Joseph Ben Prestel, Emotional Cities: Debates on Urban Change in Berlin and Cairo, 1860-1910

Abstract

Scholars generally portray the urban transformation of cities within the limits of particular regions. Emotional Cities queries this compartmentalization of urban history by analyzing similar transformation process experienced by two cities in different regions-Cairo and Berlin-in the mid-19th century. It thus calls into question conceptions of a Western-centered universal modernization that non-Western regions are obliged to follow. The book further distinguishes itself from other studies on urban history by analyzing urban transformation through the lens of the emotions of city dwellers.Joseph Ben Prestel argues that similar processes of urbanization in both Cairo and Berlin led to new practices and perception of "society." In comparing the two cities, Prestel keeps his focus on the emotions of city dwellers and how they perceived the transformations taking place around them, such as the emergence of entertainment districts. Prestel treats emotions as a social category that bridges the social, the body, and the mind. Changing circumstances in the city affect KİTÂBİYAT / BOOK REVIEWS