Towns in Societies: Essays in Economic History and Historical Sociology Philip Abrams E. A. Wrigley Six English Towns Alec Clifton-Taylor The Syntax of Cities Peter F. Smith New Towns. Their Origins, Achievements, Progress Frederick J. Osborn Arnold Whittick

Joseph Rykwert
1981 Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (JSAH)  
The western town evolved as the planned entity of some individual, group, church, railroad, corporation, or governmental agency. Towns were laid out by land surveyors, engineers, military officers, and speculative real estate developers. The gridiron street system dominated. Nearly every town plan and topographic view used by Reps in Cities of the American West depicts an urban place substantially formed in the geometry of the "checkerboard" idea. The illustrations also show that each town had
more » ... ts own distinctive personality according to physical site (especially topography, orientation to water, and vegetation cover), material culture (especially building forms and styles expressive of ethnic and class differences), and economic orientation (as reflected in building use). Cities of the American West is not (nor does it pretend to be) a definitive history of western urban development. The illustrations hold center focus. Beyond describing urban localities as depicted in the illustrations, the narrative focuses on the respective cartographers and artists to examine their roles in the town planning process. The book is written very much to formula. The same historical and geographical themes are repeated over and over again as the author shifts his period and place emphases from chapter to chapter. The critical reader confronts a paradox. Here is an heroic effort as judged by scale and breadth of accumulated graphics, yet much of the narrative is lacking in analytical depth. Although it is unfair to criticize an author for what he did not intend to do (to criticize the book yet unwritten), one cannot help but wonder at certain omissions in Reps's work. Given his preoccupation with the illustrations, why didn't he give more attention to analyzing them as information sources? Topographic views, for PHILIP ABRAMS and E. A. WRIGLEY (eds.), Towns in Societies: Essays in Economic History and Historical Sociology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979, 344 PP., 4 figs., z maps, 9 tables. $8.50 (paper).
doi:10.2307/989755 fatcat:bdz6cuziojflhmoxhm6sdq55s4