Ed Glaeser has been making the rounds promoting his new book, The Triumph of the City, and while I don’t love the title, the book is really very good. I read in this literature all the time, so I was expecting a pop version of his previous papers, rehashed. But no. While the book is accessible and he goes over ground that feels like it’s been plowed thoroughly before, he’s got such a forceful and original way of thinking about things that even with well-worn topics (like population densities) he gets you thinking in an original way.

Here’s a video of Glaeser discussing the material on BookTV to get you started.