The first edition of Olympic Cities, edited by John and Margaret Gold, provided the first full overview of the changing relationship between cities and the Olympic events since 1896. This
substantially revised and enlarged edition builds on the success of its predecessor. Three years on, its coverage takes account of important new scholarship as well as adding reflections on the
experience of staging Beijing 2008 and Vancouver 2010, the state of preparations for London 2012, and the plans for the Games scheduled for Sochi in 2014 and Rio de Janeiro 2016.
The first of the book's three parts provides overviews of the urban legacy of the four component Olympic festivals: the Summer Games; Winter Games; Cultural Olympiads; and the Paralympics. The
second part comprises systematic surveys of five key aspects of activity involved in staging the Olympics: finance; place promotion; security; urban regeneration; and tourism. The final part
consists of ten chronologically arranged portraits of host cities, from 1936 to 2016, with particular emphasis on the first four Summer Olympic brand.
As controversy over the growing size and expense of the Olympics continues unabated, this book's incisive and timely assessment of the Games' development and the complex agendas that host
cities attach to the event will be essential reading not only for urban and sports historians, urban geographers, planners and all concerned with understanding the relationship between cities
and culture, but for anyone with an interest in the staging of mega-events.
