The Next American City: The Big Promise of Our Midsize Metros

From four-term Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, a hopeful and illuminating look at the dynamic and inventive urban centers that will lead the United States in coming years.

Oklahoma City. Indianapolis. Charleston. Des Moines. What do these cities have in common? They are cities of modest size but outsized accomplishment, powered by a can-do spirit, valuing compromise over confrontation and progress over political victory. These are the cities leading America . . . and they're not waiting for Washington's help.

As mayor of one of America's most improved cities, Cornett used a bold, creative, and personal approach to orchestrate his city's renaissance. Once regarded as a forgettable city in "flyover country," Oklahoma City has become one of our nation's most dynamic places-and it is not alone. In this book, Cornett translates his city's success-and the success of cities like his-into a vision for the future of our country.

The Next American City is a story of civic engagement, inventive public policy, and smart urban design. It is a study of the changes re-shaping American urban life-and a blueprint for those to come.

• Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding... Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-class Metropolis
• My Life, My Fight: Rising Up from New Zealand to the OKC Thunder
• Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America
• The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in Urban America
• Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream
• The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism
• Walkable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places
• The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America
• How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone
• Order without Design: How Markets Shape Cities (The MIT Press)