How to Read Cities is an ideal pocket guide to understanding the conditions that have favored the formation of cities around the world. From a practical and very visual approach, it shows us how to read the history that is woven into the formation of the neighborhoods, towns and cities in which we currently live. Cities have grown or been eclipsed according to the fate of the civilizations to which they belonged. Some have completely disappeared and are no longer but ruins; others have thrived as urban centers for thousands of years; But all contain key clues in its streets and its limits that reveal why its inhabitants were grouped in them, and that tell us about their social, political and cultural history.

Packed with blueprints, maps, and drawings, this book will take the reader on a journey around the world that will reveal the history of cities from our oldest urban origins to those of the contemporary world: from Babylon to Beijing, from London to Paris and from the skyscrapers of New York to the streets of their own hometown.

A must-read for anyone interested in history, cities, and travel, this fascinating book will turn the reader into an urban detective.