Here’s the cover of my book. It’s finally going to come out, even though it’s still months away. The book looks at something I call possessive spectatorship in the American city, a way of looking that doubles as a kind of collecting. I trace this idea from the late 19th century to the early 21st century, culminating in a discussion of what I call the digital possessive, which is manifested in the Database city – a city with no content other than to grant access to content. The book covers a good span of American urban history, but I’m careful not to characterize the book as an urban history. It does not really tell the history of the American city; however, that history is a backdrop to a history of urban spectatorship.
