As society becomes more global, many see the world's great cities asbecoming increasingly similar. But while contemporary cultures do depend on and resemble each otherin previously unimagined ways, homogenization is sometimes overestimated. In his compelling newbook, James W. White considers how two of the world's great cities, Paris and Tokyo, mayappear to be growing more alike--both are vast, modern, dominating, capitalistcities--but in fact remain profoundly different places.Tokyo'sgrowth appears particularly organic, with a pronounced austerity and boundaries far less clear thanthose of Paris, which has been planned and manipulated constantly. Paris has a thriving center and anoticeably more contentious relationship with its nation, and its own suburbs, than Tokyo does. White explores how the roles of cities and urbanism in each society, and the balance between natureand artifice, account for some of these differences. He also examines the role of authority in eachlocation and considers the way catastrophes, such as war, alter a city--as well as the rolefear plays in a city's construction. While the author acknowledges thatTokyo is more physically fluid and superficially chaotic than Paris, he also demonstrates that ithas an invisible order of its own (including a center that, contrary to most assumptions, is notempty at all). White depicts a Tokyo that relies less on the monumental, and is less influenced bygovernment, than most cities in the West. Where the culture of Paris emphasizes clarity, exclusion,and marginality, the public spaces of Tokyo express ambiguity, inclusiveness, and impermanence. In the end, White makes us reconsider which city better deserves the name"e;City of Light."e; Nonetheless, he warns, several factors may combine to discourageTokyo's international ascendance and even to threaten the future of provincial Japan. Thus itmay be Paris, paradoxically, that is better poised to improve both its own position and itscountry's in the years ahead.