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

Numerous illustrations & photographs. 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 and 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. Paleotechnic Paradise: Coketown; 16. Suburbia - and Beyond; 17. The Myth of Megalopolis; 18. Retrospect and Prospect; Bibliography; Acknowledgments; Index. "Lewis Mumford (October 19, 1895 – January 26, 1990) was an American historian and philosopher of technology and science. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a tremendously broad career as a writer that also included a period as an influential literary critic. Mumford was influenced by the work of Scottish theorist Sir Patrick Geddes. Mumford was also a contemporary and friend of Frank Lloyd Wright, Frederic Osborn, Edmund N. Bacon, and Vannevar Bush."