ROBERT MOORE FISHER (Ed.). The Me tropolis in Modern Life. (Columbia Uni versity Bicentennial Conference Series.) Pp. xiii, 401. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday and Company, 1955. $6.00
| Author | Maurice R. Davie |
| Published date | 01 July 1955 |
| Date | 01 July 1955 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000271625530000144 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
151
reports.
No
use
blaming
a
school
board
in
Bucks
County
for
not
building
schools
fast
enough.
As
the
authors
say,
no
school
board
in
the
United
States
is
geared
to
complete
a
new
school
every
ninety
days-
to
meet
the
rate
of
population
growth
in
Levittown!
Most
distressingly,
it
almost
seems
that
the
basic decisions
on
plant
lo-
cation
have
to
be
made
in
ways
that
mili-
tate
against
planned
and
orderly
absorption
of
the
shock.
United
States
Steel
had
to
act
secretly
until
it
had
assembled
its
3,800
acres-or
rampant
speculation
would
have
driven
land
costs
out
of
sight.
Still,
as
the
Pennsylvania-Princeton
team
points
out,
if
there
had
been
a
county
planning
board
in
Bucks
County,
if
there
had
been
more
logical
boundaries
to
the
units
of
local
government,
if
...,
if
...,
the
trauma
would have
caused
less
human
pain.
The
prescription
for
a
cure
is
well
presented.
How
can
these
studies
in
pathology
lay
the
basis
for
preventive
hygiene
in
the
next
areas
where
the
shock
of
industrialization
will
fall?
CHARLES
S.
ASCHER
Brooklyn
College
ROBERT
MOORE
FISHER
(Ed.).
The Me-
tropolis
in
Modern
Life.
(Columbia
Uni-
versity
Bicentennial
Conference
Series.)
Pp.
xiii,
401.
Garden
City,
N.
Y.:
Doubleday
and
Company,
1955.
$6.00.
These
writings
grew
out
of
the
first
con-
ference,
under
the
chairmanship
of
econ-
omist
Ernest
M.
Fisher,
held
in
1954
in
connection
with
the
bicentennial
celebra-
tion
of
Columbia
University.
Consisting
of
sixteen
principal
papers
and
nineteen
com-
mentaries,
they
have
been
well
ordered
and
edited
by
Robert
Moore
Fisher,
who
has
contributed
an
Introduction
to
each
of
the
eight
parts
of
the
volume.
The
general
question
to
which
the
con-
ference
was
addressed
was
how
to
enhance
the
advantages
and
to
minimize
the
dis-
advantages
of
the
modem
metropolis.
It
seemed
to
be
generally
agreed
that
the
metropolis
provides
a
richer
and
fuller
kind
of
living
than
is
possible
anywhere
else-
due
to
the
greater
diversity,
specialization,
efficiency,
social
mobility,
and
other
char-
acteristics
of
the
large
city-and
that
these
advantages
outweigh
the
disadvantages
of
congestion,
noise,
crime
and
immorality,
anonymity,
political
and
social
apathy,
and
similar
conditions
which
exist
in
greater
de-
gree
in
the
metropolis
than
in
small
com-
munities.
While
the
conference
was
con-
cerned
with
understanding
the
metropolis
rather
than
with
solutions of
metropolitan
problems,
it
assumed
that
the
latter
could
be
lessened
through
the
application
of
sci-
ence,
technology,
and
planning.
The
volume
begins
with
&dquo;the
dynamic
role
of
the
city
in social
development&dquo;
and
proceeds
to
discuss
the
political,
economic,
and
legal
influences
and
effects
of
metro-
politan
concentrations
and
the
adaptations
occurring
in
response
to
new
and
changing
conditions-the
strongest
section
in
this
re-
viewer’s
opinion.
The
influence
of
science
and
technology
on
the
metropolis
is
next
considered
in
a
general
way,
followed
by
a
more
specific
discussion
of
the
impact
of
the
metropolis
on
the
professions,
in
which
the
main
theme
is
the
trends
in
increasing
specialization
and
in
interprofessional
co-
operation.
The
last
two
sections
are
ad-
dressed
to
the
effects
of
the
metropolis
upon
spiritual
life
(which
doesn’t
say
very
much)
and
the
search
for
the
ideal
city
(which
has
some
interesting
commentaries).
In
view
of
the
origin
and
nature
of
this
volume,
a
comment
on
the
personnel
may
be
in
order.
Of
the
sixteen
principal
con-
tributors,
five
came
from
Great
Britain
and
two
from
France;
the
remaining
nine
from
various
parts
of
the
United
States.
Of
the
nineteen
commentators,
one
was
from
abroad
(Denmark),
the
others
hold
posi-
tions
in this
country.
The
disciplines
and
fields
of
activity
represented
range
from
archeology
to
theology,
with
law,
the
social
sciences,
and
city
planning
in
numerical
prominence.
Besides
professors,
who
are
the
most
numerous,
the
group
included
uni-
versity
administrators;
directors
of
founda-
tions
and
institutes;
and
a
few
business
executives
and
others
from
the
world
of
affairs.
Though
symposia
always
present
certain
inherent
problems,
the
output
here
seems
hardly
commensurate
with
this
array
of
talent.
The
reader
who
is
a
specialist
in
a
given
field
will
not
be
greatly
en-
lightened
by
the
section
of
the
volume
con-
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