Restless Cities is a collection of essays that explore the image of cities portrayed in various media, from books to movies. Each essay is concerned with a particular theme, like "Bombing" or "Convalescing". I have to admit, I did not take much away from this book. The essays were interesting enough, but seemed more concerned with the critiquing of the media than with exploring the city. Certainly some of the essays were more enlightening than others, but I found myself near the end of the book struggling to stay interested.
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| Restless Cities cover |
Some of the essays I found more interesting included: "Bombing", "Commuting", and "Driving". "Bombing" explored the current trend toward 24-hour electronic consumerism. "Commuting" was concerned primarily with the commuter as an inhabitant of the city. Commuting becomes a strange middle ground between work and leisure; while one is not working while commuting, it is still a major time cost and certainly not leisure time. It is similar in many senses to child care, cooking, etc.--all actions which are necessary for working, but do not bring a direct paycheck. Finally "Driving" is about driving of course. It is interesting because it explores people's shifting perceptions of the city as they travel at different speeds: 0-30 mph, 30-55 mph, 55-100 mph, and 100+ mph.
There certainly is some valuable information in this book, but I found it somewhat tedious to read. The references to media either required long summaries of the context or no added context, making them laborious or not very informative without reading the original text. I would not really recommend this book unless you have more of an interest in the image of the city as it has been presented throughout the 19th-21st in media. Plus, it was much more sociological than architectural/city planning.
