The City in History Totally Explained

Everything about The City In History totally explained

The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects is a 1961 book by American historian Lewis Mumford.
It was first published by Harcourt, Brace & World (New York).
Mumford notes in his preface that, due to the limitations of his personal experience and study, he's unable to explore regions he's less familiarity:

As in all my other studies of the city, I've confined myself as far as possible to cities and regions I'm acquainted with at first hand, and to data in which I've long been immersed. This has limited me to Western civilization, and even there I've 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 isn't usurped by technological innovation but rather thrives with it.
Mumford contrasts these cities with those constructed around wars, tyrants, poverty, etc. However, the book isn't an attack on the city, but rather an evaluation of its growth, how it came to be, and where it's heading, as evidenced by the final chapter "Retrospect and Prospect."

Style

Mumford's writing style is also "organic" instead of 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 and Hard Times, sometimes using citations to illustrate to the reader what life was like during the industrial era and city in which Dickens lived.
There have even been articles written on Mumford's use of metaphors and how his works can often be read as "fiction", in the sense that they've narrative flow. This is evident in the book, in which, instead of a human protagonist on which the story centers, we've the city and its growth in a quasi-bildungsroman fashion.

Preface

Sanctuary, Village, and Stronghold
The Crystallization of the City
Ancestral Forms and Patterns
The Nature of the Ancient City
Emergence of the Polis
Citizen Versus Ideal City
Hellenistic Absolutism and Urbanity
Megalopolis into Necropolis
Cloister and Community
Medieval Urban Housekeeping
Medieval Disruptions, Modern Anticipations
The Structure of Baroque Power
Court, Parade, and Capital
Commercial Expansion and Urban Dissolution
Paleolithic Paradise: Coketown
Suburbia--and Beyond
The Myth of Megalopolis
Retrospect and Prospect Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index

Editions

Hardcover, MJF Books (August 1997) ISBN 978-1567312119

Paperback, Harvest Books (October 1968) ISBN 978-0156180351

Further Information

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Everything about The City In History totally explained

Synopsis

Style

Contents

Editions