The Conscience of the Eye: Design and Social Life of Cities - Hardcover

Sennett, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0571161928 ISBN 13: 9780571161928

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 1991

Synopsis

With an eye toward the architecture, art, literature and technology of urban life one of America's observers of society gives us an incisive study of the search for shelter and the fear of exposure to strangers and new experience in Western culture - and how these two concerns have shaped the physical fabric of the city. The author examines the development of urban society and structure from the ancient world to the present. His discussion takes the reader from the assembly hall of Athens to the Palladium Club, from Augustine's "City of Gold" to the Turkish baths of the lower east side, from 18th century English gardens to the housing projects of east Harlem and from Nietzsche's "Birth of Tragedy" to subway graffiti. By the author of "The Hidden Injuries of Class", "The Fall of Public Man" and "Authority".

About this title

Review

Over the past 20 years, Richard Sennett has been at the forefront of those generalists endeavoring to synthesize the urban insights of history, architecture, the arts and social sciences into a coherent cultural vision. . . . A wonderful, stimulating, richly thoughtful work that should add much to our debate about cities in the coming years.--Philip Lopate

A radical, original rethinking of our relationship to the built environment.

Sennett brings an immensely civilized perspective to the forms and patterns--the visual experiences--of cities, primarily New York City, interpreting how they shape, reflect, or, sadly, fail to reflect, the human beings who built and use them. . . . Provocative and learned.

From the Back Cover

From the assembly halls of Athens to the Turkish baths of New York's Lower East Side, from eighteenth-century English gardens to the housing projects of Harlem--a study of the physical fabric of the city as a mirror of Western society and culture.

Edition details

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571161928
• ISBN 13: 9780571161928
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416