This set is a carefully balanced selection of writings representing some of the most important currents in the thought of city and regional planning during the period 1870-1940 when urban planning emerged as a serious disciplinary field.
The set consists of eight key books from this period, handsomely illustrated and reproduced in their entirety, and a separate volume of fifteen seminal short selections - all by major figures of the time, such as Abercrombie, Geddes, and the Olmsteds. Soria y Mata's writings on the linear city also appear in translation for the first time.
In addition to seminal works on city planning, the set covers themes such as neighbourhood, Utopian and visionary planning; planning for parks; housing; transportation systems, and public health. A wide variety of cities feature including Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Manchester, New York and San Francisco, showing a great diversity of cultural styles.
Early Urban Planning 1870-1940 is of continued importance today, as it highlights ideals which remain strikingly relevant in development of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
'Routledge and the editors are to be commended for resurrecting these valuable materials.' - Lawrence Conway Gerckens, APA Journal Spring 1999
'The editors' introduction is an insightful and concise exposition of the people, places, literature and events that shaped planning in the United States and the United Kingdom from the mid- 19th century to mid- 20th cuntury.' --Lawrence Conway Gerckens, APA Journal Spring 1999