Lewis Mumford's idea of community in an urban world

Abstract

It is a daunting task to recover a usable Mumford from his vast body of writing, myriad ideas and public career over a span of seventy years. These four books make a substantial contribution to that end. Their shared virtues are clarity and thoughtfulness supported by firm scholarship. Useful perspectives are provided on modernization, social ecology, community planning and the human condition. Novak assembles and illuminates a historically important body of letters. Spann narrates an interplay of strong intellects with politics of social change in the 1920s and 1930s. Luccarelli and Wojtowicz cut an impressive swath through the entire scope of Mumford's thought and experience in the contexts of regionalism and architectural criticism. While all the books draw attention to men and women often forgotten but worth knowing about, Mumford is conspicuous for brilliance and charisma in the battle to reconcile urban growth with healthy environments and communities. His arsenal of values, shared by many supporters past and present, supplied articulate standards for change.