Content area
Full text
Metromarxism: A Marxist Tale of the City by Andy Merrifield, Routledge, London and New York, 2002, xii + 221 pp., cloth C$120.00 (ISBN 0-415-93348-X), paper $32.95 (ISBN 0-415-93349-8)
Andy Merrifield's engaging Metromarxism offers an overview of Marxist engagements with the city from the sketchy urban theories of Marx to the revolutionary work of contemporary urbanists like Manuel Castells and David Harvey. Splendidly and energetically written, the book also functions as an introduction to the themes and tropes animating radical geography, to Marxist theories of totality and to the work of the eight thinkers on whom Merrifield concentrates. In addition to Marx, Castells and Harvey, Metromarxism features chapters on Frederick Engels, Walter Benjamin, Henri Lefebvre, Guy Debord and Marshall Berman. Though one could argue with the decision to devote as much space to Berman (largely on the strength of All That is Solid Melts into Air) as to Lefebvre or Benjamin, readers will find much of interest in every chapter, especially chapters approaching...