By Lewis Mumford
(New York: Harvest books, 1968); 978-0156180351
Lewis Mumford's massive historical study brings together a
wide array of evidence--from the earliest group habitats to medieval towns to
the modern centers of commerce (as well as dozens of black-and-white illustrations)--to
show how the urban form has changed throughout human civilization. His tone is
ultimately somewhat pessimistic: Mumford was deeply concerned with what he
viewed as the dehumanizing aspects of the metropolitan trend, which he deemed "a
world of professional illusionists and their credulous victims." (In
another typically unrestrained criticism, he dubbed the Pentagon a Bronze Age
monument to humanity's basest impulses, as well as an "effete and
worthless baroque conceit.") Mumford hoped for a rediscovery of urban
principles that emphasized humanity's organic relationship to its environment. The
City in History remains a powerfully influential work, one that has shaped
the agendas of urban planners, sociologists, and social critics since its
publication in the 1960s. (Amazon.com)