Flesh And Stone [Paperback]

Sennett (The Fall of Public Man) has produced an engrossing history of the city told through its people's movements: how they dressed, bathed and made love, where they ate, what they saw and heard. He first examines Athenians' celebration of nakedness and the Romans' use of geometrical images derived from the human body to impose order on their imperial realm. Next he brings us to the 13th-century Paris of Notre Dame Cathedral, where burgeoning enterprises challenged the Christian sense of place and community. A New York Univeristy sociologist, Sennett discusses the creation of Venice's Jewish ghetto in the 16th century, then links William Harvey's discoveries about blood circulation to individualized movement and bodily freedom in revolutionary 18th-century Paris. In the modern multicultural metropolis, he says the buildings contribute to a lack of emotional connection, as well as monotony and sensory deprivation. Sennett forces us to rethink architecture, social history and urban design and planning. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Sennett (sociology, NYU) has constructed a truly unique study of the human history of cities. He tackles the history of the development of the city in terms of the human body's function and perception. He describes the city's activities in the terminology of physiology (i.e., veins, arteries), in political terms (i.e., class, race), and through other labeling and divisive terms. His examination includes city plans, architectural design and public transportation, and the movement of peoples. Sennett's examples span the continuum of Western civilization. He explores the concept of the body in Athens, Rome, Paris, Venice, London, and New York. His prose is direct and accessible to even the most beginning student. However, his "body" metaphors at times stray from his purpose, diluting his otherwise fascinating presentation. Recommended for academic libraries and only larger public libraries.
Jenny Presnell, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, Ohio
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

In such books as The Conscience of the Eye: The Design and Social Life of Cities (1990) and this highly original, multidisciplinary history, Sennett explores the link between perception of our physical self and the shape of our cities. He has selected six cities at significant points in their evolution, beginning with ancient Athens and the cult of nakedness. For the city's male citizens, exposure was proof of strength and power, and they displayed their bodies in public places notable for their openness and airiness. In Hadrian's Rome, on the other hand, the "visual order" of symmetrical design reassured a populace more attuned to the body's vulnerability to illness, age, and violence. Moving forward in time, Sennett analyzes shifting attitudes toward the body, spirituality, health, sexuality, politics, prejudice, and economics, uncovering rarely considered facts about life in the Jewish ghetto of Renaissance Venice, in Paris during its medieval and revolutionary eras, in Edwardian London, and in contemporary New York. In each setting, he demonstrates the ways in which increased medical and scientific knowledge influenced the structure of cities as well as the interface between church and state, body and soul. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

An expansive history of Western civilization's evolving conception of the human body and that concept's influence on the erection of cities. Sennett (Sociology/New York Univ.; The Conscience of the Eye, 1991, etc.) argues that the homogenization of contemporary culture is aided and abetted by the failure of modern architecture and urban planning to accommodate the physical and sensory needs of the human body. This is more than mere postmodern sterility to Sennett. He sees this failing as an extension of the ``enduring problem'' of Western civilization: the inability or refusal of those with the power to build cities to honor ``the dignity of the body and diversity of human bodies.'' From Pericles' Athens to Robert Moses's New York, Sennett incorporates discussions of sexuality, religion, politics, medicine, and economics into a historical grand tour of great cities whose buildings, streets, and public squares elevated the status of the ruling elite and diminished that of common citizens. Along the way, we find out how it felt to witness an execution by guillotine in revolutionary Paris, attend a Roman banquet, and observe a trial in ancient Greece, where courtrooms reflected the demands of a participatory democracy--three-foot-high walls and a jury box big enough for the minimum 201 jurors. Though Sennett ably surveys the ideological landscapes of the ancient, medieval, and modern worlds, these quotidian revelations are what enliven the book. By exposing the principles of individualism and personal comfort that form the most fundamental assumptions of 20th-century consumer culture, Sennett reminds modern readers that they trade a great deal for comfort--namely their engagement with one another. In so doing, he debunks the myth that the evolution of cities has been one of unfettered progress, or that progress is synonymous with improvement. Passionate, exhaustively researched, and original. (Photos and maps, not seen) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Here, Sennet examines the relationship between the human body and the urban environment it inhabits, looking at the differing attitudes to nudity, burial, sanctuary and urban planning in ancient Greece and Rome, Medieval and Renaissance Europe, and concluding with a fuller analysis of how the link between flesh and stone has altered with the advances in science and medicine. It is, as the author says in the introduction, "more than an historical catalogue of physical sensations in urban space", offering fresh insights and ideas for anyone interested in the city or civic life. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Richard Sennett now works at the LSE where he runs their Cities Programme. His previous publications include his best-seller THE CORROSION OF CHARACTER. His next book, RESPECT: THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER IN A WORLD OF INEQUALITY, will be published by Allen Lane in January 2003. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.