Tracing the evolution of the field of urban geography from the 1950s to 2000, this broad-ranging account is a practical handbook of intellectual traditions. Consisting of essays from the journal Urban Geography, it shows the development of the field as it shifted from data-driven social science modelling in the 1960s, to the more critical perspectives of David Harvey in the 1970s, to postmodernism in the 1980s, to feminism and globalization in the 1990s. Edited by two of the most pre-eminent figures in the field of urban geography, this is a fifty year history of urban geography in America as told by its participants. Including coverage of key trends and figures, this book is a necessary reference for all scholars in the field and for graduate students taking introductory courses and preparing for their comprehensive exams.

The World's First Cities were created when three forces converged: the emergence of states and god kingship; the ability to plan, design and build monumental complexes; and the desire to match the rhythms of life on earth and the movements of the heavens. Convergence occurred at different times in each region that invented cities. In this insightful book, Brian Berry tells the story of this timing and discusses the planned cities that were created.

Is economic development a "random walk" or do underlying rhythms and cycles make it possible to anticipate long-term trends? Many social scientists have rejected the notion of long-term periodicity in economic trends. Now, after extensive analysis of economic data, distinguished scholar Brian J. L. Berry has found new evidence for the reliability-- and the value-- of "long-wave" theory.

In "Long-Wave Rhythms in Economic Development and Political Bahavior," Berry argues that the synchronization of long waves and growth cycles is "more than a figment of some overactive imagination." Presenting his findings graphically, he argues that there is persuasive evidence of the existence of "deterministic chaos." Applying his analysis of rates of change to the economic phenomena of prices (Kondratiev cycles) and growth (Kuznets cycles), he discovers that pairs of 25-year growth cycles are embedded within 55-year long waves. As a result, Berry concludes, two different kinds of growth cycles-- one inflationary and the other deflationary-- form a complementary pattern of alternating crises with stagflation and depression. Berry also explores the "shifting sand" of cyclical phenomena in the stock market, voting behavior, the incidence of wars, the rise and fall of great powers, and mass psychologies. While avoiding dogmatic conclusions, he offers a provocative discussion of the long-wave context of social phenomena.

As he examines the American economy in long-wave context, Berry optimistically asserts that the "bust" is not inevitable. Technological advances in information transfer enable leaders and organizations to anticipate and alleviate the adverse effects of economic cycles. "Like it or not," he writes, "our lives appear to be embedded in a higher order of complexity: collectively, we are a societal organism that displays self-regulating fluctuations around a path of growth."