Cities and Urban Life (4th Edition) (MySearchLab Series 15% off)
By:
John J. Macionis Vincent N. Parrillo
Buy it now at Amazon.com!
Lowest New Price: $74.49
List Price: $111.60
Average Customer Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Description:
Cities and Urban Life, authored by two of the best-known textbook writers in the field, provides a comprehensive introduction to urban sociology, urban anthropology, and urban studies courses. Primarily sociological in approach, this book incorporates historical, social psychological, geographical, and anthropological insights. While strong in the classical urban sociology, it also gives extensive attention to the "new" political economy approach to urban studies. Also, the authors use global cities as case studies for more relevance to students.
Publisher: Prentice Hall
Customer Review: 3 out of 5
An okay textbook... - Half of the book is citations from other authors. The other half is rambling. If I did not find the subject matter incredibly interesting I probably would have shot myself in the face a long time ago.
There are some parts that are quite amusing and well-written, and the book does succeed in getting its point across in many cases (even if it does take nine times the space), but in my opinion it is not organized too well. By the time you end a section (are there even sections?) you have no idea what the discussion is about. It needs more color and design too. You cannot capture the beauty and awe of a city in 2" x 3" black-and-white photos. I wish they would have included better photos as filler rather than ramble about totally irrelevant things, while making references to streets and locations 99.99% of the people who read this book are totally clueless about.
Customer Review: 2 out of 5
Not a Great Textbook - If you are looking for the philospohy of how urban planning has been viewed through time then maybe this is the book for you. However as a text book it lacks a clear presentation of the information and is incredibly dull. When you read the chapters you have to continually look back at the overview to remember what they are rambling on about. I only gave it 2 stars instead of one because it does have a nice discussion on the philosophy of urban planning.
--> Find out more about "Cities and Urban Life (4th Edition) (MySearchLab Series 15% off)" at Amazon.com or Order Now
| 