This is a cultural guide to the city of Berlin. It is designed to offer a more comprehensive survey than a standard tourist guidebook. While there is a chapter on classic things to do in the city, other topics include architecture, geography, literature, music, and the arts, as well as the social and political history of the city, chapters on its money and crime, myths and religions, and history from the Middle Ages to contemporary times. There is a center section of color photographs, and the text is designed with readable topic-based chapters. These show armchair travelers the personality of the city and help tourists prepare for a visit and understand what they see, rather than providing a flip-through tourist guide of well-known landmarks and nightspots. The author is a long-time resident of Berlin now living in the US; he is a teacher of English literature, and the text is well written in English in an encyclopedic style. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)