'Nobody owes us anything, but the Simple Minds story has been too condensed. After Live Aid and 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' there hasn't been quite the credit for those first few records. I think they contain some really special music. I can hear the flaws but there's something about the spirit and imagination in them that feels good. They draw from such a wide range of influences . . . but the spirit of it was always Simple Minds.' Jim Kerr, to the author An illuminating new biography of one of Britain's biggest and most influential bands, written with the full input and cooperation of Simple Minds, shedding new light on their dazzling art-rock legacy. Themes for Great Cities features in-depth new interviews with original band members Jim Kerr, Charlie Burchill, Mick MacNeil and Derek Forbes, alongside key figures from within their creative community and high-profile fans such as Bobby Gillespie, James Dean Bradfield and Mogwai's Stuart Braithwaite. The book reclaims and revivifies the magnificence of Simple Minds' pioneering early albums, from the glitchy Euro-ambience of Real to Real Cacophony and Empires and Dance to the pulsing, agitated romance of Sons and Fascination, New Gold Dream and beyond. Emerging in 1978 from Glasgow's post-punk scene, Simple Minds transitioned from restless art-rock to electro futurism, mutated into passionate pop contenders and, finally, a global rock behemoth. They have sold in the region of 60 million records and remain a worldwide phenomenon. The drama of their tale lies in these transformations and triumphs, conflicts and contradictions. Themes for Great Cities tells the inside story of a band becoming a band. Inspiring, insightful and enlightening, it celebrates the trailblazing music of one of Britain's greatest groups.

The giant city of today is a unique phenomenon. Never before have such acute problems of government, the provision of essential services, planning, social life, and civilized living arisen from uncontrolled urbanization. In the West and in the East, in the more developed and in the less developed countries, in capitalist and communist states, the great metropolis represents a problem of the first importance which challenges the statesman, the official, the town planner, the political scientist, the sociologist and, above all, the intelligent citizen. The editor has here assembled an authoritative series of studies describing the growth, significance, government, politics adn planning of twenty-four great cities of the world. They show how these widely scattered cities faced essentially similar problems. Each study deals with the actual working of one city in the 1950s, how its elective adn executive bodies are organized, the kind of political forces which motivate their activities, the scope and character of the municipal services, how they are finiance. The cities dealt with include Bombay, Amsterdam, Moscow, Montreal, Stockholm, Rome, New York, London, Sydney and Tokyo. This book was first published in 1954.

China’s rapid urbanization has restructured the great socialist cities Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou into mega cities that embrace global capitalism. This book focuses on the urban transformations of these three cities: Beijing is the nation’s political and cultural capital; Shanghai is the economic and financial powerhouse; and Guangzhou is the capital of Guangdong Province and the regional center of south China. All are historical cities with rich imperial, colonial, and regional heritages, and all have been drastically transformed in the last six decades. This book examines the cities’ continuous urban legacies since 1949 in relation to state governance, economic reforms, and cultural production. By adopting local historical perspectives, it offers more nuanced accounts of the current urban change than the modernization/globalization paradigm and conceptualizes the change in the context of the cities’ socialist, colonial, and imperial legacies. Specifically, Samuel Y. Liang offers an overview of the urban planning and territorial expansion of the great cities since 1949; explores the production and consumption of urban housing, its spatial forms, media representations, and socio-political implications; and examines the state-led redevelopment of old urban cores and residential neighborhoods, and the urban conservation movement. Remaking China’s Great Cities will be of great interest to students and scholars working across a range of fields including Chinese studies, Chinese culture and society, urban studies and architecture.

First Published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.