On his book City on a Hill: Urban Idealism in America from the Puritans to the Present
Cover Interview of January 28, 2020
In a nutshell
The book’s primary intent is to portray the American inclination
to experiment with forms of settlement, evident in both utopian and pragmatic
efforts at reconceiving how and in what shape our towns, cities, and urban
regions should grow. While not abandoning long-standing precedents of urban
organization, Americans have commonly sought to improve upon the cities at
their feet, or those from which they emigrated.
Aspirational approaches at community and city-building have served
as the parallel to the political efforts to establish a republic dedicated to “life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” That post-revolutionary America expanded
the frontiers of social and political institutions is widely acknowledged. That
the reevaluation of old-world institutions and values would extend to how better
to gather spatially in communities is less commonly understood. Each of the chapters
explores an effort, cultural trend, or belief about what makes a good neighborhood,
a better town, a more humane city, and about some longer consequences of proceeding
to build such places. Setting out in search of utopia does not guarantee one’s
arrival there.
The book ranges broadly across American history though without
following a strict chronological timeline. It begins with Thomas Jefferson’s 18th-century
determination to establish an egalitarian agrarian republic, and concludes with
a fascination (encouraged by Google, Facebook, and other digital-world
innovators) about the coming of an “e-topia.” Urban life becoming better, more palatable,
even enjoyable, in “smart cities.” Cities becoming smart and smarter by the integration
of informational technologies, data analytics, the “internet of things” and
artificial intelligence. It is the current exemplar of a lengthy tradition of
aspirational (and some would call naïve) ideas about perfecting places to live
and to flourish in company with others.
Readers are welcome to proceed from the introductory chapter
forward, though this is not necessary. It may be equally or even more enjoyable
to enter the narrative via a particular chapter whose title, theme, or era of
focus sparks that reader’s curiosity.
[T]he Holocaust transformed our whole way of thinking about war and heroism. War is no longer a proving ground for heroism in the same way it used to be. Instead, war now is something that we must avoid at all costs—because genocides often take place under the cover of war. We are no longer all potential soldiers (though we are that too), but we are all potential victims of the traumas war creates. This, at least, is one important development in the way Western populations envision war, even if it does not always predominate in the thinking of our political leaders.Carolyn J. Dean, Interview of February 01, 2011
The dominant premise in evolution and economics is that a person is being loyal to natural law if he or she attends to self’s interest and welfare before being concerned with the needs and demands of family or community. The public does not realize that this statement is not an established scientific principle but an ethical preference. Nonetheless, this belief has created a moral confusion among North Americans and Europeans because the evolution of our species was accompanied by the disposition to worry about kin and the collectives to which one belongs.Jerome Kagan, Interview of September 17, 2009
In a nutshell
The book’s primary intent is to portray the American inclination to experiment with forms of settlement, evident in both utopian and pragmatic efforts at reconceiving how and in what shape our towns, cities, and urban regions should grow. While not abandoning long-standing precedents of urban organization, Americans have commonly sought to improve upon the cities at their feet, or those from which they emigrated.
Aspirational approaches at community and city-building have served as the parallel to the political efforts to establish a republic dedicated to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” That post-revolutionary America expanded the frontiers of social and political institutions is widely acknowledged. That the reevaluation of old-world institutions and values would extend to how better to gather spatially in communities is less commonly understood. Each of the chapters explores an effort, cultural trend, or belief about what makes a good neighborhood, a better town, a more humane city, and about some longer consequences of proceeding to build such places. Setting out in search of utopia does not guarantee one’s arrival there.
The book ranges broadly across American history though without following a strict chronological timeline. It begins with Thomas Jefferson’s 18th-century determination to establish an egalitarian agrarian republic, and concludes with a fascination (encouraged by Google, Facebook, and other digital-world innovators) about the coming of an “e-topia.” Urban life becoming better, more palatable, even enjoyable, in “smart cities.” Cities becoming smart and smarter by the integration of informational technologies, data analytics, the “internet of things” and artificial intelligence. It is the current exemplar of a lengthy tradition of aspirational (and some would call naïve) ideas about perfecting places to live and to flourish in company with others.
Readers are welcome to proceed from the introductory chapter forward, though this is not necessary. It may be equally or even more enjoyable to enter the narrative via a particular chapter whose title, theme, or era of focus sparks that reader’s curiosity.