The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects - Softcover

Mumford, Lewis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156180359 ISBN 13: 9780156180351

Publisher: Mariner Books, 1968

Synopsis

The city’s development from ancient times to the modern age. Winner of the National Book Award. “One of the major works of scholarship of the twentieth century” (Christian Science Monitor). Index; illustrations.

About this title

Review:

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.

About the Author:

Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1955 and received the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. He is the author of The City in History, The Culture of Cities, Condition of Man, Interpretations and Forecasts, and Sketches from Life.

About this edition

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 1968
• ISBN 10: 0156180359
• ISBN 13: 9780156180351
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 657