Practicing Utopia : An Intellectual History of the New Town Movement by Rosemary Wakeman (2016, Hardcover)

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About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press

ISBN-10022634603X

ISBN-139780226346038

eBay Product ID (ePID)4038272687

Product Key Features

Number of Pages392 Pages

Publication NamePracticing Utopia : an Intellectual History of the New Town Movement

LanguageEnglish

SubjectHistory / Modern (Late 19th Century to 1945), Earth Sciences / Geography, Public Policy / City Planning & Urban Development, General, Public Policy / Regional Planning

Publication Year2016

TypeTextbook

AuthorRosemary Wakeman

Subject AreaPolitical Science, Architecture, Science, History

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height0.1 in

Item Weight23.1 Oz

Item Length1 in

Item Width0.6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2015-029536

Dewey Edition23

ReviewsAs in all good history. . . Practicing Utopia shows the resonances between past and present clearly. . . .This book is a tremendously valuable one for the student or scholar with an interest in the urban and well worth a place in the library of any institution concerned with urban studies., A must-read for anyone interested in the intellectual underpinnings of the New Towns movement. Practicing Utopia is a convincing analysis of the intellectual background of one of the twentieth century's most influential city models. This is a fascinating, elegantly written book., Practicing Utopia is an ambitious and masterly historical synthesis, erudite and lucid, written in a lively and engaging style. Drawing on primary sources from around the globe as well as recent architectural and planning history, the book is an original and syncretic intellectual history of the New Town movement., A must-read for anyone interested in the intellectual underpinnings of the New Towns movement. Practicing Utopia is a convincing analysis of the intellectual background of one of the twentieth century's most influential city models. This is a fascinating, elegantly written book., In her lively and nuanced account of the brief passion for 'new towns,' she demonstrates how two decades of town planning turned wishful thinking into pristine, uncompromising urban developments in the face of Cold War maneuvering, political instability, and vexed economics., After the Second World War, a new town movement projected urban utopianism across the globe. Impressive in its scope and fulfilling in its details, Practicing Utopia is a fascinating survey of this moment in worldwide urban development. The impulse to begin cities anew lives and no urbanist true to the label should avoid Wakeman's book., Practicing Utopia is an ambitious and masterly historical synthesis, erudite and lucid, written in a lively and engaging style. Drawing on primary sources from around the globe as well as recent architectural and planning history, the book is an original and syncretic intellectual history of the New Town movement., In her lively and nuanced account of the brief passion for 'new towns,' she demonstrates how two decades of town planning turned wishful thinking into pristine, uncompromising urban developments in the face of Cold War maneuvering, political instability, and vexed economics., After the Second World War, a new town movement projected urban utopianism across the globe. Impressive in its scope and fulfilling in its details, Practicing Utopia is a fascinating survey of this moment in worldwide urban development. The impulse to begin cities anew lives and no urbanist true to the label should avoid Wakeman's book.

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal307.76/80904

Table Of ContentList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction ONE / The Origins of the New Town Movement TWO / The Futurology of the Ordinary THREE / Exporting Utopia FOUR / Cybernetic Cities FIVE / Towns of Tomorrow SIX / Architecture for the Space Age Conclusion: New Towns in the Twenty- First Century Notes Selected Bibliography Index

SynopsisThe typical town springs up around a natural resource--a river, an ocean, an exceptionally deep harbor--or in proximity to a larger, already thriving town. Not so with "new towns," which are created by decree rather than out of necessity and are often intended to break from the tendencies of past development. New towns aren't a new thing--ancient Phoenicians named their colonies Qart Hadasht , or New City--but these utopian developments saw a resurgence in the twentieth century. In Practicing Utopia , Rosemary Wakeman gives us a sweeping view of the new town movement as a global phenomenon. From Tapiola in Finland to Islamabad in Pakistan, Cergy-Pontoise in France to Irvine in California, Wakeman unspools a masterly account of the golden age of new towns, exploring their utopian qualities and investigating what these towns can tell us about contemporary modernization and urban planning. She presents the new town movement as something truly global, defying a Cold War East-West dichotomy or the north-south polarization of rich and poor countries. Wherever these new towns were located, whatever their size, whether famous or forgotten, they shared a utopian lineage and conception that, in each case, reveals how residents and planners imagined their ideal urban future., Rosemary Wakeman provides a sweeping history of "new towns"--those created by fiat rather than out of geographic or economic logic and often intended to break with the tendencies of past development. Heralded throughout the twentieth century as solutions to congestion, environmental threats, architectural malaise, and cultural anomie, today they are often seen as sad, pernicious, or merely suburban. Wakeman shows that hundreds of such towns sprang from templates and designs not only in North America and across Europe but around the world, revealing how different cultures dreamed of (re)organizing themselves. Wakeman also illuminates the missteps and unanticipated results of the initial optimistic choices and impulses.

LC Classification NumberHT169.55.W35 2016