Triumph of The City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier (2011)

Cities concentrate luxuries and entertainments. High-end goods, engaging plays, and creative cuisines are for sale, produced by interesting people who, in turn, attract more interesting people. Companies move to large, appealing urban centers partly to draw from the pool of talented workers who flock to those places.

The sheer size of cities makes possible many of these arts. London in the late 1500s had grown large enough to support permanent theaters with their sets, actors, and directors. The many productions brought into one area a number of brilliant playwrights, including Shakespeare and Marlowe, who picked up ideas from each other’s plays and developed them into their own works. To this day, London’s West End theatrical performances are the envy of the English-speaking world.

Major entertainment tends to evolve in live venues of big cities, where, as in Renaissance London, creative artists learn from each other. In the 1970s, DJ Kool Herc used turntables like instruments at night clubs, Grandmaster Flash and MC Melle Mel added vocals, and soon Def Jam Records was recording Rap albums and changing the world of music.

Restaurants in big cities take advantage of the large pool of specialized talent available there to create exotic, innovate dishes served in beautifully designed dining rooms.