London

I have been reading (and by reading I mean listening to in the car while commuting) London: A History by A. N. Wilson, a very short but enjoyable account of how the city grew.

One of my favorite comments related to the stagnation of London between the departure of the Romans and the arrival of the Normans. Why? Because the Britons and the Saxons didn't have brick technology, and the orderly, low-lying London area was indefensible and couldn't be properly utilized using sticks, thatch, and mud building materials. Yay Norman Conquest, which finally fixed this technological shortcoming.

Another interesting line, paraphrased here from memory, dealt with the modern English "queue mentality":

The new London mayor Ken Livingstone [elected in 1996 - Ed.] promised to do something about parking problems in the West End, and instituted a permit program so bureaucratic that it actually solved the problem because so few were able to navigate the permit process. However, it did not raise the fees revenue that was anticipated, and could be said to be a victim of its own success, that is to say, a failure.