Welcome!

—and enjoy this picture of my cat preventing me from reading. (I feel like any cat owner understands the paralysis that this causes.)

About the Newsletter

HIMBy (which means History in my Backyard, or this—either is appropriate) is a newsletter that examines the origins and stories of cities. Why did London become the capital of England, and then the UK? How did fengshui shape the layouts of cities like Kyoto or Taipei? What happened to the Native American metropolis in Missouri? And why on Earth did we build Phoenix? (Sorry, Phoenicians!)

Let me give you my credentials: I’m an urban planning expert that has worked in the field for about 10 years now, both in the United States and in Taiwan. I’m also a life-long history nerd that previously considered a PhD in Byzantine History. Thirdly, I’m also a writer—both of the fiction and non-fiction persuasion—that loves to tell stories. So, an all-of-the-above newsletter was a no-brainer.

Content

A subscription to HIMBy will give you access to the following products:

• Cities

  • Well-researched, weekly questions that explore topics about cities from around the world. While history-focused, this series will touch on many different themes: economics, archeology, technology, and cartography, to name a few.

• Thoughts This Week

  • Weekly written updates about what I’m reading or things I’m mulling over. I sometimes post short stories when the mood strikes. Expect to receive these on Fridays. Maximum word count should not exceed 1,000 words.

• Book Summaries

  • Overviews of a book that I’ve read. Topics will vary, but I’ll give a summary, my thoughts, and bring up related books, if applicable. Word count should be ~1,000 words/newsletter. Upload schedule will vary depending on the length of the book that I’m reading, but expect 1-2/month.

• Deep Dives (paid subscriptions only)

  • Series of thorough explorations. I provide introductions, reading recommendations for experts in the field, contemporary discourse, and interviews or summaries of talks with academics.

    • First Deep Dive: The Medieval Roman Empire (aka Byzantium) and Constantinople

• The Archives (paid subscriptions only)

  • Access to an inventory of all my content

Please Subscribe!

Subscriptions are absolutely free and you can unsubscribe at any time. If you’d like to become a paid subscriber, you will get full access HIMBy, including the Deep Dives and The Archives.

If you’d like to follow me on socials, my Bluesky is @blakeanderson.bsky.social