"This is a book that confronts one of the least known but most important facts about the world's cities: that they are home to more than a billion squatters. Within a generation, that number is projected to grow to two billion - and more than half the people living in cities will be squatters. Yet most outsiders are unwilling to step into their communities, fearing crime, disease, and distress." "Investigative reporter Robert Neuwirth spent two years living in squatter neighborhoods on four continents. In Shadow Cities, he reports what he has learned from squatters in Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, Mumbai, and Nairobi. He started his journey prepared to find squatters as signifiers of urban decay and lawlessness. Instead, he found vital communities of industrious and highly moral people who have built communities of lasting power." "Shadow Cities dispels the myth that shantytowns are purely a third world phenomenon, showing that the great cities of Europe and North America were once dominated by shantytowns. And Neuwirth shows that squatters will build vital neighborhoods without private titles as long as they know they are not subject to eviction." "Shadow Cities acknowledges that the world of the squatters may be gritty, but it shows that it is governed by hope. Squatters, Neuwirth argues are building the cities of tomorrow."--Jacket.