City Life: Urban Expectations in a New World

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Why are North American cities so different from European cities? This is
the question Professor Witold Rybczynski attempts to answer. Although
this book is obviously not meant to be the definitive work on the
subject, it falls far short of even Rybczynski’s stated objective,
which is to examine “cities as they are, not as they might be.” Part
of the problem is the sheer volume of the challenge.

If Rybczynski had narrowed the comparison to national capitals or
industrial boom towns or old cities struggling with modern pressures, he
might have managed to bring some cohesiveness to the text. Instead the
reader seems to be unceremoniously punted from New England town to
European capital and from colonial village to postwar American suburbia.
The text also lacks the incisive observations and juicy tidbits of
social history that pack Rybczynski’s other books. This work appears
tired and confused by comparison, as if the author had run out of ideas.