Rating: 
Summary: Three quarters textbook, one quarter political rant
Review: The first three-fourths of Mumford's "The City in History" is a lengthy treatise on the origins and growth of the city, from Babylon to Medieval times. While there is nothing factually incorrect about this portion of the book - it is a compendium of knowledge spanning dozens of civilizations and cultures, I did not find it particularly interesting. I would compare it to reading a textbook, but it was written with too much of an intellectual bent to be accurately compared to such.The last quarter of the book, however, fell from a high-minded dicussion and description of the nature and purposes of cities into a standard neo-Luddite rant: Capitalism is bad. Cars are bad. Suburbs are bad. Things are getting worse, and someone (the government) must step in and enforce (my) order. If such is your philosophy, you may very well enjoy this book. I did not.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: There is no other book about cities like this. It is a classic that anyone interested in art, society, architecture, history should own.
Rating:
Summary: tricks
Review: this book is fine. go get it from the library and learn the origins of the city. critique civilization and its facets with other books and never mind intellectual/acedemia. educate yourself. civilizations origins are the origins of humanity's current polarized state. "Computers serve as much more efficient storage centers for knowledge than all the libraries in any city ever could and the Internet has made the entire World into an interlocking community." you dont know how to hunt and gather do you? i wonder why he was so hellbent on technology when you sit here rambling off all the knowledge you assimilated from a urban system that taught you how to forget your genetic roots and what kept humanity alive for millions of years. nothing a computer will ever do or help regain. you know how to survive in the city and nothing more. you are tied to machinery like he stated. this is not community. you dont consider criminals part of your community yet civilization and urban wastelandscapes create them. jails are more efficient? farming is more efficent yet destroys how much top soil? at least you have 6 billion mouths to feed now. neo-luddistic? nope. just a solid fact.
Rating:
Summary: More than what it promises
Review: This is more than a look at the development of the urban organization. It's an examination of society as a whole. This is one of the few books that actually covers all intresting areas of human social developmen, i.e political science, religion, sociology, anthropology, economics, etc. The book more than tells the story of the cities development, it explains why today's society functions in the way it does.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful look at the history of cities.
Review: This is the classic look at the history of world cities. Beginning with prehistoric man, Lewis Mumford weaves the tale of the beginnings of cities as places of protection and commerce. The book, published decades ago, remains today the best written and most comprehensive on the subject. For another look at cities, may I suggest Jane Jacobs' _The Death and Life of Great American Cities_ as well. Buy them and read them as a pair; you will almost an expert on the subject. James D. Umbach Student, CSU Sacramento
Rating:
Summary: Anyone's must-have
Review: This is the definitive study of communities as a whole -- from the prehistoric societies like Catal Huyuk, to the Greek poleis, to the metropoleis of today. Accurately worded and incredibly well-written, this book inquires into the very function of cities in human civilization, their influence on local life, etc. Bound to prove an awesome source of general data as well as the specifics, this book is a major work and is a certain must-have.
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