Book, History of the city (Benevolo)[LS]

The city is a historic construction, as Leonardo Benevolo already highlighted in the original edition of this book. It has not always existed nor does it exist due to any natural necessity. Having begun at a certain moment in our social evolution, it can end or be transformed. Hence the importance of explaining its origin in the ancient world and its destiny in the contemporary world until the second half of the 20th century, which also includes going through the major changes in production systems that transformed people's daily lives and caused, at each stage, a demographic leap that had a decisive influence on urban development. Benevolo, who masterfully moves between history, sociology and architecture, composed a true History of the City through (beautiful) images, of unprecedented scope, using maps, photos, urban projects and archaeological reconstructions, which this new revised edition sought to present in a improved form. He, however, never loses attention to detail, to precise information, to the particular, to the life stories that give this masterful work of reference its truly human dimension.