Rating
The Pequod Review:
Geoff Manaugh's A Burglar’s Guide to the City has an intriguing premise — an architectural review of urban buildings as seen by those who seek to break into them. Manaugh details the long and ingenious history of such robberies, whether through tunneling, wall-breaking, roof-cutting, lock-picking, or window-climbing — as well as the various security countermeasures that try to prevent break-ins. The overall book is too wordy, with intermittently interesting examples and observations surrounded by a lot of fluff. But some of Manaugh's insights are sharp:
Simply by looking at the regulated placement of fire escapes on the sides of residential high-rises, Dakswin could deduce which floors had fewer apartments (fewer would mean larger, more expensive apartments, more likely to be filled with luxury goods) and even where, on each floor, you might expect to find elevator shafts and apartment entrances.
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Burglary is topology pursued by other means: a new science of the city, proceeding by way of shortcuts, splices, and wormholes.
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If there is a general law of urban criminality here, it’s that cities get the types of crime their design calls for.
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As any FBI agent can tell you, Los Angeles became the bank robbery capital of the world in large part because of its freeways.
Recommended.