I've always been fascinated to old black-and-white photos, especially ones that show growth over time. The book Skylines: American Cities Yesterday and Today by M. Hill Goodspeed is a visually stunning look at some major American cities, both early in their history, and how they look now. The only drawback to the book... it is *really* heavy! :)

Contents:
The Northeast: New York; Hartford; Providence; Boston; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.
The Southeast: Richmond; Charlotte; Charleston; Atlanta; Savannah; Jacksonville; Tampa; Orlando; Miami
The Midwest: Chicago; Milwaukee; Madison; Minneapolis; St. Paul; Detroit; Cleveland; Columbus; Cincinnati; Indianapolis; St. Louis; Kansas City
South Central: Louisville; Nashville; Memphis; Little Rock; New Orleans; Dallas; Austin; San Antonio; Houston
The West: Denver; Salt Lake City; Las Vegas; Phoenix; San Diego; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Portland; Seattle; Honolulu

Most of the city chapters cover two double-page spreads. The first two page combination gives a short history of the city, along with a number of black-and-white photos covering an earlier time in the city's history. There's usually at least one panoramic black-and-white picture showing an early version of the skyline, as well as a hand-drawn map of the city, complete with minute details common to those early days of mapmaking. Each of the photos has detailed captions that tell the viewer what they're seeing. Turning the page gets you a full color panoramic picture of the current skyline, quite often shot at twilight or night. The effect is a beautiful image of the city in all its splendor. This color image is also annotated with a guide to all the major building that show up.

This is the true definition of a coffee-table book... one that you'd place on your coffee-table for viewing by guests. But in this case, you'll need the coffee-table just to hold the thing! It's a foot and a half wide, and a foot high, with a weight tipping the scales over seven pounds. The paper weight is heavy and high-quality, so you're assured of getting beautiful images. Just don't expect to read this in bed propped up on your chest. I tried... it doesn't work. :)

I think the first thing to say about this book is the huge size. Almost eighteen inches wide with forty-eight city panoramas that open up to thirty-three inches wide so you'll rarely have seen your downtown in such a dramatic format. Enhanced all the more because many of the shots are taken at dusk or night which brings out the kaleidoscope of lights typical of city centers.

All of the contemporary photography was done by James Blakeway who seems to specialize in aerial photography of the world's cities. Check out the Blakeway Worldwide Panoramas website to see a whole load more photos and read how Blakeway achieves these eye-popping images.

I would be happy if the book just contained the forty-eight city center panoramas but there is a spread preceeding each image that has text and several historical illustrations to reveal the background of each place. The text and picture captions are rather generalized (how can anyone sum up a city in a few hundred words?) and I thought it might have been helpful to include a short bibliography about each city. The panoramas have their own captions which name the main buildings and fortunately someone had the good sense to include a simple skyline drawing with the buildings numbered.

One of the strenghts of the book, I thought, was the concentration on downtown rather than high aerial shots. San Francisco is shot like this (and the camera angle makes it look remarkably like a version of Sim City) with the buildings stretching away from you but if you cover the downtown buildings it looks very much like any other city. The downtowns of so many places in the book are quite unique: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Memphis, Dallas or Atlanta for instance. It is the skyscraper, I think, that makes most of the panoramas so fascinating.

Aerail shots of America, whether cities, suburbs, country or just the untouched by man areas (and there are plenty left in the Nation) produce intriguing photos and a book I've enjoyed a lot is Alex MacLean's Designs on the Land: Exploring America From the Air with 420 wonderful photos of everything from above.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

the book was great the skylins shots are great in the book and my city jacksonville florida is in there the pictures are amazing i recommend the book to anyone who takes an interest in cities and their skylines

My 11 year old son is very interested in large cities with lots of skyscrapers so when I found this book it was perfect for him. The book contains very interesting historical photos of each city as well as an incredibly beautiful 2-page full color aerial photo. The aerial view is a sight to behold and provides a view of each city that the average person would never see. The recap at the bottom of each photo provides terrific information on buildings and items of interest shown in the photo. This is a great addition to our library of geographic books and one that we will enjoy for many years to come. So what was his favorite Christmas gift? It was the Skylines of the World book by this same author.

The oversized, oblong shape of this lovely title will challenge library shelves but lends to display: perfect for the panoramic scenes of American skylines which is the focus of Skylines: American Cities Yesterday And Today. The world's first skyscraper in Chicago was finished in 1885, but skyscrapers have graced almost every large American city since. This celebration provides modern photos of almost fifty such skyscrapers, adding more from around the world and providing historical photos and maps for each city. Personal travel and research combined with these original shots makes Skylines a unique and important contribution to American architectural, city planning, and urban studies.