In this history, each century is examined through the perspective of a city that helped define the age. Maps drawn from a bird's eye's point of view introduce each chapter, then follows a dramatic historical event which represents the spirit of the age under examination. Forming a two-page border around this main illustration is a selective international chronicle of the century's key historical, cultural, scientific and technological events. Inside the covers of Metropolis, readers can see 11th-century Jerusalem as the city falls to the Crusader army; the building of Notre Dame cathedral in 12th-century Paris; a Mongol tent city somewhere in 13th-century Europe; 14th-century Koblenz in the grip of the Black Death; 15th-century Lisbon and Mozambique in the Age of Exploration; Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci at work in 16th-century Florence; 17th-century Osaka in the twilight of the Samurai; a concert hall with Mozart and Beethoven in 18th-century Vienna; 19th-century London in the age of Victoria; and downtown New York in the 20th century.