Noir Urbanisms: Dystopic Images of the Modern City

(Princeton University Press) The contributors trace the history of the modern city through its critical representations in art, movies, literature, sociology, print journalism, and architecture. The book focuses on visual forms of dystopic representation and examines their strengths and limits as urban criticism. Essays include explorations of dystopic images in many different cities, including those in Germany, Mexico, Japan, India, South Africa, China, and the U.S. Prakash is the Dayton-Stock Professor of History at Princeton University.