Historian and the City

by Oscar Handlin, John Burchard (Editor)

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: History, Architecture

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

Reviews

[Nils · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a time capsule this one, with contributions from Alexander Gerschenkron, Carl Schorske, Mortin White, Kenneth Boulding, Richard Meier, Eric Lampard and of course Handlin and Burchard themselves. The standout is the Boulding piece on "The Death of the City," which looks forward to a highly technologized city of the distant future in which only 1% of the population needs to work to produce the food needed to support the population, and only 10% to prodce all the physical goods -- what will everyone else do? He basically has a description of Baumol's cost disease, before Baumol formally described it a few years later, and also anticipates the population bomb argument of Ehrlich, which was still five years in the future. As always, Schorske is a delight to read on the intellectual history of the city; for example: "Industry and pleasure: these two pursuits distinguished urban life for Voltaire; together they produced 'civilization.' The urban contrast between rich and poor, far from holding terrors for the philosophe, provided the very basis of progress. Voltaire modeled his rich man not on the captain of industry, but on the spendthrift aristocrat pursuing a life of ease in the city, a true child of the pleasure principle. Voltaire described his mondain's luxurious rococo hotel, with its exterior 'ornamented by the striking industry of a thousand hands.' He savoured the rich man's daily rounds, his life of refined sensuality: the mondain rides in a handsome gilded carriage across imposing city squares to an assignation with an actress, then to the opera and a lavish meal. Through his sybaritic mode of existence, the squandering bon vivant creates work for countless artisans...."

[Matthew Festger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Multiple essays taken from a conference in the early sixties. Material therefore a bit dated add the field has somewhat expanded, but is a good jumping off point for later followup material sources