Second Metropolis: Pragmatic Pluralism in Gilded Age Chicago, Silver Age Moscow, and Meiji Osaka

Rating:
Summary: Stimulating comparison
Review: As a Japanese living near Osaka, the topic -- comparison between Chicago, Moscow and Osaka is very stimulating. Although written in a highly academic style, this book is easy to read for non-academia, with a lot of historical pictures. The authorfs main concern is to put Moscow (and Russia) in a comparative perspective, but at the same time he succeeded in portraying the dynamic transformation of modern urban society vividly. I recommended this book to many friends in my country. Some day we would like to have translated version of this book for Japanese market. Many of us are fed up with situation Japan tends to be treated as overly unique or exceptional by observers Japanese and foreign alike. Our country and culture may be unique, but it is just as unique as most of the nations in the world. It seems to me that the author likes to say same thing to Russia. He successfully presented an interesting case by putting the three great non-capital cities side by side.