The Lewis Mumford Reader

This volume brings together representative selections of Lewis Mumford's major writings on central concerns of his life. Praised by Malcolm Cowley as the last of great humanists, Mumford (1895-1990) produced a body of cultural criticism and commentary that for its range and richness is unmatched in modern American letters. Author of countless articles and more than thirty books - including landmark works The Culture of Cities and The City in History - Mumford is arguably this century's foremost architectural critic. In addition, he shaped some of most important public policy debates of our time, writing with vigor on such issues as urban development, transportation policy, land planning, environment, nuclear disarmament, and problems and promises of technology.