolytes and antagonists, to deconstruct our urban landscapes-- the houses, towers, civic centers, condominiums, shopping malls, boulevards, highways, and spaces in between-- exposing the ideals and ideas embodied in each. [This work] is nothing less than a field guide to our modern urban world." --provided from Amazon.com.