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From Library Journal
Sennett's study of urban culture began with a discourse on public and private life, The Fall of Public Man ( LJ 12/15/76), and continued with the historical novel, Palais Royal ( LJ 12/86). This, the final installment of his loose "trilogy," seeks to relate architecture, urban planning, and sculpture to the cultural life of cities, from the time of ancient Athens to late 20th-century New York. The author achieves a great deal more, for he offers a broad humanistic reflection on many of the elements that constitute modern culture: literature, spiritual rootlessness, philosophy, music, poetry, ballet, bars, and public baths. The central thesis, that modern humans suffer because of the dichotomy between their subjective private experience and their outside public life, is thoroughly persuasive. Almost every page of this elegantly written work of cultural history contains food for thought, e.g., "The essence of developing as a human being is developing the capacity for ever more complex experience." For general collections.
- Bennett D. Hill, Georgetown Univ., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- Bennett D. Hill, Georgetown Univ., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
In a critique of urban art (baroque churches to subway graffiti), architecture (Renaissance obelisks to the Union Club and Le Corbusier), and the social rituals that take place around them, Sennett (Sociology/NYU) 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 build and use them. As in earlier works (e.g., The Uses of Disorder, 1970; The Fall of Public Man, 1977; Authority, 1980, and the novel Palais Royal, 1987), Sennett explores the creative and psychological possibilities and penalties of urban life. In place of such dominant forms as the grid ("the geometry of power," disguising an inner emptiness) or the glass building (visibility that isolates), he proposes the Ideal City of Deconstruction, derived from Derrida's aesthetics - a city that celebrates differences, discontinuities, disorientation rather than serving as a refuge from them. The theory is like the steam in the Turkish Bath on the Lower East Side that this author deconstructs so skillfully: a pleasant obscuration. Sennett's strength is in his illustrative material-ranging, diverse, apt - from St. Augustine to James Baldwin, Adam Smith, Henry James, Balanchine, Allen Ginsberg, Sarah Bernhardt, and Hannah Arendt. The best parts are the autobiographical excursions up Third Avenue (pausing at an equestrian supply store politely selling whips to Connecticut matrons and the local S/M crowd) or among the peddlers of 14th Street, as Sennett savors and interprets a city he obviously loves. Provocative and learned - but such a visually oriented book suffers from lack of illustrations. (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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First Sentence
THE PEOPLE of the Old Testament did not separate spiritual life and worldly experience. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THE PEOPLE of the Old Testament did not separate spiritual life and worldly experience. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Looking beyond the walls,
By Taeho Paik (Rome, Italy) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Conscience Of The Eye (Paperback)
Richard Sennett is an articulate writer whose style reveals a fascinating mind and above all, a keen pair of eyes. In relating our visual organ to the conscience, he implores us to start seeing our lives as wholly related to and organically integrated with, the cities that we live in. In this thoroughly original and important book, Sennett successfully avoids the tendency of many writers on urbanism to proffer 'well meaning' solutions, but instead takes us on a historical and psychological journey. He convinces his readers to focus on impulses and 'spriritual' reasons behind the creation of cities, ranging from the Greek ideals of 'grace' and 'balance' that produced the 'Agora' to the dilemmas of the modern soul that creates walls made of sheer glass. In chapter after chapter of engrossing reading anyone deeply interested in the well-being of urban life will begin to share his insights on urban forms. He articulates his views using descriptions of ordianry people's lives through history. His well researched narrative succeeds in relating their living conditions with their daily activities as being outward expressions of their inner being. Psychological and emotional states which then find direct expressions in the physical forms of the places in which their lives are enacted. For anyone working in architecture or urban planning, this book is a must-read. In the modern age we are conditioned to believing that a city is a product of functional processes. It is this commonly held apathy which is the very root cause of our modern urban alienation. To me, the message of Richard Sennett's book is a revelation. It is a matter of conscience to use our eyes to see the spirit of our own lives embedded in the walls and the streets that our fathers and mothers have made.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews) 20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Looking beyond the walls,
By Taeho Paik - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Conscience Of The Eye (Paperback)
Richard Sennett is an articulate writer whose style reveals a fascinating mind and above all, a keen pair of eyes. In relating our visual organ to the conscience, he implores us to start seeing our lives as wholly related to and organically integrated with, the cities that we live in. In this thoroughly original and important book, Sennett successfully avoids the tendency of many writers on urbanism to proffer 'well meaning' solutions, but instead takes us on a historical and psychological journey. He convinces his readers to focus on impulses and 'spriritual' reasons behind the creation of cities, ranging from the Greek ideals of 'grace' and 'balance' that produced the 'Agora' to the dilemmas of the modern soul that creates walls made of sheer glass. In chapter after chapter of engrossing reading anyone deeply interested in the well-being of urban life will begin to share his insights on urban forms. He articulates his views using descriptions of ordianry people's lives through history. His well researched narrative succeeds in relating their living conditions with their daily activities as being outward expressions of their inner being. Psychological and emotional states which then find direct expressions in the physical forms of the places in which their lives are enacted. For anyone working in architecture or urban planning, this book is a must-read. In the modern age we are conditioned to believing that a city is a product of functional processes. It is this commonly held apathy which is the very root cause of our modern urban alienation. To me, the message of Richard Sennett's book is a revelation. It is a matter of conscience to use our eyes to see the spirit of our own lives embedded in the walls and the streets that our fathers and mothers have made.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Space; Human Geogrpahy,
By Coffe-N-Books - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Conscience Of The Eye (Paperback)
This is an interesting and easy read book. It is written by a major contributor in human geogrphy and addresses the role of space in society. This is a great book!!!
2 of 14 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Meandering, though I suppose that's the point,
By Meme Mutation - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Conscience Of The Eye (Paperback)
If you want to read Sennett's opinions on various artworks and art-forms and how he applies these to his social philosophy this is the book you (and apparently two others) have been waiting for.
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