Reviews for Cities of the American West: A History of Frontier Urban Planning

The average rating for Cities of the American West: A History of Frontier Urban Planning based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-01-13 00:00:00 Angelos Metaxas Excellent book. Probably one of the best [non-fiction] history books I have yet to read. It is meticulous in its citations, well-organised such that the history is put into context and becomes as gripping a story as any fiction book or movie. The book covers an incredibly broad range of topics; it's not just about European pirates of the 1600 and 1700s. In this book, you'll find the history of pirates of Madagascar, the Americas, the Orient, and even a bit about land pirates. It doesn't just dictate to you what the history was, either; it speculates and draws conclusions from documented and cited sources. It always admits to what it doesn't know, so you get a very healthy mix of hard facts about pirates and the conclusions that may be drawn from evidence left to us by writers of the time. Highly recommended.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-12-20 00:00:00 Ej Fesler By no means authoritative, but a highly entertaining and very well researched read that looks at piracy contextually and over the course of centuries. My only gripe - its all too brief overview of modern piracy, in stark contrast to the rest of the book which is story-rich and gives a real taste of what life on the high seas must have been back in the time of Blackbeard and Jacques de Sores.