Books

The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects

Average customer rating:

Too long, too clever, both by half
Mumford had a gift for writing, but this tome gets lofty
Good Until the Last Hundred or So Pages
tricks
A comparative analysis of cities

The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects
Lewis Mumford
Manufacturer: MJF Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History
The Image of the City
The Economy of Cities
Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century

ASIN: 156731211X

Amazon.com

Lewis Mumford's massive historical study brings together a wide array of evidence--from the earliest group habitats to medieval towns to the modern centers of commerce (as well as dozens of black-and-white illustrations)--to show how the urban form has changed throughout human civilization. His tone is ultimately somewhat pessimistic: Mumford was deeply concerned with what he viewed as the dehumanizing aspects of the metropolitan trend, which he deemed "a world of professional illusionists and their credulous victims." (In another typically unrestrained criticism, he dubbed the Pentagon a Bronze Age monument to humanity's basest impulses, as well as an "effete and worthless baroque conceit.") Mumford hoped for a rediscovery of urban principles that emphasized humanity's organic relationship to its environment. The City in History remains a powerfully influential work, one that has shaped the agendas of urban planners, sociologists, and social critics since its publication in the 1960s.

Customer Reviews:

Too long, too clever, both by half.......2007-05-27

This is a canonical work, and perhaps deservedly so. By that I mean that it certainly covers a lot of ground, for which he deserves credit. Unfortunately, Mumford tries too hard to shove history into Karl Marx's neat little Hegelian theory and ultimately fails to bring his analysis close to a successful conclusion. And for something that pretends to be The History of The City, it certainly lacks the non-Western perspective, as if this was the work not of a world historian but of a well-traveled American or Englishman.

As an example of the first problem, his explanation of early cities leaves much to be desired. Here we have neolithic man living in villages and tending crops. Rather than simply offering a few suggestions as to how the city and king-based government came about, he forces the dialectic into the tale by bringing paleolithic man back and putting him in the place of the brutal warlord-king. Rex ex machina. It was truly bizarre and forces all of the explanations to be backwards from what is most likely the truth. Mumford seems to imply that the savage, paleolithic hunter-gatherers came back, built cities, and then forced the farmers to move into them when I suspect a much more organic process was involved in response to ... what? Marauding bands of warriors? What is the relevant scarcity that would have caused people to gradually transfer their own sovereignty to the king? Mumsford's treatment of the subject is unsophisticated.

As another reviewer has pointed out, he does seem to hit his stride when he comes to Classical Greece, has disdain for the Romans that makes you wonder whether he had been personally impacted by their city life, and then comes back into his stride when discussing the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. I actually found this to be an enlightening section of the book; it explains what I like about cities like Rothenburg, and what I dislike about Washington D.C. In fact, I think one could skip ahead to that part, and stop reading once you hit the early 19th century.

After that, the book becomes a one-sided discussion of the evils of capitalism. Once again, Mumford stops being a historian and tries to interpret everything through a Marxist lens. For a counterpoint to this, I would recommend some of the work of T. S. Ashton.

I tend, however, to agree with Mumford on his observations about the impact of the automobile, but not the cause of it. Capitalism, the belief that government should be confined to a night watchman role, is the opposite of a system which provides government subsidization of the automobile culture the way we do in the US. Prior to the railroads, many turnpikes were privately owned and operated, but Americans loved first the idea of the railroad and then the idea of a system that freed men from dependence on the railroad ... to which they had given birth just 60 years before. The result today is a system which we keep trying to control by ever larger public projects and programs.

In the end, Mumford fails to provide any substantive suggestion as to which way we should turn to create a more livable city. The suburbs and freeways, as unpopular as they are, seem to still be dominant, but I think a generation of people exposed to Mumford's description of the livable Medieval city are starting to do something about it. Unfortunately, the people who share Mumford's politics are now the defenders of the status quo, defending their own investments, opposing building, and forcing people to spend ever more time on the concrete-and-asphault shackles that bind our cities.

Mumford had a gift for writing, but this tome gets lofty.......2004-07-31

I'd agree with some of the other reviewers who found the first 3/4 of this book interesting and insightful and who were put off by the last portion. Mumford has a dexterous command of language and weaves prosaic citations and factual listings with poetic and metamorphic digestions. Though this book is an extremely long and at times a very dry 570 pages, I was rarely bored enough to put it down for too long. Mumford has a keen intellect and his pen touches on nearly every aspect of human development and interaction, even in contexts that one would think are not directly related to city life or urban growth. Here we see that city-man has cast an inescapable cultural legacy: religion, economics, epistemology/philosophy, politics & government and even biology are and have been in constant dialog with urban forces, dramatized by symbolic manifestations of rural and urban, man and woman, individual and communal, organic and mechanical. As a repository for cultural and historical development in the west, this book should have much more attention that it does nowadays.

Mumford's analysis of the development of western cities since the inception of agriculturally-based sedentary communities is for the most part highly critical of the social and organization manifestations of the cities of the ancient world. He waxes with a somewhat fair disposition on the democracy that gripped Athens in the 5th century, yet from then until the Middle Ages, he suggests a kind of downward spiral of avarice, destruction, homogeneity and inanity (i.e. Rome) A revival of his conception of beneficent communitas arises with the guild-guided Middle Age towns, but this is ultimately usurped by the emergence and domination of mercantilism and the contemporous rise of state politics and economies. The industrial revolution saw urban cityscapes that offered a cultural vibrance below even that of Rome. Today's cities according to Mumford are a cancerous legacy of these preceding few centuries, whose doom is intertwined with their insatiable appetite for growth through ecological imbalance and resource depletion.
One might think from the title and aim of this book that it would be a survey, yet Mumford's dissection of the most heinous eras in urban culture, Rome and the Modern Era (from c.1600) play into his deconstructionist framework which he uses to villify capitalism and industry and likewise acquaint the two with greed, luxury at the cost of inhuman exploitation. While this is fine, and he does make a number of interesting observations, it glosses over any contribution whatsoever these periods made to urban culture; the reader is given an unbalanced account of each era, and leads one to wonder if there were any positive contributions whatsoever.
Finally, Mumford's exhaustive treatise on the failures of civilization, the untapped creative potential of the human mind-which is basically what this book is about- in the end offers no real solid retort or solution. The two concepts he does point to for a model of regional civic interaction - the electrical grid and the interlibrary loan system do seem to have a modern syncrete in the Internet, a network of easily availble cultural capital. Mumford is undoubtably a humanist and several times yearns for cities to allow humans to unlock their full creative and biological faculties, followed by a stream of dreamy platitudes that do little to qualify what this kind of feeling or sentiment concretely would entail. This is perhaps the biggest disappointment in this otherwise well-written book.

Good Until the Last Hundred or So Pages.......2004-04-06

After two hundred pages I wanted to give this book five stars, but after finishing it, I was almost ready to give it three stars.

This book is what it says it is, "The City in History". Starting in the neolithic era, Mumford marches through all of recorded time and place (place being limited to the Near East, Greece, Rome, Europe and America) to bring, you, the reader, his thoughts on the role and "prospects" of the city.

In the beginning, it's an exhilerating ride. Mumford is not shy about advancing bold arguments. Although the book starts with sections on the city in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, he doesn't really get excited until he gets to Ancient Greece. I'd say it's clear from the text that Mumford is a fan of Ancient Greece, particularly Athens between the 7th and 6th century B.C.

Then it's off to Rome. Mumford is a harsh critic of Roman culture. His critique of the Roman method of burial (take bodies just outside city limits, dump, bury) contrains so much righteous indigination you might think the Romans were still pottering around when he wrote this book.

After Rome, we get an equally stirring defense of the Middle (don't call them "Dark" around Mumford) Ages. Mumford is a big fan of the city in the late middle ages. As an example, Mumford uses Amsterdam. Specifically, what Mumford likes about this time period is the community involvement by the ruling elites.

Like many other social critics, Mumford is not a huge fan of the impact that capitalism and industrialization have had on the modern city. Unlike some of the other reveiwers below, I don't really hold that against him. He was writing in the sixties, people!!!

However, I do admit that by the last hundred or so pages, when Mumford starts despairing of the future of the city, the whole tirade started to get tired.

I'm not sure I would recommend this for a general reader.

tricks.......2003-10-19

this book is fine. go get it from the library and learn the origins of the city. critique civilization and its facets with other books and never mind intellectual/acedemia. educate yourself. civilizations origins are the origins of humanity's current polarized state.

"Computers serve as much more efficient storage centers for knowledge than all the libraries in any city ever could and the Internet has made the entire World into an interlocking community."

you dont know how to hunt and gather do you? i wonder why he was so hellbent on technology when you sit here rambling off all the knowledge you assimilated from a urban system that taught you how to forget your genetic roots and what kept humanity alive for millions of years. nothing a computer will ever do or help regain. you know how to survive in the city and nothing more. you are tied to machinery like he stated. this is not community. you dont consider criminals part of your community yet civilization and urban wastelandscapes create them. jails are more efficient? farming is more efficent yet destroys how much top soil? at least you have 6 billion mouths to feed now. neo-luddistic? nope. just a solid fact.

A comparative analysis of cities.......2002-07-16

Lewis Mumford deftly explores the formation and development of the city from its early Mesopotamian and Egyptian roots to its modern day manifestations. It is the logical extension of his earlier works on the subject, in particular "The Culture of Cities," which has been partially absorbed into this volume. Of particular interest to meis his analysis of the walled versus open cities, and the sharply opposing world views of the progenitors of these cities.

Mumford was particularly drawn to the early Hellenic and later medieval town planning ideals. He noted how the early cities knew their limits, and established satellite communities, rather than continually extend their boundaries. Loose-knit federations were formed, which were much more democratic than were the Roman and Baroque regimental cities.

He charts the evolution of modern city planning ideals, very critical of Le Corbusier's "Radiant City" and other megalomaniac ideas which arose in the 20th century. Mumford favored the "garden city" ideals of Ebeneezer Howard, which recognized the destructive impact of industrialization on urban centers; rather than those schemes which extolled the industrial city as the city of the future.

Mumford is careful not to over reach, or at least let you know when he is forming suppositions. His annotated bibliography is immense, and probably the single most compelling aspect of this book for those who want to read more on the subject. The new Harcourt paperback edition, which came when I ordered this volume, has a more handsome cover than that shown in this listing.

The Red Book of Varieties and Schemes: Includes the Michigan Lectures (1974) on Curves and their Jacobians (Lecture Notes in Mathematics)

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The nearly Royal Road
Before Hartshorne

The Red Book of Varieties and Schemes: Includes the Michigan Lectures (1974) on Curves and their Jacobians (Lecture Notes in Mathematics)
David Mumford , and E. Arbarello
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Basic Algebraic Geometry 2: Schemes and Complex Manifolds
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ASIN: 354063293X

Book Description

Mumford's famous Red Book gives a simple readable account of the basic objects of algebraic geometry, preserving as much as possible their geometric flavor and integrating this with the tools of commutative algebra. It is aimed at graduate students or mathematicians in other fields wishing to learn quickly what algebraic geometry is all about.
This new edition also includes an overview of the theory of curves, their moduli spaces and their Jacobians, one of the most exciting fields within algebraic geometry. The book is aimed at graduate students and professors seeking to learn
i) the concept of "scheme" as part of their study of algebraic geometry and
ii) an overview of moduli problems for curves and of the use of theta functions to study these.

Customer Reviews:

The nearly Royal Road.......2001-12-11

In a nutshell, reading this book is like reading the mind of a great mathematician as he thinks about a great new idea. Anyone interested in schemes should read it. But a review needs more detail:

The RED BOOK is a concise, brilliant survey of schemes, by one of the first mathematicians to learn of them from Grothendieck. He gives wonderfully intuitive pictures of schemes, especially of "arithmetic schemes" where number theory appears as geometry. The geometry shines through it all: as in differentials, and etale maps, and how unique factorization relates to non-singularity. There is a bravura discussion of Zariski's Main Theorem (the algebraic property of being "normal" implies that a variety has only one branch at each point) comparing forms of it from older algebraic geometry, topology, power series, and schemes. Mumford cites proofs of these but does not give them. In fact, this theorem was one of the first things Mumford could use, to get Zariski to respect schemes.

Many accomplished algebraic geometers say this book got them started. But you probably cannot learn to work in the subject from this book alone--you either have to work with people who work with it, or use some other books besides (maybe both). The other book would probably be Hartshorne ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRY, which is far more detailed, has far more examples, goes very much farther into cohomology--and is very much longer and denser (though also clearly written).

Eisenbud and Harris GEOMETRY OF SCHEMES covers a lot of the same ground as THE RED BOOK, with fewer advanced topics but many more details and examples, including classical geometric constructions like blow-ups and duals to projective plane curves. They use slightly more category theory than Mumford, more like Grothendieck.

Probably none of these books will work for you unless you already know some algebraic geometry: how polynomials define a variety, the Zariski topology, what regular and birational maps are. There is more than enough in Myles Reid's humorously titled UNDERGRADUATE ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRY and UNDERGRADUATE COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRA with vividly geometric ideas in slightly scheme-theoretic language.

The RED BOOK now includes the Michigan lectures, which are reputedly terrific, but I have not worked through them.

Before Hartshorne.......1999-12-01

There is a problem in getting going with alg. geo. To learn the geometry you need commutative algebra and to contextualize commutative algebra you need algebraic geometry. Mumford is an excellent book to get going without the need for the heavy prereqs of the more classic books like Hartshore or G&H. A really good read.

This is not however a terrific reference text, you'll need something else as a reference. Its much to expository and their is no index.

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Designing Human Systems
Steve Hickey , Holly Matthies , and Enid Mumford
Manufacturer: Lulu.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Enid Mumford (1924-2006) was a pioneer in the sociotechnical design of computer systems. Prof Mumford's work successfully investigated the introduction and implementation of computer systems by large corporations and governments. Mumford's ETHICS approach to software development emphasizes user participation, thus avoiding many of the problems of introducing new systems. It takes a holistic view of organizations, unifying both social and technological solutions. This updated edition of Mumford's book, Designing Human Systems, describes how modern agile programming techniques complement the ETHICS method. Together, the two methods cover both user and developer issues. This integrated approach offers an improved methodology for successful software development projects.

The Enormous Turnip Big Book (Oxford University Press Classic Tales, Level Beginner 1)

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The Enormous Turnip Big Book (Oxford University Press Classic Tales, Level Beginner 1)
Sue Arengo , and Claire Mumford
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0194225178

Book Description

A man puts a seed in the ground. It's an enormous turnip. He pulls the turnip but it doesn't move. 'Come and help!' he says. A woman, a boy, a girl, a dog, and a cat all come and help, but the turnip doesn't move. Then a little mouse helps.

The Brown Decades: A Study of the Arts in America, 1865-1895 (Dover Books on Art, Art History)

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The Brown Decades: A Study of the Arts in America, 1865-1895 (Dover Books on Art, Art History)
Lewis Mumford
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Buried renaissance of Root, Sullivan, Roebling, W. Homer, Eakins, Ryder, others. 12 illustrations.

Kidnapped by River Rats: William and Catherine Booth (Trailblazer Books #1)

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our review
13 yr. old boy

Kidnapped by River Rats: William and Catherine Booth (Trailblazer Books #1)
Dave and Neta Jackson
Manufacturer: Bethany House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1556612206
Release Date: 1991-09-01

Book Description

Jack and Amy come to London in the 1880s and are rescued from harm by General and Catherine Booth. Ages 8-12.

Customer Reviews:

our review.......2007-05-21

we are a group of 5th and 6th grade girls. Jack & Amy lose thier mother to an illnes. So they go looking for thier Uncle Sedgwick to take care of them. They meet a man and his wife, William &Catherine Booth , who started the Salvation Army. We liked the story because it was mysterous,exicting,adventurous,and teaches us about the Salvation Army and how they had to face persucution.

13 yr. old boy.......2007-05-18

"Kidnapped by River Rats" is a book about Jack and his sister Amy. The book begins with them in London searching for their uncle. He is their only living relative. With no food, money, or a place to stay they must find their uncle before winter. If they don't, they could freeze. While searching for their uncle, they see the Salvation Army preaching the Bible in the streets. To see where the word kidnapped and the Salvation Army fit into the story, you'll have to read it for yourself!

P.W.
Age 13

Sticks and Stones (Dover Books on Architecture)

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The 29th century's contribution to the Humanities

Sticks and Stones (Dover Books on Architecture)
Lewis Mumford
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Brown Decades: A Study of the Arts in America, 1865-1895 (Dover Books on Art, Art History)
The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects
The Death and Life of Great American Cities

ASIN: 048620202X

Book Description

Great classic of American cultural history and important study of American architecture and civilization, still stimulating in its sweep and insights. Discusses the early New England towns, vernacular building, Colonial and Federal periods, Henry Hobson Richardson and other important architects of the late 19th century, the Classical Revival, up to the early 1920s. 21 illus.

Customer Reviews:

The 29th century's contribution to the Humanities.......2000-03-24

Toward the end of the college course "Introduction to the Humanities", Louis Mumford's book "Sticks and Stones" appeared on the reading required list. It was our introduction to the world of modern architecture, to Frank Lloyd Wright and other glorious makers of modern architecture. Tonight on Public Television he appeared to comment on the Brooklyn Bridge. It has been 66 years since I heard his name, but his comments are timeless. The book "Sticks and Stones" is not only a tribute to modern architecture, but also a historical landmark in the development of architecture.

The Condition of Man (Harvest Book, Hb 251)

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In the beginning...

The Condition of Man (Harvest Book, Hb 251)
Lewis Mumford
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156215500

Book Description

A study of the development of the personality and the community. With a preface by the author. 16 pages of illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

In the beginning..........2003-06-26

Mumford endeavors to trace the development of civilization in this book, and will astound with well-rounded, informative summations of the construction of culture dating back to the 6th century BC. Anyone curious about parallels between the fall of the Greek and Roman empires and the fall of our own culture should read this book.

Beginning Web Development With Visual Interdev 6.0 (Beginning)

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Teaching Bad Habits is a Bad Idea
Very Good for beginners
Web Development with Visual Interdev 6
Excellent for Beginners in Web Development
Not worth the content

Beginning Web Development With Visual Interdev 6.0 (Beginning)
Andrew Mumford , Mike Cai , John Duckett , and Paul Wilton
Manufacturer: Peer Information Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Practical Visual InterDev 6 (Practical Series)
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ASIN: 1861002947

Amazon.com

Written for those with minimal programming experience, Beginning Web Development with Visual InterDev 6 puts serious Web programming within the reach of any newcomer using an effective tutorial demonstrating the tools and technologies needed to use Microsoft Visual InterDev effectively on the Windows platform.

The best thing about this book has to be its common-sense approach to essential APIs and tools needed for Web development today, centering on Visual InterDev. It contains what you need to know about HTML (and DHTML), ASPs, VBScript and JavaScript, as well as database programming with ADO.

The title excels at showing off the features of Visual InterDev (and other tools) with hands-on exercises. There are dozens of screen shots here for installing and configuring not only VI but also SQL Server, Personal Web Server (PWS), and MTS. This book also has a good sense of the choices Web designers must make between universal access (and pure HTML) versus other features (like cascading style sheets, DHTML, and client-side script) that will add functionality while restricting browser access.

As it progresses, this text turns to Microsoft's recommended strategies for scalable design, namely using MTS-enabled COM business objects built with VB. In all, it's the thorough and efficient tutorial on essential Web standards (from HTML to XML, with excellent coverage of the support for JavaScript and VBScript available in VI) that make this book a success.

It used to be that the best way to learn programming was to concentrate on a single language like C, C++, or Visual Basic. But today's programmers must learn a variety of languages and standards to begin working on the Web effectively. Beginning Web Development with Visual InterDev 6 covers a number of the key Web technologies, with enough depth to get you started but without bogging you down in overwhelming detail. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Web application and HTML/HTTP basics, managing browser incompatibilities, ASP basics, Visual InterDev 6 installation and feature overview, layouts, themes and site navigation tools with VI, database basics with SQL Server 7 and Access, Design-Time Controls (DTCs) and data binding, VBScript and JavaScript tutorial, DHTML basics, using ActiveX components, ADO databases, introduction to XML, error handling and debugging, VB COM components, MTS and transactions, VI deployment.

Book Description

This book explains and demonstrates how to create web applications, using Microsoft's premier web development tool - Visual InterDev 6. In this book you'll learn what a web application is, look at the major technologies behind web development, including object oriented programming and how to incorporate data from databases into your pages using Active Server Pages and ActiveX Data Objects, and be taken through all of the major features of Visual InterDev 6. From installing the necessary software and a basic guide to HTML, to writing your own VBScript pages and JavaScript ActiveX components, you'll create lots of useful samples for your real-life applications and will be encouraged to practice at every step of the way.

Customer Reviews:

Teaching Bad Habits is a Bad Idea.......2002-07-30

This book may be fine for producing working web-pages, but it's pretty awful in these days of cross-browser applications.

Furthermore, the introduction of XHTML 1.0 renders almost all the code listings pretty worthless, unless you're familiar with the new standards and how to amend what's already there. As for bad habits, this book supplies them all in spades:

1) HTML pages with no attribute.
2) HTML header tags with no namespace defines.
3) No explanation of DTDs or why pages these days at least follow the minimum necessary guidelines.
4) Unlosed tags.
5) attributes not quoted as string literals - and the book actually *recommends* this practise

and many many more. The actual VBScript/ASP section is relatively okay, but the author needs to pay more attention to the destruction of called objects, and stop using the ScriptLibrary, as it's almost never used commercially and is generally considered unstable and unsafe to run on any IIS server from which a fair degree of uptime is required.

In short, probably the best option for anyone wishing to learn ASP is to get the O'Reilly book on XHTML, make a few pages and get the hang of that side of things first, and then move straight to Wrox's Professional Active Server Pages 3.0

Very Good for beginners.......2001-11-10

I am a new web developer I do not have much web development experience and I find this book a very good starting book that takes you from ground up in a fast and easy manner. Although it does not cover the more advanced issues however this is very clear form the title.

Web Development with Visual Interdev 6.......2001-06-14

It is a good book specially for a beginner like myself. What makes it a good book, is it is slow paced and explains well throughout. The only thing I didn't like about it, was in chapter 5 when you get to Database stuff it showed you how to do it using SQL Server 7 which is a very expensive piece of software in which not very many home use users have. It is more for a business. Most people like myself would like to hook a Database up on a website using Microsoft Access.

But overall, it is a good book. Coming into it not knowing anything about Interdev I would suggest buying it, even if you do know alittle about it still buy it.

Excellent for Beginners in Web Development.......2001-06-12

It was my pleasure to review this book and I was amazed about the usefulness of the examples and how one example is worked out in all aspects. The book gives a complete overview of a feature rich product and takes the reader through it by one main example. I believe this book is very helpful for people that want to develop web applications beyond the use of Frontpage. Very recommendable book!

Not worth the content.......2001-06-06

This book is overprice. It has very limited instructions how to use VI 6.0 and not informative. To beginners please look for another one, your penny per page is worthless.

The Conduct of Life (Harvest Book, Nb 34)

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a perceptive critique of modern society

The Conduct of Life (Harvest Book, Nb 34)
Lewis Mumford
Manufacturer: Harvest/HBJ Book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156216000

Book Description

Discusses the ultimated ethical and religious issues the confront modern man and offers a new orientation, directed to the renewal of life and the reintegration of modern civilization.

Customer Reviews:

a perceptive critique of modern society.......2000-06-09

This classic by Lewis Mumford is a poignant, perceptive and polemical critique of modern society in the age of "democratic-capitalism". Mumford's premise is that modern civilization based on democratic-capitalism creates only a "mass man": incapable of choice, incapable of spontaneous, self-directed activities; at best impatient, docile, disciplined to monotonous work to an almost pathetic degree, but increasingly irresponsible as his choices become fewer and fewer; finally modern man is a creature governed mainly by... modern business, the propaganda office and the planing bureaus of totalitarian and quasi-totalitarian governments (which, by definition, include both Marxist-Leninist governments and democratic-capitalist governments). Written years ago, "The Conduct of Life" remains a rational, conclusive and veracious analysis of humanity's place in a capitalist society.

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