Main entry:

Benevolo, Leonardo.

Title & Author:

The European city / Leonardo Benevolo ; translated from the Italian by Carl Ipsen.

Publication:

Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, USA : Blackwell, 1993.

Description:

xix, 243 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Series:

The Making of Europe

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-230) and index.
1. Emergence from the Ancient World. The Idea of the City in the Classical Tradition. Urban Transformation of the Late Empire. The Crisis of the Cities after the Fall of the Western Empire. The Emerging Characteristics of the Western Urban System -- 2. The Creation of a New Urban System. The Italian Maritime Cities. Cities in Other Parts of Europe. Colonization and the New Cities. The Medieval Urban Heritage -- 3. The Perfecting of the Urban Environment. Stabilization and the Last Urban Expansions of the Fourteenth Century. Representation of the Stabilized City. The New Artistic Culture. The Renewal of Urban Planning in Italy. The Separation of Theory and Practice -- 4. Confrontation with the World. The European Resources Employed Overseas. The Colonization of Asia and Africa. The Colonization of the New World -- 5. The Difficult Adjustment to the Laws of Perspective. The New Conditions for Urban Planning. The City in Perspective: Urban Transformation between 1550 and 1650.
The City in Perspective: Urban Transformation from 1650 to 1750. Departure from Perspective: The English Experience -- 6. The Industrial City. Urban Revolution. Haussmannization: The Post-Liberal City and its Problems -- 7. Europe in the Contemporary World. Cities of the Europeanized World. The Invention of a New City. The Renewal of the European City in the Past Fifty Years. Reflections on the Future.
Translated from the Italian.

Summary:

"This is a history of the European city from the early Middle Ages until the present. It is also an account of the relationship between urban life and the history of ideas and culture." "The author begins by discussing the survival of urban culture following the barbarian invasions from the north and the Islamic from the east, after the collapse of the Roman and Byzantine Empires. He then continues with a discussion of the great period of urban expansion between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries, the growth of urban freedoms and the development of independent city civilizations in Flanders and Italy." "The two centuries following the formation of the first European states brought concentrated power and the influence to their capitals (Rome, Paris, Prague, London, Antwerp, Lisbon, Seville and Genoa). New ideas of national identity were reflected in the organization of traditional urban space. The conflict between city and country had emerged by the sixteenth century and the author shows how this influenced the colonial towns of the two Americas." "The book concludes with chapters on the effects of industrialization and modern transportation, in particular the devastating impact of the automobile." "This unique synthesis of urban, social, cultural and political history is a tour de force and will be of wide interest to European, intellectual and urban historians."--Jacket.

Resources:
Table of contents

ISBN:

0631173021 (acid-free paper)
9780631173021 (acid-free paper)

Subject:

Cities and towns Europe History.
Villes Europe Histoire.
Cities and towns
Intellectual life
Geschichte
Stadt
Stadtentwicklung
Städtebau
Steden.
Stedenbouw.
Europe Intellectual life.
Europe Vie intellectuelle.
Europe
Cities

Form/genre:

History

Added entries:

Making of Europe.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 86848
Call No.: ID PLS; ID:93-B1978
Status: Available