Chronologically, this volume ranges from 1790, when the first US census reported 5% of the population living
in urban areas, to 1990, when 75% of the American population lived in urban areas. Geographically, its focus is
the continental USA. However, the context for the study of modern electronic communications in relation to cities
transcends national boundaries just as the technologies themselves do; consequently the contents of the last two
chapters in the volume range more widely around the globe. Among the issues discussed are the rise of the skyscraper,
the coming of the automobile age, relations between private and public transport, the development of infrastructural
technologies and systems, the implications of electronic communications and the emergence of city planning.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction:The Growth of American Cities
2. Transport and the Nineteenth-century city
3. Transport in the Twentieth -century city - Automobility
4. Building types:construction and materials
5. Water supply, sewage, drainage and sanitation
6. Heat, light and fire protection
7. Travel and telecommunication in the late twentieth century city
8. Telecommunication and twentieth century cities