“…Metropolis is a book intended for the general reader: map historians and collectors are unlikely to find anything new here. What readers do get is context: almost a potted history of the rise of larger cities. It is also a book where the accent is more on the 217 illustrations than on the text: the extended captions can indeed be read as an alternative narrative. … [It] is commendably wide ranging, both geographically and temporally … Some of the maps … are well-known ‘set pieces’, but there are many others where, even if the city is familiar, the map is not. … A book such as this must stand or fall by its illustrations and general design. The quality of reproduction is generally excellent, and it is worth having a lens to hand to study fine details. … All in all, Metropolis is recommended as an excellent selection of city-maps that is worth having as a picture-source.”

“Contains may superb color photographs that enhance Maxwell’s lively narrative.”

Library Journal

“A beautiful collection of maps, showing how we have drawn cities.”

Daily Telegraph: 100 books for Christmas

“It is rare that a book manages to be both a great work of scholarship and a beautiful object.”

The New Criterion

“…generously fulfills any urbanologist’s fantasy.”

New York Times

“Recommended. All levels/libraries.”

CHOICE Magazine

“A cartographic feast. Delicious. If you’ve ever wondered why cities work, you’ll find the answer in this beautiful book.”

Geographical

“Black’s ambitious text gives us a short global history not only of city mapping but also of the development of cities themselves, from the focal points of power for rulers to the great metropolises in which now, for the first time in history, most of humanity lives. All the many aspects of this essay in human geography, from economics and imperialism to mathematics and environmentalism, are touched on in the author’s easygoing style. Most impressive are the well-informed captions, which show a wealth of background knowledge even when the map is in Chinese or Russian. In colour throughout, the maps are as sharply reproduced as the originals will allow, and of such global variety that even readers who are familiar with the subject will discover many treasures here for the first time.”

“By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population is expected to be urban. Cities have never been as popular or as ambitious. But these cultural blenders, these laboratories of high-density living, are difficult to comprehend. So Jeremy Black’s latest cartographic feast, packed with 217 exquisite maps and views, turns up with delicious punctuality. The aim is to explore through time the visualisation of cities… A constant theme is the quest to recognise form, or some kind of rational structure, in these gigantic human agglomerations. … Cities are artificial constructs on a vast scale, and it takes a strong-willed mapmaker not to respond. Metropolis is a graphic advert for nucleation. If you’ve ever wondered why cities work, you’ll find the answer in this beautiful book.”

“Jeremy Black’s Metropolis: Mapping the City examines how maps of urban spaces came to be, from incised roads on Mesopotamian clay tablets to the pixels of Google Earth. Mr. Black is such an interesting historian that an expanded text would have been welcome, but it is impossible to imagine losing any one of the unusual and extraordinary images he has found. Tinsel rating: 10/10.”

“Now faithfully reproduced page by page, it remains immensely moving in the laughter of its resilience and still relevant as a testament to gallantry under fire.”

The Times

“The humour woven into the correspondence, observations and stories for all 23 issues published characterises an indomitable spirit.”

Discover Britain

“…a remarkable insight into life in the trenches”

Good Book Guide