Recommendations for a layman of documentaries or books that look at the history of the city? From geographic choice and human change of it to changes to a city throughout history? [x-post from urbanplanning]

by FlakyAdeptness

I apologize if this isn't the proper subreddit to ask, but I'm interested in learning more about cities as a concept (I suppose). A historical look at geographic locations typically settled, how humans intentionally or unintentionally changed the land to better suit themselves, and the changing of cities through time. I'm not sure if there are any documentaries or books that cover this topic, as most of my looking comes up with stuff about very modern cities (or theoretical futurization). If anyone knows of anything that may be similar to what I'm looking for that would be amazing.

(This is copy and pasted from my thread in /r/urbanplanning, someone suggested I crosspost the question here)

Kugelfang52

This doesn’t specifically look at trends in cities, but Nature’s Metropolis by William Cronon is a fabulous read of a topic you are interested in. He looks at the development of Chicago in the 19th century through the lens of the environment. Specific to Chicago, but broadly applicable.