The City in History

Lewis Mumford's history follows the city from Egypt and Mesopotamia through Greece and Rome, then the Middle Ages, up to modern times. Mumford argues for a balance between technology and nature, an organic city in which culture thrives alongside innovation instead of being displaced by it, and he contrasts that ideal with cities built around war, tyranny and poverty. He presents the work as an evaluation of how the city grew and where it is heading, not an attack on it, and ends with a chapter called Retrospect and Prospect. His preface says he kept as far as possible to places he knew at first hand. Published in 1961 by Harcourt, Brace & World, it won the National Book Award.

Patrick Collison lists it on his Bookshelf page.