Throughout the centuries, squatting has been one of the most pervasive forms of human settlement. From resistance to the enclosure movement in early modern Europe to the gradual settlement of the USA, ordinary people have continually and illegally seized unoccupied and underutilized lands. By some reliable estimates, urban squatters make up one-tenth of the world population (about 600 million people). How did this happen, and how are squatters able to survive in what are often sub-Dickensian conditions? Shadow Cities offers an historically based justification of squatters’ rights, arguing that property rights are not ‘natural.’ To argue his case, Neuwirth provides rich first-hand accounts of squatters in megacities throughout the world – Rio, Delhi, Istanbul and Nairobi. As squatters have come to dominate these cities and develop new forms of property rights, they are a preview of the world’s urban future. Neuwirth contrasts this with a history of squatting in the US up to the present, and shows how draconian anti-squatting laws are out of step with a world whose population of impoverished people is rapidly growing.