Five Cities That Ruled the World

When it came time to selecting another book to review for Thomas Nelson, I jumped on this one. I love, love, love history. I have always enjoyed American history (particularly the Civil War era and our role in World War I), but over the past several years, I have become more interested in the ancient world of the Romans and Greeks as well; this book therefore seemed like a natural choice.

Douglas Wilson's Five Cities that Ruled the World attempts to take the reader on a journey of history, focusing on five specific cities. The premise is that these five particular cities (Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and New York) have profoundly affected and shaped not only the world of its time, but also left an indelible mark on global history. While there was definitely some interesting information relayed throughout the book, the journey seemed rather choppy and well...incomplete. The topic itself is quite a bit to cover in less than two hundred pages, and I found some of the content lacking.

I'll admit; I was a bit cynical going into the book because of the five cities Wilson chose to examine. I do believe that Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and New York have all been incredibly important pieces of the global historical puzzle, but I couldn't help but notice the significant lack of cities from the East, not to mention the complete absence of cities in the Southern hemisphere. Truthfully, I believe our historical education can be lacking; we discuss certain events ad naseum but barely mention an entire half of the globe.  I firmly believe that in order to truly understand the importance of certain historical events, we must have a better grasp of world history. And the last time I checked, the world included the continents of Africa, Australia, and South America, as well as the rest of Asia. Perhaps Wilson's choice of these five cities simply reflects our Western education, and I can't very well fault him for that...necessarily.

Another aspect of this book that was more annoying than anything was Wilson's attempts at humor. Let me put it quite simply: it did not work. I felt his puns and quips were more of an after-thought, as though he did not believe anyone would be interested in reading this type of book unless it was funny at parts. His writing would have been clearer and much more effective if he had simply stuck to the good, meaty content instead of muddling it up with snide remarks.

Though this book began with an excellent concept, the research and content needs to be flushed out more to truly understand and appreciate the value of what it written on the pages. There needs to be a better justification for the selection of the cities as well. However, this book may serve a purpose in piquing someone's interest; perhaps readers of this book will learn to love history and appreciate the lessons to be learned from the past.