Villes de passage

« Geert Mak on urban history and nomadism Dutch author Geert Mak, who recently wrote a book about Istanbul, talks with Alan Posener and Jennifer Wilton about the historical dimensions of a European city. "Even a young European city like Berlin is filled to the brim with history. But in Istanbul, history is being removed with a bulldozer. The old Ottoman Istanbul can scarcely be found. ... The city has become part of a development that Robert Kaplan once called the new nomadism. Millions of people rotate between this city and that one, while the cities themselves become more closely linked, and more similar, to each other. Kaplan calls them 'Metroplexes'. And my home town of Amsterdam is one of them. People don't put down roots in such cities. The historic sections are merely open-air museums now. But there is also a counter-reaction. ? We people have a great knack at making cities anonymous. But we also have a great ability to make them our own again » Le lien