The Physical City: Public Space and the Infrastructure (American Cities : a Collection of Essays, Vol 2)

For many Americans cities have represented, more than anything else, physical environments that can be manipulated, shaped, or controlled. More important, however, has been the belief that such control in designing and molding the physical structure of cities will subsequently affect urban social, cultural, economic, and political life. With that belief in mind, Americans began trying to "manage" or plan their cities as early as the late 1830s and 1840s. Although these first steps were slow and halting, they charted a path whose direction has rarely varied. -- Introduction.