Why do we have to cite the CITY of publication in a bibliography?

Question

MLA, APA, and just about every other citation style requires that we cite the city of publication of a book. How is that information useful? How was it ever useful? And why aren't we changing it now?

Wouldn't it make more sense to cite the ISBN instead?

Answer 1

Some book publishers (such as Harper Collins) have multiple offices (New York, London), and in the past, each office would function independently (so the New York division wouldn't be responsible for publishing books handled by the London division). At the time, you would have needed to list the city to know which office to contact about the book.

You are right, though- in today's publishing world, these distinctions have been almost completely eliminated, but MLA (and other similar) rules persist for the same reason all out-of-date rules persist- no one wants to put in the effort to change them.