The Intellectual Versus The City

From Thomas Jefferson To Frank Lloyd Wright

Morton Gabriel White, Lucia White

• Publisher: Barakaldo Books
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781839747946
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

AS CITIZENS OF A HISTORICALLY FRONTIER LAND, AMERICANS HAVE AN INHERENT DISTRUST OF THE CONFINEMENTS AND COMPLEXITIES OF THE CITY.
But this ingrained romanticism about the natural life—the authors insist—does not fully explain American anti-urbanism. They point out that not only men like Emerson and Melville, but cosmopolitan figures such as Henry James, John Dewey and Theodore Dreiser have considered the American city a sinister place. The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright wanted to demolish the metropolis and replace it with a revolutionary form of living. Even the world-famous industrialist Henry Ford has said, "We shall solve the City Problem by leaving the City."
Tracing back across a century and a half, exploring the fields of art, philosophy, and sociology, Morton and Lucia White reveal what important Americans have said about their cities, and why. The authors suggest that modern city planners and social scientists have something to learn from these great dissenters, from their troubling wisdom and their urgent prophecies.
From Thomas Jefferson to Frank Lloyd Wright our nation's most distinguished artists, leaders, and intellectuals have proclaimed open hostility toward the city. Unlike the Englishman's London or the Frenchman's Paris, they have found nothing to love in the sprawling American metropolis. This significant and thoughtful study analyzes for the first time the major intellectual reactions to urbanism that have appeared through a century and a half of American history and offers some provocative conclusions as to why our cities have been the traditional object of prejudice, fear, and distrust.
"A revealing analysis of American attitudes toward urbanization and urban life."—New York Times
"Excellent"—Harper's
"This lucid and imaginative book opens up new vistas in our understanding of our past and of our present."—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• DEDICATION
• PREFACE
• CHAPTER I - OPENING THEME
• CHAPTER II - THE IRENIC AGE - FRANKLIN, CRÊVECOEUR, AND JEFFERSON
• CHAPTER III - METAPHYSICS AGAINST THE CITY - THE AGE OF EMERSON
• CHAPTER IV - BAD DREAMS OF THE CITY - MELVILLE, HAWTHORNE, AND POE
• CHAPTER V - THE DISPLACED PATRICIAN - HENRY ADAMS
• CHAPTER VI - THE VISITING MIND - HENRY JAMES
• CHAPTER VII - THE AMBIVALENT URBANITE - WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS
• CHAPTER VIII - DISAPPOINTMENT IN NEW YORK - FRANK NORRIS AND THEODORE DREISER
• CHAPTER IX - PRAGMATISM AND SOCIAL WORK - WILLIAM JAMES AND JANE ADDAMS
• CHAPTER X - THE PLEA FOR COMMUNITY - ROBERT PARK AND JOHN DEWEY
• CHAPTER XI - PROVINCIALISM AND ALIENATION - AN ASIDE ON JOSIAH ROYCE AND GEORGE SANTAYANA
• CHAPTER XII - ARCHITECTURE AGAINST THE CITY - FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
• CHAPTER XIII - THE LEGACY OF FEAR
• CHAPTER XIV - THE OUTLINES OF A TRADITION
• CHAPTER XV - ROMANTICISM IS NOT ENOUGH
• CHAPTER XVI - IDEOLOGY, PREJUDICE, AND REASONABLE CRITICISM
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS