A City on a Lake

A City on a Lake: Urban Political Ecology and the Growth of Mexico City examines the environmental and political transformation of the Mexican capital. Matthew Vitz analyzes how a forested, water-rich basin developed into a smog-plagued megacity burdened by social inequality.

The book demonstrates that this urban shift grew out of scientific and social disputes over housing, forestry, water policy, and sanitary engineering. These debates highlight the broader ways urban power was exercised, reproduced, and contested across different historical periods.

Published in the Radical Perspectives series, the text considers prerevolutionary hygiene programs, revolutionary struggles over resources, and mid-twentieth-century technocratic rule to illuminate urban governance across Latin America.