While Mr. Cave is widely considered to be one of very few people who could write a definitive architectural and socialhistory of New York real estate, that is one volume we are unlikely to enjoy soon.
But as China hurtles headlong into rampant modernization and urbanization, producing millions of new homeowners, its social fabric and thousands of years of its history will no doubt become fundamentally, and irrevocably, altered.
There are also many new novels that, like To Kill a Mockingbird, illuminate social issues not by writing through the broad strokes of history but by developing powerful characters who battle events over which they have little or no control.