Preface:

What functions have cities provided—and for whose bene-fit? How and why did they flourish (and sometimes decline and even vanish)? What did they look like—from earliest times to today? This seminar examined cities as they grow out of even earlier village settlements in the Fertile Crescent in the Eastern Mediterranean; the Yellow River Valley of China; the Indus River Valley in India/Pakistan; the Valley of Mexico; the Andes Mountains; and the Niger River Valley. It will go on to ancient Rome and Greece as well as medieval Europe; the industrial city; dual cities of European (and Chi-nese) colonization; post-colonial urbanization; and a variety of forms of urbanization in today’s “developed” and “devel-oping” worlds. The seminar included extensive audio-visual materials on world urbanization and field trips in Philadel-phia.