Dublin Core
Titre
The mysteries of the great city: The politics of urban design, 1877-1937
Sujet
, histoire de l'urbanisme, histoire urbaine, aménagement urbain, politique de la ville, politique urbaine, développement urbain, nineteenth century, twentieth century, dix-neuvième siècle, vingtième siècle, New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, États-Unis, United States, Fairfield John D.
Description
Abstract from the publisher:
The expansion and reorganization of the great city stood out as the most visible symbol of the transformation. The new metropolitan form, with its skyscraping business center, industrial satellites, crowded working-class neighborhoods, and exclusive suburbs, embodied an emerging corporate order. But the metropolis also disguised the new order and gave it an apparent physical implacability and inevitability that obscured the role of choice in its creation and therefore placed it beyond criticism. Fairfield unravels the mysteries of the new form to reveal the centrality of power and politics in urban design.
While acknowledging that a great many factors shaped urban development, Fairfield underscores the decisive role of human design. He argues that American cities, both before and after the advent of professional planning have always been in some measure “planned.” Discussing such figures as Frederick Law Olmsted, Henry George, Daniel Burnham, Frederic Howe, Edward Bassett, Robert E. Park, and Louis Wirth, Fairfield illuminates the political and intellectual conflicts among advocates of alternative paths of urban development.
The Mysteries of the Great City will enlighten all readers interested in the development of cities, particularly urban historians and planners. In pointing to the Guilded Age as a period of great possibilities of progressive reform, this study will also reward readers interested in the historical foundations of our modern society.