This book traces the history of a campaign that took place over nearly half a century, from the last years of the Victorian era to the new world of post-World War II Britain. It was a campaign that started with the simple aim of spreading the idea of the garden city - a concept dating from the 1890s -, and of encouraging others to build these settlements as a humane response to the slum housing of the industrial cities. Within a few years of the start of the campaign, the first garden city was built at Letchworth. The author records the history of the campaign and sets out to assess the political influence of the Garden City Association as an environmental pressure group. In the 20th century, the association was drawn into wider debates about the role of the State as opposed to the kind of private and voluntary initiatives that had led to the foundation of Letchworth. In this book, the campaign is set in the wider context of the social, political and economic change of the 20th century. The last stages of the campaign saw the introduction of a national programme for new towns in 1946 and the author argues that the campaigners had to accept that these new towns were of a different g

From the 1940s to the 1990s From New Towns to Green Politics charts the course of successive issues and campaigns - from the reconstruction of Britain's war-torn cities, to the introduction of green belts and new towns, to regional and community planning, and so to the inner cities and most recently, green politics.

**Please note that the 2011 paperback is an exact reprint of the original hardback which was released in 1991** This book offers a detailed record of one of the world's oldest environmental pressure groups. It raises questions about the capacity of pressure groups to influence policy; and finally it assesses the campaing as a major factor in the emergence of modern town and planning, and as a backdrop against which to examine current issues.

**Please note that the 2011 paperback is an exact reprint of the original hardback which was released in 1991** From the 1940s to the 1990s From New Towns to Green Politics charts the course of successive issues and campaigns - from the reconstruction of Britain's war-torn cities, to the introduction of green belts and new towns, to regional and community planning, and so to the inner cities and most recently, green politics.

England in the early part of the twentieth century was rich in utopian ventures - diverse and intriguing in their scope and aims. Two world wars, an economic depression, and the emergence of fascist states in Europe were all a spur to idealists to seek new limits - to escape from the here and now, and to create sanctuaries for new and better lives.
Dennis Hardy explores this fascinating history of utopian ideals, the lives of those who pursued them, and the utopian communities they created.
Some communities were fired by a long tradition of land movements, others by thoughts of more humane ways of building towns. In turn there were experiments devoted to the arts; to the promotion of religious doctrine; and to a variety of political causes. And some were just 'places of the imagination'.
This book is about just one episode in the perennial search for perfection, but what is revealed has lessons that extend well beyond a particular time and place. So long as there are failings in society, so long as rationality is not enough, there will continue to be a place for thinking the impossible, for going in search of utopia.

Ebenezer Howard's To-Morrow is deservedly the most famous publication in the history of town planning. Originally published in 1898 and repeatedly thereafter, it sparked the garden city movement across the world, and fundamentally changed the terms of debate in urban planning.

This new paperback facsimile of the original version of Howard's work includes a detailed commentary by three leading commentators and reproduces in full colour all the material subsequently left out and lost to posterity. This is an invaluable insight into the originality and breadth of Howard's vision, and demonstrates the full extent of his inspiration of future generations of town planners.

At the crossroads of continents, the Mediterranean is an urban sea. Across its waters have come ideas as well as people, trade as well as war. This title explores the importance of this sea by drawing on the findings of recent visits to 15 cities as well as specially commissioned photographs.