We like to think of our cities as beacons of civilization, but we are walking through a city of ghosts. Author Mark E. Jemy argues that violence is not an interruption to the story of the city-it is the ink the story is written in.

Blood Cities is a gripping shadow history of the modern metropolis, revealing how conflict, conquest, and the need for control have shaped the streets we walk every day. This book exposes the "ghost in the grid", revealing the true and often brutal purpose behind the world's most famous urban designs.

You will discover:

* The First Wall: Why the first act of city-making, from ancient Jericho to the myth of Rome, was a violent act of separation and fear . * Rome's Blueprint: How the rigid grid of the Roman military camp was a "conqueror's blueprint"-a weapon of control that still defines cities today . * The Boulevard's Blade: Why Baron Haussmann's "beautiful" Parisian boulevards were actually designed as "aesthetics of control" to make it impossible to build barricades and easy for artillery to crush revolutions . * The Geometry of Segregation: How the quiet American suburb, with its "law of the lawn," was a deliberate state-sponsored project built on the economic violence of redlining . * The Modern "Safe" City: How "hostile architecture", surveillance "panopticon plazas", and gentrification as "slow-motion warfare" are the new frontiers of urban conflict.

This book will fundamentally change the way you see the pavement beneath your feet.