The City in History
Encyclopedia
The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects is a 1961 National Book Award winner by American historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford
Lewis Mumford was an American historian, philosopher of technology, and influential literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a broad career as a writer...

.

It was first published by Harcourt, Brace & World
Harcourt (publisher)
Harcourt was a United States publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. The company was based in San Diego, California, with an Editorial / Sales / Marketing / Rights offices in New York City and Orlando, Florida.In 2007, the U.S...

 (New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

).

Mumford notes in his preface that, due to the limitations of his personal experience and study, he is unable to explore regions he has less familiarity:


As in all my other studies of the city, I have confined myself as far as possible to cities and regions I am acquainted with at first hand, and to data in which I have long been immersed. This has limited me to Western civilization, and even there I have been forced to leave out large significant tracts: namely, Spain and Latin America, Palestine, Eastern Europe, Soviet Russia. I regret these omissions; but since my method demands personal experience and observation, something unreplaceable by books, it would take another lifetime to make them good.

Synopsis

In the book Mumford urges for a world not in which technology reigns, but rather where it achieves a balance with nature. His ideal vision is what can be described as an "organic city," where culture is not usurped by technological innovation but rather thrives with it.

Mumford contrasts these cities with those constructed around wars, tyrants, poverty, etc. However, the book is not an attack on the city, but rather an evaluation of its growth, how it came to be, and where it is heading, as evidenced by the final chapter "Retrospect and Prospect."

Style

Mumford's florid writing style is also "organic" compared to the cold, mechanical style of many history texts. Stylistically, his works are full of metaphors and similies, as well as quotations from famous novelists, giving his prose shades of poetry. He refers to such texts as Great Expectations
Great Expectations
Great Expectations is a novel by Charles Dickens. It was first published in serial form in the publication All the Year Round from 1 December 1860 to August 1861. It has been adapted for stage and screen over 250 times....

and Hard Times
Hard Times
Hard Times - For These Times is the tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book appraises English society and is aimed at highlighting the social and economic pressures of the times....

, sometimes using citations to illustrate to the reader what life was like during the industrial era and city in which Dickens lived.

Articles have been written on Mumford's use of metaphors and how his works can often be read as "fiction", in the sense that they have narrative flow. This is evident in the book, in which, instead of a human protagonist on which the story centers, we have the city and its growth in a quasi-bildungsroman fashion.

Contents

Preface
  1. Sanctuary, Village, and Stronghold
  2. The Crystallization of the City
  3. Ancestral Forms and Patterns
  4. The Nature of the Ancient City
  5. Emergence of the Polis
  6. Citizen Versus Ideal City
  7. Hellenistic Absolutism and Urbanity
  8. Megalopolis into Necropolis
  9. Cloister and Community
  10. Medieval Urban Housekeeping
  11. Medieval Disruptions, Modern Anticipations
  12. The Structure of Baroque Power
  13. Court, Parade, and Capital
  14. Commercial Expansion and Urban Dissolution
  15. Paleolithic Paradise: Coketown
  16. Suburbia--and Beyond
  17. The Myth of Megalopolis
  18. Retrospect and Prospect

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Index

Editions

  • Hardcover, MJF Books (August 1997) ISBN 978-1567312119
  • Paperback, Harvest Books (October 1968) ISBN 978-0156180351
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK