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The conscience of the eye : the design and social life of cities
Title
The conscience of the eye : the design and social life of cities / Richard Sennett.
ISBN
0393308782
9780393308785
Published
New York : W.W. Norton, 1992, ©1990.
Physical Description
xiv, 266 pages ; 21 cm
Local Notes
BEIN 2018 4511: Number line: "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0" on title page verso indicates 1st printing. Paperbound. Autograph: "Samuel R. Delany, June 10, 1993". Manuscript notes of Samuel R. Delany. From the library of Samuel R. Delany.
Summary
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.
Variant and related titles
Design and social life of cities
Format
Books
Language
English
Added to Catalog
June 10, 2020
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Incomplete contents
Introduction: the conscience of the eye
- Part I. Interior shadows. 1. The refuge
2. The neutral city
- Part II. The eye searches for unity. 3. The open window of the eighteenth century
4. The unexpected consequences of visual unity
- Part III. Exposure. 6. Streets full of life
7. Places full of time
- Part Iv. The art of exposure. 8. Making exposed things
9. Centering oneself.
Subjects
Subjects (Local Yale)
Genre/Form
History.
Annotations (Provenance) - 20th century.
Also listed under
Samuel R. Delany Library (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library). Working Library.
United States New York (State) New York.
Bookmark As
Citation
