In this book American Urban Form. A Representative History, Sam Bass Warner and Andrew Whittemore map more than three hundred years of the American city through the evolution of urban form. They do this by offering an illustrated history of <he City&r – a hypothetical city that exemplifies the American city’s transformation from village to merchant seaport, industrial city, multicentered metropolis, and, finally, regional metropolis that participates in both the local and the global.
The book American Urban Form. A Representative History thereby offers a yardstick against which readers can measure the history of their city.
American urban form – -the spaces, places, and boundaries that define city life – has been evolving since the first settlements of colonial days. The changing patterns of houses, buildings, streets, parks, pipes and wires, wharves, railroads, highways, and airports reflect changing patterns of the social, political, and economic processes that shape the city.
