Hamburg story

Emigrants left Germany from Hamburg. The Beatles honed their skills there. Today, it’s home to 40 theaters, 60 museums, 160 art galleries and 259 libraries. It’s the country’s second-largest city, and historian Matthew Jefferies describes its past and present in “Hamburg: A Cultural History” (2011, Interlink, 256 pp., $15). Part guidebook, part history, the book dispels the image of Hamburg as just a “mercantile” city and celebrates its cosmopolitan nature.