Cities in evolution / [Sir Patrick Geddes].

  • Geddes, Patrick, Sir, 1854-1932.
Date:
[1949]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Cities in evolution / [Sir Patrick Geddes]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/282 (page 9)
    Introduction CITIES IN EVOLUTION The name of Patrick Geddes is revered in many countries as a father of the social theories underlying modern town and country planning, yet this—the only book he wrote directly upon this subject—has been out of print for more than a genera¬ tion, and unread by many planners who profess to follow his way of thinking. How could this be? There are two general explanations, one simple, the other more complex. The book, as originally issued in 191^, was a slightly enlarged re-draft of a little book that Geddes had been induced to write in 1909-10 (the year of the first British Town Planning Act) as one in the series “Home Uni¬ versity Library of Modern Knowledge” published by Williams and Norgate. At this time the title was “The Evolution of Cities.” This little book was then rejected by the publisher (after it had been set up in galley) as insufficiently popular in style and content. In the later Williams and Norgate edition, which was intended primarily as a textbook, chapters 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, i£ were added, but the main body of the text was left unchanged. Patrick Geddes was a man who lived fully in the present. In this book he did not intend to write a philosophy of planning for future generations, but a political tract to precipitate action in his own time. As a result much of the book was “out of date” almost as soon as it was written. Secondly, Geddes’ written English has its own complications. Probably because he wrote quickly and unwillingly, with his mind racing ahead of his words, his writing is, to a certain extent, a direct transcript of the spoken language. To some extent, also, it is couched in terms that he invented for himself. These irritations, together with the fact that interest in town planning was until quite recently