Wilson flies high in his historical overview of these great cities. He did help me in enlarging my understanding of the political climate of Rome with Emperors and Popes. ( )

This book is a rare find: a history that’s interesting to read. Wilson stands in the company of Thomas Cahill in his ability to make centuries of history read like a gripping plot.

The book’s title is self-explanatory. Wilson surveyed the history of five major cities, with particular attention given to the major innovation each one offered the world: Jerusalem’s spiritual freedom, Athens' democratic ideal, Rome’s wrestling with law and justice, London’s literary prowess, and New York’s free-enterprise spirit.

Although Wilson’s field of expertise is Christian theology, he seems equally adept discussing the battle of Salamis as he is the history of Second Temple Judaism. It’s important to note that his worldview is thoroughly Christian. The epilogue explains the marriage of the city of God with the city of man in the incarnation.

My only qualm about this book is its Western bias. It could be more aptly titled “5 cities that ruled the West” since Jerusalem is the only semi-eastern city on the list. Mumbai, Honk Kong, Muscow, and Tokyo could also have made the list.

That said, it’s an excellent survey of the history of Western Civilization as represented in five major cities. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I received this book as a member of Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Blogger program. ( )

Douglas Wilson, a pastor and a prolific writer who has taught his readers many things about theology, the family, and education, turns his attention to world history in Five Cities that Ruled the World. The five cities that he has chosen are Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and New York. In the introduction, he admits that many more than five "have ruled the political world temporarily," but he chooses these five because of their "enormous influence down to the present day."

Rather than examining these five cities in depth, Wilson moves quickly through the history of each city, dropping anchor long enough to highlight events and people and how they form the heritage that these cities left us.

In his dash through time, Wilson gives insight to events that have troubled people since, such as the Crusades. To straighten out this tangle, he drew a distinction between a just cause for a war and just behavior in conducting the war. There can be one without the other.

When looking at the American Revolution, he noted that in the 60 years prior to the beginning of the war, 600,000 persecuted Presbyterian Scots immigrated to the American Colonies. These immigrants (we would call them refugees today), who knew what they could lose, became Washington's soldiers. Knowing this, we can see that "it was not a new war, but the continuation of an old one."

A point that he makes throughout the book is the cities often rose to power because of the freedom of their citizens and declined as they lost their freedoms. It seems that he noticed this pattern as he was writing the book and this theme builds to a crashing wave.

Wilson's writing is uneven. This is a book different from all the others that he has written. He is usually conversational, but he attempts to take a scholarly approach and uses a writing style to match it. Then he jolts the reader from the argument that he has been building with his unique humor that doesn't work with the formal style of writing that he trying to employ. It is like he has been serious for too long, and it is time to let it all go. After quoting Marlowe's line about Helen's being the face that launched a thousand ships, wondered if "perhaps this might provide a modern scientific scale for measuring feminine attractiveness and beauty--.001 helen being a sufficient magnitude of beauty to launch one ship."

Another time, he says that the Puritans "were an exuberant group, full or, as the French might say, les beans." On the positive side, this insertion of jocularity shows his sincerity and interest in his topic. A word picture and a little humor can sometimes tell us more than a page full of scholastic prose.

And there are times that he so quickly drops an event that there is a discontinuity. Sometimes it seems as if he is just giving us trivia. But Wilson relies on his themes to tie everything together. It isn't his purpose to present all the details of history, but to show how history shaped the city. Since the history of some of these cities overlap, Wilson sometimes mentions an event in one chapter and gives more details in the another. For those who want to know more, his notes in the back of the book are extensive and useful.

The reader will be left wanting more if he desires thorough accounts of history, but he will be amazed at how the history of each city uniquely influenced the rest of us. ( )