Introduction; 1. 'Writing the city under crisis'; 2. Pristine cities; 3. Greece and Rome; 4. Cities of the Feudal mode of production in Europe; 5. Asian cities: Asiatic and Feudal modes of production; 6. From colonial to Third World cities; 7. The transformation of the city: from the Feudal to the Capitalist mode of production, and on to the apocalypse.
An ambitious accessible book about urbanisation and urbanism worldwide, from earliest times to the present.
'Aidan Southall's research in East Africa pioneered what came to be
known as urban anthropology. This book offers a unifying vision of
the field that has been long and sorely needed. His impressive
knowledge of world urbanism, spanning the beginnings of
civilisation to the present global oikumene, is deftly used for
comparisons over time and between the Old and the New World.'
Leonard Plotnicov, University of Pittsburgh
'Professor Southall is probably the only scholar who could have
written this book, which distils a lifetime's reflection on the
most complex artifact ever devised by man into a narrative
intelligible to all with a serious concern for the human
environment. This book is a tour de force, a timely blending of
theory and experience, which illuminates a broad sector of human
social experience and provides a glimpse into the future.' Paul
Wheatley, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago
'Aidan Southall applies a mature ethnographic sensibility to this
sweeping excursion through ten thousand years of city life. From
Sumeria, classical Greece, and imperial China through industrial
Mancheste, Third World shanty towns and twentieth-century America,
we see both humanity's 'splendid achievements' and its capacity to
fashion regimes of inequality and grinding poverty.' Roger Sanjek,
City University of New York
'This is a book about cities written on the grand scale. … Southall
has produced a magnificent synthesis. … this is a carefully written
and stimulating book and deserves the serious attention of students
and academics within the disciplines of anthropology and also
sociology, history and political science.' Peter J. Collins,
University of Durham
Ask a Question About this Product More... |