Taking us back to the earliest days of cities and the earliest days of human civilization in Mesopotamia, Pedro Azara in Cornerstone offers a contemporary view on the rise and growth of early cities and urban culture. Investigating ruins and exploring archaeological sites, Azara helps us understand how the earliest cities looked and felt, what the first architects and their buildings were like, and what nascent aesthetic ideals they upheld. Azara s scholarship is rigorous and far-reaching, but his writing is agile, direct, and entertaining as he not only brings the far-distant past to...