Cities in Civilization

Rating:
Summary: A Masterful Historical Study of Majestic Sweep
Review: Except for one section on modern Tokyo Hall skips the rest of the world except for Europe and North America. This is problematic with his grand vision theses dealing with Golden Age cities. This is puzzling lack of coverage mars what would otherwise be quite a good book. If Hall can cover Athens in her glory he could spare a few words for Chang' An of Tang China.

The book is big and meaty weighing in with 1169 pages (including index).

Large Sections: City as Cultural Crucible; City as Innovative Milieu; Marriage of Art and Technology; Establishment of Urban Order; Union of Art, Technology, and Organization.

Cities covered: Paris, London, Manchester, Athens, Rome, Florence, Tokyo, Glasgow, Detroit, Berlin, Los Angeles, Mephis, Bay Area

I would recommend this book for western urban history but it's lack of coverage to the rest of urban history in the world makes it necessary to have supplemental material.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant -- a Book of the Century
Review: I concur with the observations of Manuel Castells above. I'd add that this book is extraordinary for its pure breadth of intellect coupled with a writing style that draws the reader in to make the hundreds of pages pass by like mileposts on an uncongested freeway.

As the trend to narrow, boring, specialization turns academia into a wasteland, Sir Peter has no qualms about weaving together his extraodinary knowledge of history, social science, literature, performing arts, technology -- you name it, he is able to show insight about it. All of this comes together in a natural way to reveal the nature of creativity that has made cities special.

The author is a keen observer, and there's is something new, unexpected, and intriguing at every turn. Indeed, I have to blame the author for far too many sleepless nights as I lay in bed helpless to put down this magnetic book, which shows and imparts that very pleasure in learning that accompanied periods which have made cities great.

This is a book of a century, and should be read by everyone, but no student of cities, urban studies, geography, history, or social sciences should be without it.

Rating:
Summary: A Masterful Historical Study of Majestic Sweep
Review: Peter Hall's book "Cities in Civilization" is a masterful work with majestic sweep. Although not meant for everyone, this book provides insights into history and culture like no other. Hall looks at the golden ages of cities to illuminate their influence on great cultural achievements as well as economic and technological development, and then draws comparisons to discern what it was about these places that enabled them, of all cities, to become what they became at a particular time in history. The creative bursts of classical Athens, Renaissance Florence, and Shakespearean London are thoroughly discussed and utterly fascinating. The music of Vienna and the artistic creativity of late 19th and early 20th century Paris are literal courses on Western culture. The decadence and creative explosion of Weimar Germany is thoroughly explored before Hall turns his attention to industrialization and technology.

Hall is especially good, in the midst of his analysis, at discussing various theories of social change from Marx to Schumpeter, and Weber to Harold Innis. He details the reasons for industrial and technological growth and invention in 18th century Manchester, 19th century Glasgow, and 19th and 20th century Berlin. His discussion of Detroit and Henry Ford is particularly interesting. Silicon Valley and Tokyo are also discussed, and never does Hall loses sight of how their creativity permanently affected human civilization.

His section on "The Marriage of Art and Technology" is fundamental to an understanding of mass culture in the 20th and 21st centuries. Hollywood and "The Delta" region around Memphis are discussed for their impact on movies and popular music. These two sections are utterly fascinating. And his lengthy last section, which some readers may find the least interesting, deals with how many of the world's great cities have adapted to deal with increasing size and changing needs. Here Hall profiles the changes in the cities themselves, as well as changes in the cultural and social environment, of ancient Rome, and modern London, Paris, New York, Los Angelas, and Stockholm. The social experimentation in equality and how it affected housing in Sweden is particularly interesting.

All in all, if you have the stamina to read 1,000 pages you will be served a wonderful course on the development of Western culture and material civilization, as well as gain a fuller appreciation for the role of the great city in history. We are all in Sir Peter's debt for his years of study and the preparation of this book. His erudition and immense learning are greatly appreciated.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully researched, flowing prose
Review: Peter Hall's magnum opus is essential for any armchair urban historian... His writing flows with an almost breezy style, making the book compusively readable. The scope is impressive, and Hall delivers in his monumental task, the wide breadth of knowledge being nothing short of remarkable. Even after reading it, I use the book often for reference in my studies; it was well worth adding to my collection.

Rating:
Summary: The Jacques Barzun of the city
Review: This book reminds me very much of Jacques Barzun's FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE both in size and scope. Barzun looked at 500 years of Western cultural life and Sir Peter Hall has much the same interests, although he goes back some 2500 years and is more narrowly focused on urban culture. The title CITIES IN CIVILIZATION could be the other way around as Hall is interested in the Golden Ages that seem to have been a feature of all the great cities in history. "The Renaissance" he says "was an urban phenomenon; so was every great burst of creativity in human history." Hall then is seeking the civilization in cities.

Two other books that this one could be (should be, has been) compared with are THE CULTURE OF CITIES and THE CITY IN HISTORY, both by Lewis Mumford. Hall knows this and quickly dispatches the comparisons. "I do not at all share the Mumfordian view that the great city is doomed." Fair enough but his work remains valuable to urban historians and Hall's comment that "Mumford was fundamentally a brilliant polemical journalist, not a scholar" is uncalled for and irrelevant. I'm glad Hall got his academic tetchiness out of the way early and didn't bring it up again, because being subjected to such jibes and digs over the course of the 1000 pages of this book would have been unpleasant. And Hall doesn't need to resort to that anyway.

This book is a detailed, well researched exploration of the unique nature of the city as "a crucible of creativity". The first section of the book looks at artistic creativity - the most recognizable type of Golden Age and most closely associated with the foundation cities of Western civilization - Athens, Vienna, Florence, Paris, London and Berlin. Other themes are innovation and its technological and economic manifestation in urban settings. Here we visit Manchester, Glasgow, Detroit, San Francisco (more accurately Palo Alto and "Silicon Valley") and Tokyo. Hall then looks at two cities - Memphis and Los Angeles that he says offer a mix of artistic, technological, and economic exuberance. He is referring to the music and film industries. In his final section he acknowledges the emergence of regional urban areas and global cities and while recognizing the challenges they pose, he is not daunted and remains optimistic about the future of urban life. His coming Golden Age of a new urban order faces three challenges. That of transport technology and sustainable urbanism, an unequal urban world (the megacities of the Third World) and the threats to economic, family, and civic life.

If persons with interest in any aspect of urbanism don't find some mention of their pet subject in this vast sweep of urban life over the last two millennia, it's simply because they haven't waded through. And that's the only caveat about Hall's work. In the best traditions of old English learning this book is dense and it's not written in the snappiest of prose either. Cities are a testament to the slow processes of humanity. You'll have to rely on one of those tendencies - patience - when working your way through this book. In the end it's well worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Reveals the growth and force of cities
Review: This new paperback edition of a classic presents 2,500 years of urban history with a focus on city planning and urban design changes over the centuries. From the rise of the great cities of Europe to America, Cities In Civilization uses the urban focus to reveal the growth and force of cities in civilization's expansion.