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Metropolis 1890–1940
340
Book Reviews
interconnecting walkways and entrances were present. The known notions of surveillance, anonymity and escape routes forecast such findings. However, combining the quantified findings and observations of the study team, some not wholly predictable recommendations have evolved. The following examples from the set of recommendations for flats give some idea of the nature of the detail contained in the book. All walkways radiating from the block (of flats) above ground level should be demolished. Walls between blocks should be located to absorb the entire grounds of the estate inside the single-block territories. Play areas can be modified by: {i) complete removal, (ii) inclusion in singleblock sites or (iii) enclosure in separate sites with independent entrances from the street. Shops, services, clinics, nursery schools, estate offices, places of entertainment, etc., should be walled out of the residential territory and given independent street entrances. The book is mandatory reading for architects. planners and housing specialists well beyond the boundaries of the London boroughs included in the survey. It will no doubt provoke discussion and argument, some of which will be concerned with research methodology and some with definitions and assumptions. It is hoped that the debate will centre on the positive, prescriptive aspects of the study and that future work on the (however-defined~ social failure of housing will be subtle and realistic. Such a debate might even lead to solutions which chaltenge the first recommendation in this book: “No more flats should be built”.
ANTHONY SUTCLIFFE (Editor), Metropolis Manse11 Publishing Limited, 19X4, 458 pp.
1890-1940.
Metropolis seems to be a book looking for an audience. It is not really a ‘coffee-table book’ not quite big enough or lavish enough, and certainly without large-scale, sparkling illustrations. As a serious contribution to the history of urban form and development, it cannot join the competition given the unevenness of worth of the various essays. The concept of the book is enticing: perceptions during the period 1890 to 1940 of future giant urban areas, as demonstrated in the visual arts. literature, cinema, music and architecture. This concept, the core of the book, is preceded by an outline of the “metropolitan phenomenon” and followed by case studies of seven urban conurbations. By now many readers with experience of the international conference circuit will have realised that this book is very likely to be a report of an international jamboree. It is and it was the second international conference of the Planning History Group. Delegates probably had an interesting, stimulating and varied series of meetings. But a good conference is not always a good book. Some of the contributions are mere outlines of subjects which their authors have dealt with more comprehensively elsewhere. Norma Evenson, for example, gave far more pleasure and enlightenment to readers in her exquisite Puris: A Century of Change, 1878-1978. Yale University Press, 1979, than could possibly be transmitted in an essay of less than 30 pages, even if she retains her eye for the perfect, telling illustration. Other contributions just do not do credit to the very sources they cite. Robert Care’s authorative biography of the New York City figure, Robert Moses (The Power Broker: Robert Moses und the Fall of New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1974) is very explicit in pointing out that the Moses’ expedited roadways to out-~~f-town recreation centres were deliberately designed to prevent non-car owners (e.g.: poor people) from using the elaborate public facilities provided. For example, the motorway bridges were built with insufficient clearance for buses, the only potential public transportation to seaside public
Book Reviews
341
park areas. This is not even hinted at when Kenneth T. Jackson discusses Moses (and cites Caro) in the chapter entitled ‘The Capital of Capitalism: the New York Metropolitan Region, 1890-1940.’ The lapses in the case studies are more than matched - even exceeded - by the extraordinary chapters on the perceptions of the metropolis in various art forms. For example, the chapter entitled “The Metropolis in Music” is introduced as “. . . fragments of ideas, rough outlines of thinking, suggestions . .” This appears to be shorthand or code language for the self-indulgent (or since two authors are credited, should perhaps be selves-indulgent?), ill-defined and obscure. The authors define their terms: for music to quality as metropolitan, it must be “. . . music which the experience of city life is captured through the sound material used, rather than works in which the nature of the experience explored is primarily conveyed by the text”. Fairly, works by Weill, Charpentier, Delius et al. are included; but even if one works to understand the author’s definition of metropolitan music, it is difficult to understand the narrowness in the selection of examples. Are there not city life sounds in other modern composers, those outside of France? Cannot a case be made that the ultimate urban music might be more popular - Jazz and contemporary music? Well, perhaps the likes of Gershwin, Kern, Ellington are better off just letting their music speak for itself rather than being the subjects of abstruse meanderings. After all the above, it might be hard to believe, but there are redeeming features of the book. First and foremost is an essay by Peter Hall entitled “Metropolis 1890-1940: Challenges and Responses” and secondly an essay by Peter Hall entitled “Postscript: Metropolis 1940-1990”. Professor Hall in both his contributions demonstrates that freshness and provocation can be present whan an experienced pro tackles some of his favourite themes.
Book Reviews
interconnecting walkways and entrances were present. The known notions of surveillance, anonymity and escape routes forecast such findings. However, combining the quantified findings and observations of the study team, some not wholly predictable recommendations have evolved. The following examples from the set of recommendations for flats give some idea of the nature of the detail contained in the book. All walkways radiating from the block (of flats) above ground level should be demolished. Walls between blocks should be located to absorb the entire grounds of the estate inside the single-block territories. Play areas can be modified by: {i) complete removal, (ii) inclusion in singleblock sites or (iii) enclosure in separate sites with independent entrances from the street. Shops, services, clinics, nursery schools, estate offices, places of entertainment, etc., should be walled out of the residential territory and given independent street entrances. The book is mandatory reading for architects. planners and housing specialists well beyond the boundaries of the London boroughs included in the survey. It will no doubt provoke discussion and argument, some of which will be concerned with research methodology and some with definitions and assumptions. It is hoped that the debate will centre on the positive, prescriptive aspects of the study and that future work on the (however-defined~ social failure of housing will be subtle and realistic. Such a debate might even lead to solutions which chaltenge the first recommendation in this book: “No more flats should be built”.
ANTHONY SUTCLIFFE (Editor), Metropolis Manse11 Publishing Limited, 19X4, 458 pp.
1890-1940.
Metropolis seems to be a book looking for an audience. It is not really a ‘coffee-table book’ not quite big enough or lavish enough, and certainly without large-scale, sparkling illustrations. As a serious contribution to the history of urban form and development, it cannot join the competition given the unevenness of worth of the various essays. The concept of the book is enticing: perceptions during the period 1890 to 1940 of future giant urban areas, as demonstrated in the visual arts. literature, cinema, music and architecture. This concept, the core of the book, is preceded by an outline of the “metropolitan phenomenon” and followed by case studies of seven urban conurbations. By now many readers with experience of the international conference circuit will have realised that this book is very likely to be a report of an international jamboree. It is and it was the second international conference of the Planning History Group. Delegates probably had an interesting, stimulating and varied series of meetings. But a good conference is not always a good book. Some of the contributions are mere outlines of subjects which their authors have dealt with more comprehensively elsewhere. Norma Evenson, for example, gave far more pleasure and enlightenment to readers in her exquisite Puris: A Century of Change, 1878-1978. Yale University Press, 1979, than could possibly be transmitted in an essay of less than 30 pages, even if she retains her eye for the perfect, telling illustration. Other contributions just do not do credit to the very sources they cite. Robert Care’s authorative biography of the New York City figure, Robert Moses (The Power Broker: Robert Moses und the Fall of New York, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1974) is very explicit in pointing out that the Moses’ expedited roadways to out-~~f-town recreation centres were deliberately designed to prevent non-car owners (e.g.: poor people) from using the elaborate public facilities provided. For example, the motorway bridges were built with insufficient clearance for buses, the only potential public transportation to seaside public
Book Reviews
341
park areas. This is not even hinted at when Kenneth T. Jackson discusses Moses (and cites Caro) in the chapter entitled ‘The Capital of Capitalism: the New York Metropolitan Region, 1890-1940.’ The lapses in the case studies are more than matched - even exceeded - by the extraordinary chapters on the perceptions of the metropolis in various art forms. For example, the chapter entitled “The Metropolis in Music” is introduced as “. . . fragments of ideas, rough outlines of thinking, suggestions . .” This appears to be shorthand or code language for the self-indulgent (or since two authors are credited, should perhaps be selves-indulgent?), ill-defined and obscure. The authors define their terms: for music to quality as metropolitan, it must be “. . . music which the experience of city life is captured through the sound material used, rather than works in which the nature of the experience explored is primarily conveyed by the text”. Fairly, works by Weill, Charpentier, Delius et al. are included; but even if one works to understand the author’s definition of metropolitan music, it is difficult to understand the narrowness in the selection of examples. Are there not city life sounds in other modern composers, those outside of France? Cannot a case be made that the ultimate urban music might be more popular - Jazz and contemporary music? Well, perhaps the likes of Gershwin, Kern, Ellington are better off just letting their music speak for itself rather than being the subjects of abstruse meanderings. After all the above, it might be hard to believe, but there are redeeming features of the book. First and foremost is an essay by Peter Hall entitled “Metropolis 1890-1940: Challenges and Responses” and secondly an essay by Peter Hall entitled “Postscript: Metropolis 1940-1990”. Professor Hall in both his contributions demonstrates that freshness and provocation can be present whan an experienced pro tackles some of his favourite themes.