Book excerpt: Until around 1990, Shanghai was China's premier but sluggish industrial center. Now at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the joint impact of global forces and state power has turned Shanghai into a dynamic megacity. This collection places the city's unprecedented rise in a rare comparative examination of U.S. cities, as well as with Asian megacities Singapore and Hong Kong, providing a nuanced account of how Shanghai's politics, economy, society, and space have been transformed by macro- and micro-level forces.