Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Cities in Civilization

Peter Geoffrey Hall

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Ranging over 2,500 years, Cities in Civilization is a tribute to the city as the birthplace of Western civilization. Drawing on the contributions of economists and geographers, of cultural, technological, and social historians, Sir Peter Hall examines twenty-one cities at their greatest moments. Hall describes the achievements of these golden ages and outlines the precise combinations of forces -- both universal and local -- that led to each city's belle epoque.

Hall identifies four distinct expressions of civic innovation: artistic growth, technological progress, the marriage of culture and technology, and solutions to evolving problems. Descriptions of Periclean Athens, Renaissance Florence, Elizabethan London, and nineteenth-century Vienna bring to life those seedbeds of artistic and intellectual creativity. Explorations of Manchester during the Industrial Revolution, of Henry Ford's Detroit, and of Palo Alto at the dawn of the computer age highlight centers of technological advances. Tales of the creation of Los Angeles' movie industry and the birth of the blues and rock 'n' roll in Memphis depict the marriage of culture and technology.

Finally, Hall celebrates cities that have been forced to solve problems created by their very size. With Imperial Rome came the apartment block and aqueduct; nineteenth-century London introduced policing, prisons, and sewers; twentieth-century New York developed the skyscraper; and Los Angeles became the first city without a center, a city ruled instead by the car. And in a fascinating conclusion, Hall speculates on urban creativity in the twenty-first century.

This penetrating study reveals not only the lives of cities but also the lives of the people who built them and created the civilizations within them. A decade in the making, Cities in Civilization is the definitive account of the culture of cities.

Language: English

Pages: 1184

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Pantheon

Release: November 17, 1998

ISBN: 0394587324

ISBN 13: 9780394587325

Cities in Civilization

Peter Geoffrey Hall

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Ranging over 2,500 years, Cities in Civilization is a tribute to the city as the birthplace of Western civilization. Drawing on the contributions of economists and geographers, of cultural, technological, and social historians, Sir Peter Hall examines twenty-one cities at their greatest moments. Hall describes the achievements of these golden ages and outlines the precise combinations of forces -- both universal and local -- that led to each city's belle epoque.

Hall identifies four distinct expressions of civic innovation: artistic growth, technological progress, the marriage of culture and technology, and solutions to evolving problems. Descriptions of Periclean Athens, Renaissance Florence, Elizabethan London, and nineteenth-century Vienna bring to life those seedbeds of artistic and intellectual creativity. Explorations of Manchester during the Industrial Revolution, of Henry Ford's Detroit, and of Palo Alto at the dawn of the computer age highlight centers of technological advances. Tales of the creation of Los Angeles' movie industry and the birth of the blues and rock 'n' roll in Memphis depict the marriage of culture and technology.

Finally, Hall celebrates cities that have been forced to solve problems created by their very size. With Imperial Rome came the apartment block and aqueduct; nineteenth-century London introduced policing, prisons, and sewers; twentieth-century New York developed the skyscraper; and Los Angeles became the first city without a center, a city ruled instead by the car. And in a fascinating conclusion, Hall speculates on urban creativity in the twenty-first century.

This penetrating study reveals not only the lives of cities but also the lives of the people who built them and created the civilizations within them. A decade in the making, Cities in Civilization is the definitive account of the culture of cities.

Language: English

Pages: 1184

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Pantheon

Release: November 17, 1998

ISBN: 0394587324

ISBN 13: 9780394587325

More books from Peter Geoffrey Hall

Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century

3.8/5 ( ratings)

Great Planning Disasters

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Urban and Regional Planning

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Urban Future 21: A Global Agenda for Twenty-First Century Cities

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Sociable Cities: The Legacy Of Ebenezer Howard

3.4/5 ( ratings)

The World Cities

Good Cities, Better Lives: How Europe Discovered the Lost Art of Urbanism

4.5/5 ( ratings)

London voices, London lives: Tales from a working capital

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Coaching Stock: The Complete Guide To All Locomotive Hauled Coaches Which Operate On

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Urban and Metropolitan Growth Processes (The Containment of Urban England Volume 1)

4.5/5 ( ratings)

British Railways Locomotives and Coaching Stock 2009: The Complete Guide to All Locomotives and Coaching Stock Which Operate on National Rail and Eurotunnel

4.5/5 ( ratings)

The Polycentric Metropolis: Learning from Mega-City Regions in Europe

4.5/5 ( ratings)

The Polycentric Metropolis: Learning from Mega-City Regions in Europe

4.5/5 ( ratings)

The Polycentric Metropolis: Learning from Mega-City Regions in Europe

4.5/5 ( ratings)

The Planning System - Objectives, Operations, Impacts (The Containment of Urban England Volume 2)

4.5/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?