The Living City

“Counterintuitive, funny, and provocative.”—The Financial Times

“An amusing, skeptical and refreshing journey through the past and future of urban life.”—The Telegraph

“Fitzgerald surveys a rich array of ideas about nature and analyses the power dynamics at play in urban planning.”—The Irish Independent

“A vivid look at a key controversy in city planning…  readers will relish many of Fitzgerald’s interesting arguments in favor of traditional city structure.” —Kirkus

“Our messy, gritty, unequal, and sometimes dysfunctional cities are pretty good as they are. And often better than the utopian alternatives that are foisted on us these days. This opinionated, outspoken, insightful book champions the city that we have against the utopian city that architects and urbanists keep wanting to build.”—Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class

“An incendiary repudiation of the resurgent fantasy that nature can cure the maladies of contemporary cities and societies. Des Fitzgerald is a sharp critic and a stone-cold realist. His stimulating book is a reminder that there are no simple solutions to global climate change.”—Eric Klinenberg, author of Palaces for the People

“It reads like Jon Ronson let loose on city planners: endlessly funny, outrageously caustic, and seriously smart.”—John Grindrod, author of Iconicon