Art and Technics (Bampton Lectures in America) Book

Lewis Mumford -architectural critic, theorist of technology, urbanologist, city planner, cultural critic, historian, biographer, and philosopher -was the author of more than thirty influential books, many of which expounded his views on the perils of urban sprawl and a society obsessed with "technics." Featuring a new introduction by Casey Nelson Blake, this classic text provides the essence of Mumford´s views on the distinct yet interpenetrating roles of technology and the arts in modern culture. Mumford contends that modern man´s overemphasis on technics has contributed to the depersonalization and emptiness of much of twentieth-century life. He issues a call for a renewed respect for artistic impulses and achievements. His repeated insistence that technological development take the Human as its measure -as well as his impassioned plea for humanity to make the most of its "splendid potentialities and promise" and reverse its progress toward anomie and destruction -is ever more relevant as the new century dawns.Read More