Michael Dumper is professor of Middle East politics at the University of Exeter. His many books include Jerusalem Unbound: Geography, History, and the Future of the Holy City (Columbia, 2014). His most recent edited volume is Contested Holy Cities: The Urban Dimension of Religious Conflicts (2019).
Power, Piety and People brings together both sharp political insights into the key dynamics that comprise religious conflicts in cities with detailed studies of relevant of cases across two continents. Dumper examines the patterns of urban conflict that flow from the way key religious sites are used and how they are managed, financed and protected. The result is a fascinating and informative analysis of the complexity and the intractability of religious conflicts which will inform those concerned with the growing challenges of an increasingly urbanized world. -- Lynn Meskell, author of <i>A Future in Ruins: UNESCO, World Heritage, and the Dream of Peace</i> Highly original and fascinating empirical research combined with theoretical depth positions this book on high ground. Dumper adroitly and expertly examines the nexus between religion and urbanity in five holy cities in Israel/Palestine, Spain, India, China, and Malaysia. The book foregrounds the intersection of structural determinants and street-level phenomena as key to understanding whether dominance or tolerance takes hold in urban space. -- Scott Bollens, University of California, Irvine