Overview

This book provides an entirely new and authoritative historical introduction to urban planning in Britain from its origins in the 1890s to the current directions of the 1990s and beyond. The author, an acknowledged expert in planning history, makes extensive use of recent research to provide a highly readable, evocatively illustrated and thoroughly comprehensive account. Three basic themes run through the book: ideas, policies and impacts. The first involves an examination of the origins and development of the major aspects of planning thought. Beginning with the early importance of radical and utopian ideas, the book charts the later advocacy of a comprehensive approach in the 1930s and 1940s, the rise and fall of rational ′scientific′ planning in the 1960s and 1970s, and the more recent influence of ′new right′ and green ideas. Second, the importance of ideas in shaping policies is discussed, tracing the growth of the planning system and detailing major policy initiatives. Throughout, the intensely political nature of planning is stressed, with frequent reference to the actions of key ministers, civil servants, local politicians and professional planners. Third, there is an overall assessment of the actual impacts of planning, showing how powerful economic and social forces have interacted with planning intentions in the actual patterns of urban change. Often these have subverted planning ideas so that the spatial, economic and social outcomes have been rather different to those originally intended. The book ends with a call for a renewed planning vision for the 21st century, embracing both the new concerns for sustainable development, and planning′s original, though often forgotten, project for radical reform.

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9781853962189

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Reviews

From start to finish the text comes in short, captioned gobbets, ready-made for conversion by teachers into overhead transparencies or class topics, and by students into essay answers. As a standard history text it will provide a fine basis for teaching and for student work' - Planning Perspectives <p> <p>Clear, thorough, fascinating and wise. It should be required reading for any student of planning. Any student who has read and absorbed this book will have a firm foundation on which to comprehend the debates that have surrounded town planning in Britain this century down to the present day' - Planning Practice and Research <p> <p>This is a masterly survey of planning over the last hundred years, well written, with apposite and telling illustrations' - <p> Professor J B Cullingworth, Cities <p> <p>This excellently organised and clearly written text can be read both for its overall demolition of the omnipotence of town planning and also to obtain authoritative briefings on those many urban geographical topics which are part of 'A'-Level syllabuses' - Geography <p> <p>This is a useful and welcome addition to the town planning text book shelf and one that complements rather than replicates the existing books on offer. Ward does a credible job in providing students of town planning with a readable and informative book that offers a good introduction to the subject' - Local Government Studies <p> <p>One of the best reviews of British planning history recently written' - Urban Studies <p> <p>This is a reliable, readable and well-illustrated account of the history of planning in Britain over the past hundred years' - Regional Studies <p> <p>Ward's book is a fine achievement, atext which is well structured, written, illustrated, and arranged, and which makes clear attempts to reinterpret the systems of ideas that have underpinned previous periods of planning thought and practice' - Environment and Planning B <p> <p>Notable for its scholarship, and is an excellent source for the main themes, debates and policies in the history of planning' - Progress in Human Geography <p> A thoughtful and critical account of the history of British town and country planning... The book certainly ranks as one of the key texts on past and contemporary problems and issues surrounding planning theory and practice' - European Planning Studies

From start to finish the text comes in short, captioned gobbets, ready-made for conversion by teachers into overhead transparencies or class topics, and by students into essay answers. As a standard history text it will provide a fine basis for teaching and for student work' - Planning Perspectives Clear, thorough, fascinating and wise. It should be required reading for any student of planning. Any student who has read and absorbed this book will have a firm foundation on which to comprehend the debates that have surrounded town planning in Britain this century down to the present day' - Planning Practice and Research This is a masterly survey of planning over the last hundred years, well written, with apposite and telling illustrations' - Professor J B Cullingworth, Cities This excellently organised and clearly written text can be read both for its overall demolition of the omnipotence of town planning and also to obtain authoritative briefings on those many urban geographical topics which are part of 'A'-Level syllabuses' - Geography This is a useful and welcome addition to the town planning text book shelf and one that complements rather than replicates the existing books on offer. Ward does a credible job in providing students of town planning with a readable and informative book that offers a good introduction to the subject' - Local Government Studies One of the best reviews of British planning history recently written' - Urban Studies This is a reliable, readable and well-illustrated account of the history of planning in Britain over the past hundred years' - Regional Studies Ward's book is a fine achievement, a text which is well structured, written, illustrated, and arranged, and which makes clear attempts to reinterpret the systems of ideas that have underpinned previous periods of planning thought and practice' - Environment and Planning B Notable for its scholarship, and is an excellent source for the main themes, debates and policies in the history of planning' - Progress in Human Geography A thoughtful and critical account of the history of British town and country planning... The book certainly ranks as one of the key texts on past and contemporary problems and issues surrounding planning theory and practice' - European Planning Studies

From start to finish the text comes in short, captioned gobbets, ready-made for conversion by teachers into overhead transparencies or class topics, and by students into essay answers. As a standard history text it will provide a fine basis for teaching and for student work' - Planning Perspectives Clear, thorough, fascinating and wise. It should be required reading for any student of planning. Any student who has read and absorbed this book will have a firm foundation on which to comprehend the debates that have surrounded town planning in Britain this century down to the present day' - Planning Practice and Research This is a masterly survey of planning over the last hundred years, well written, with apposite and telling illustrations' - Professor J B Cullingworth, Cities This excellently organised and clearly written text can be read both for its overall demolition of the omnipotence of town planning and also to obtain authoritative briefings on those many urban geographical topics which are part of 'A'-Level syllabuses' - Geography This is a useful and welcome addition to the town planning text book shelf and one that complements rather than replicates the existing books on offer. Ward does a credible job in providing students of town planning with a readable and informative book that offers a good introduction to the subject' - Local Government Studies One of the best reviews of British planning history recently written' - Urban Studies This is a reliable, readable and well-illustrated account of the history of planning in Britain over the past hundred years' - Regional Studies Ward's book is a fine achievement, a text which is well structured, written, illustrated, and arranged, and which makes clear attempts to reinterpret the systems of ideas that have underpinned previous periods of planning thought and practice' - Environment and Planning B Notable for its scholarship, and is an excellent source for the main themes, debates and policies in the history of planning' - Progress in Human Geography A thoughtful and critical account of the history of British town and country planning... The book certainly ranks as one of the key texts on past and contemporary problems and issues surrounding planning theory and practice' - European Planning Studies

From start to finish the text comes in short, captioned gobbets, ready-made for conversion by teachers into overhead transparencies or class topics, and by students into essay answers. As a standard history text it will provide a fine basis for teaching and for student work' - Planning Perspectives <p> <p>Clear, thorough, fascinating and wise. It should be required reading for any student of planning. Any student who has read and absorbed this book will have a firm foundation on which to comprehend the debates that have surrounded town planning in Britain this century down to the present day' - Planning Practice and Research <p> <p>This is a masterly survey of planning over the last hundred years, well written, with apposite and telling illustrations' - <p> Professor J B Cullingworth, Cities <p> <p>This excellently organised and clearly written text can be read both for its overall demolition of the omnipotence of town planning and also to obtain authoritative briefings on those

Author Information

Stephen V. (Steve) Ward is widely known internationally for his work in the field of planning history. He is a former President of the International Planning History Society 1996-2002 and remains a member of its governing Council. He is also a former editor of the refereed journal Planning Perspectives and continues as a member of its Editorial Board. He is also an Editorial Board member of the American refereed Journal of Planning History. He has published widely on historical matters relating to planning with many books, book chapters, articles and other outputs to his name.

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