America is an urban nation. More than two thirds of us live on the three percent of land that contains our cities. Yet cities get a bad rap: they're dirty, poor, unhealthy, crime ridden, expensive, environmentally unfriendly. Or are they?As Edward Glaeser proves in this myth-shattering book, cities are actually the healthiest, greenest, and richest (in cultural and economic terms) places to live. New Yorkers, for instance, live longer than other Americans; heart disease and cancer rates are lower in Gotham than in the nation as a whole. More than half of America's income is earned in twenty-two metropolitan areas. And city dwellers use, on average, 40 percent less energy than suburbanites.Glaeser travels through history and around the globe to reveal the hidden workings of cities and how they bring out the best in humankind. Even the worst cities-Kinshasa, Kolkata, Lagos-confer surprising benefits on the people who flock to them, including better health and more jobs than the r

愛德華•格萊澤（Edward Glaeser），芝加哥大學博士、哈佛大學經濟學教授，陶布曼國傢和地方政府研究中心主任、拉帕波特大波士頓研究所負責人、曼哈頓研究中心高級研究員，《城市期刊》（City Journal）特約編輯。格萊澤側重於從經濟學角度去研究城市、住宅、種族隔離、肥胖、犯罪、創新等課題，並為《紐約時報》的博客Economix撰寫過大量有關此類主題的文章。