Second Metropolis: Pragmatic Pluralism in Gilded Age Chicago, Silver Age Moscow, and Meiji Osaka

In the introduction the author tries to explain his approach, again emphasizing that he begins with Moscow and expands outward to the other two cities as "ideal sites for the sorts of explorations of continuity and difference required to bring fresh perspectives to the study of Russia" (p. 4). While one may legitimately wonder about the extent to which the pluralism the author emphasizes is a product of his selection of cities to study, or, on the other hand, a characteristic of all cities everywhere in the world in this period, his argument is certainly both coherent and stimulating.