Evening star., 1938-04-24
)OK LEADS AWAY FROM CIVIC BLIGHT
New
and Traditional Pitals-Real Personality Revealed
Current Books.
By Mary.Carfer Roberts.

By Mary.Carfer Roberts.
THE CULTURE OF CITIES. BY Lewis
Mumford. New York: Harcourt
Brace & Co.
IN THIS book Mr. Mumford tells us
system of civilization, and visual
4 ICES better system for the fu-
ture. Visualizing better systems for
the future is. however, a field in
which the open season rule seems to
apply; everybody is busy visualizing
at the moment and, as far as the re-
viewer is concerned, one mans guess
is as good as another's. The idea
basic to all the Installations, of
course, is unvarying. It is that hu-
man existence, beginning tomorrow
morning. is going to proceed accord
ing to logical and just plan-that
with the rising of the next sun,
mankind will give over the stupid and
coWardly manner Of conduct which
has distinguished it in the mass ever
since it evolved, and commence to live
according to the dictates of wisdom
and justice. 1t is a fine dream GER
tainly. But how does it strike you
when looked at from the point of view
Of probability?
The reviewer for her part cannot
accept such imaginings, beautiful
though they unquestionably are. Con-
sequently, in reviewing books devoted
to setting them forth, she finds her
self obliged to judge the works solely
by the standards of reliability. The
merits of the systems postulated seem
beyond question anyway, provided only
that human beings would abide by the
rules. But when you get to that
point, all schemes come to nothing.
Hence books of the forward-looking
variety must be considered here
strictly on the basis of their enter
tsinment value. Be it said then that
Mr. Lewis Mumtord is flrst-rate
writer and that he set his hope for
us down in good plain terms with
wealth of pithy comment and much
perspicacity. For entertainment to
the intelligent, his book can be
Whole-heartedly commended.
His particular idea of safe and
delightful future for the race derives
from his conviction that our original
system of free competition has ceased
to function in the manner expected of
it; therefore, says Mr.. Mumford, it
I,a c1,.,prcn1oI hy ny,,at
That something, Of course, must have
q plan. And, since we are to make
a plan, let us make fine large one.
Let us plan not only for the economic
life of civilization but for the whole
of civilized culture.
Thus far it would seem that the
skeleton of Mr.. Mumfords idea does
not differ noticeably from those of his
colleagues in social visualization. 1t
is filled out, however, with marvel
ously lively flesh. For in making
his case against the present system.
Mr. Mumford has set down brilliant
history of the rise of the city from
the days of the primitive village to
the present megalopolis. This is not
only immensely informative. 1t is
wise and witty. AS Mr.. Mumford
sees it, the story of the movement of
people into towns is also very much
the story of our whole social activity.
THE movement eliminates, he tells
us, in the arrival Of the super
city, "megalopolis." Megalopolis is
the town which appears when the ex-
preston of bigness and power becomes
the deliberate goal of the capitalists,
accompanied by financial domination
by trade and legal processes; loans,
mortgages, speculative enterprises.
standardization, largely in
pecuniary terms, of the cultural prod
ucts themselves in art, literature,
architecture and language" When
megalopolis develops, says Mr.. Num-
ford, mechanical reproduction takes
the place of original art; bigness takes
the place of form; voluminousness
takes the place of significance, and
there Is triumph of mechanism in
every department, passivity manual
bureaucratism, failure Of
direct action" This condition, he
says, was to be found in Alexandria
in the Sd century B. c.; in Rome in
the I'd century A. D.; in Byzantium
in the 10th century, and in Paris in
the 18th century. And it obtains in
New York today.
The appearance Of megalopolis, in
Mr.. Mumford's opinion, is a step on
the road to the ruin of any country's
culture. 1t is to be followed by
"tyrannopolis, or dictatorship, and
metropolis" or desertion of the
town by its people-as in Babylon,
Nineveh and Rome. He then asks
how We, uniquely among the peoples
of history, may halt the disastrous
progress, after having come SO far
along the road already. His answer
is that we can save ourselves by an
ticipating the inevitable, by forsaking
the monster town of our own voli-
ton, while free will still obtains
among us. This brings him to his
plan for our future and he devotes
the second half of his book to setting
1t elaborately forth.
IT is, in brief, that we develop our
existence in regional terms,
somewhat on the plan now being tried
under the Tennessee Valley Authority.
but with greater implications and
farther reaching plans Such develop
ments should be first of all eco
nomically sound; they should also be
planned to allow generously for rec
reation, for beauty, for desirable liv-
ing quarters, for conservation, and
indeed all the rest of those attributes
to life ror which man longs. Mr..
Mumford believes that, with enough
planning, it could be done, and his
submission of his own scheme is