Triumph of the City, Edward Glaeser, Pan, £9.99. The Harvard professor of urban economy takes the reader from Mumbai to Rio and Detroit. He finds the American suburb, much criticized by right-thinking people, in good health in the southern US, and spreading like a rash over India and other developing countries.
Capital: A Portrait of Twenty-First Century Delhi, Rana Dasgupta, Cannongate Books, £25.00. Dasgupta sets out to show how Delhi has changed since the country’s decision in 1991 to embrace free enterprise and open markets. Mixing chapters on the city’s history with interviews with drug dealers, billionaire businessmen, gurus and slum dwellers, Dasgupta argues that globalization has had catastrophic consequences for a once great city.
