The origins of modern town planning

Carefully documented and copiously illustrated, The Origins of ModernTown Planning delves into the social origins and history of town planning innineteenth-century England and France.The touchstone of Benevolo's research is therelationship between town planning and politics. The twofold origin of the planningconcept found expression in two schools of nineteenth-century thought: the Utopians-- Owen, Saint-Simon, Fourier -- and their active vision of the town as aself-sufficient, coherent organism are contrasted with the specialists and officialswho endeavored to remedy each urban defect individually by introducing new healthregulations and social legislation into already existing towns. Despite theconceptual difference, however, Benevolo points out the shared ideology whichinspired all achievements of thought and action -- even the purely technical -- andestablishes its correspondence in spirit up to the time of modernsocialism.