No other place on earth is as full both of promise and of dread as the city; it is at once alienating and exciting. These concentrations of people have not, however, come about as the result of vast immutable, impersonal forces, but because of human...

Once America's "arsenal of democracy," Detroit over the last fifty years has become the symbol of the American urban crisis. In this reappraisal of racial and economic inequality in modern America, Thomas Sugrue explains how Detroit and many other once...

Variations on the theme of the ornament in Kracauer's urban writings, suggesting ways in which the subjective can reappropraite urban life.For Siegfried Kracauer, the urban ornament was not just an aspect of design; it was the medium through which city...

How Hadrian left an enduring mark on the architecture and urban topography of ancient Rome The Pantheon, the Temple of Venus and Roma, Hadrian's Mausoleum transformed into Castel Sant'Angelo, and his villa at Tivoli epitomize for many the power and...

The sixteen ground-breaking essays in this volume examine the processes by which cities grow and how current public policy, both in the area of zoning and town planning respond to this process.

“A cacophonous poem of democracy and greed, like the streets of New York themselves.” ―John Vernon, Los Angeles Times Book ReviewLucy Sante's Low Life is a portrait of America's greatest city, the riotous and anarchic breeding ground of modernity. This...

Why do some places—the concourse of Grand Central Terminal or a small farm or even the corner of a skyscraper—affect us so mysteriously and yet so forcefully? What tiny changes in our everyday environments can radically alter the quality of our daily...