The Infinite City: Utopian Dreams on the Streets of London

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London is a city of dreamers. A city of possibility and experiment. A city of fervent imaginings and courageous aspirations. For centuries, it has been the capital of utopian thought. The Infinite City tells this history for the first time.
In his soaring new book, Niall Kishtainy draws us into the imaginative worlds of Thomas More, the Diggers, William Morris and Extinction Rebellion protestors. He introduces us to thinkers like Thomas Spence who threw coins stamped with the words YOU FOOLS into the alleys of Holborn. To Ada Salter who was the first woman borough councillor in London and ignited the Bermondsey Revolution. To ninety-two-year-old Dolly Watson who became the queen of Claremont Road in Leytonstone during the Reclaim the Streets protests in the 1990s. These are inspiring tales of people who drew might from the city around them and fought for their ideologies in an increasingly transforming world.

Beginning in the sixteenth century and stretching from the contemporary transformation of the East End docklands to the COVID lockdowns, The Infinite City shows how Londons spirit has been one of visionary imagination amid relentless change and innovation.

Reviews

PRAISE FOR NIALL KISHTAINYS A LITTLE HISTORY OF ECONOMICS

An intellectual treasure trove for anyone interested in history, big ideas, and the role that economic thinking has played in both for more than 2,000 years
Charles Wheelan, author of Naked Economics

Economic theories count among the principal ideas that defined the modern world, yet the origins of the market forces that govern our lives can all too often seem distant and opaque. Enter Niall Kishtainy, who in A Little History of Economics has condensed 2000 years of thought down to 250 highly readable pages. . . . A whistle-stop introduction to the great works and thinkers of each age, this is a clear and accessible primer
Financial Times

A deft, highly readable history of economics, full of humanity. You'll learn a lot I did.
Tim Harford, author The Undercover Economist and How to Make the World Add Up

This book is punchy and fun, and yet thorough in explaining what economists have contributed to our understanding of the world.
Robert J. Shiller, Nobel Laureate in Economics

Author Bio

Niall Kishtainy started his working life in the British civil service, going on to work as a Middle East analyst and researcher, then as an economic adviser to development agencies in Ethiopia, Albania and the Palestinian Territories. After working as a journalist in Cairo, he studied economics as a graduate and began writing about the history of economic thinking and economic struggles of the past. He has given courses in economics and economic history at the London School of Economics and the University of Warwick. He is the author of A Little History of Economics, which has been sold in over twenty languages.