Memories of Cities

Jonathan Charley, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

’By turns magisterial and single-minded, political and personal, analytic and argumentative, and sobering and inspiring, Charley's wonderfully engaging essays offer a unique and indispensable insight into modern cities and architecture. Memories of Cities is a must read.’ Iain Borden, UCL Bartlett School of Architecture, UK 'Memories of Cities has delicately indulged in memoirs, letters and diary entries to further enhance and reflect the diverse output of cities... The very first page provides an intense array of information both about the author and his narrations. The themes expressed are recursive and tastefully mannered through each subject matter. Utopia, Revolution, Capitalism and Empire from the foundation of what can again, only be described as eclectic and mature words from Charley.' Building Design Book Club 'Memories of Cities employs Charley’s vast sweep of cultural and theoretical reference, handled with his usual confidence and clarity... Memories of Cities ought to be read well beyond architectural academia, and is written with sufficient clarity and force to grip anyone who has an interest in the world around them.' SEDA Magazine 'This book is for those who want to sample an alternative view on architecture, at once gripping, mesmerising, liberating, often beguiling and thoroughly unique'. RIAS Quarterly 'Here is a lively volume by a widely read and wonderfully inquisitive scholar ... Charley’s seminars must often be tremendous. I bet he engages his students, just as he has engaged this reviewer, and that they learn well from him.' Geographical Review

• Chapter 1 The Glimmer of Other Worlds: Questions on Alternative Architectural Practice; Chapter 2 Violent Stone: The City of Dialectical Justice – Three Tales from Court; Chapter 3 Paris: Ghosts and Visions of a Revolutionary City; Chapter 4 Letters from the Front Line of the Building Industry: 1918–1938; Chapter 5 Foreign Bodies: Corps Etranger; Chapter 6 The (Dis)Integrating City: The Russian Architectural and Literary Avant-Garde; Chapter 7 Sketches of War II: The Graveyards of Historical Memory; Chapter 8 The Shadow of Economic History II: The Architecture of Boom, Slump and Crisis; Chapter 9 Scares and Squares II: A Literary Journey into the Architectural Imaginary;