city life
...selves." (P 36) The author also makes the distinction between a town and a city, saying that a city is much larger and has almost no ties to the countryside and a town is much smaller and has ties to the country and is a close-nit group of people. The author also debates on how a city's population has something or nothing to do with its importance. He talks about how a city can be very large and rank very high population-wise but be very low on international importance or how a city can be very small but very influential on a worldwide scale. Changing technology such as the rail car, the train, or the automobile also changes a City. Cities change accordingly, spreading out over a huge area when automobiles are widely owned and used, and in less wealthy areas, where cars are not affordable, the cities are small and can be accessed in their entirety on foot. Automobiles have changed the layout of cities, making the roads easier to use by automobiles, with major highways and roads when necessary. The book also talks about the origins of cities and towns, studying the ancient civilizations and their beginnings. These ancient cities and towns were not more than three or four thousand people and were highly organized for their time and were specialized to their different crafts. Some of these ancient civilizations still stand today and are studied by archeologists as to their beginnings. These civilizations were sometimes destroyed by newer more advanced civilizations, leaving only remnants of their existence, the inhabitants killed off by disease brought by others, moved out by technology, or they simply assimilated into the newer cultures. Two Frenchmen, Alexis De Tocqueville and Gustave-Auguste de Beaumont de la Bonniniere, visited the US in 1831 to study the American prison system of the time. Their notes, letters and other writings give insight into the foreigner's opinion of American life of the time, not only with the prisons but also the cities and people. They seemed to like the American cities of the time, noting the difference between their own cities and ours. They noticed how some cities were well planned and others seemed to be not planned at all, and completely random. Tocqueville also wrote about the American citizens, who all seemed to live the same, that the only difference between classes was money. All Americans could buy the same products; things that were available to city inhabitants were also widely available to those who chose to live in the backwoods. The equality of this took him by surprise, that everyone could live the same if they had the money to. The fact that someone could live secluded and away from society, yet could still retain so much culture, in some cases more than most, was almost unheard of. Urbanization was taking over the United States, seemingly instantaneous and fueled by technology and industry. The utilization of steel in buildings made skylines shoot to the sky within a few decades. It changed American life dramatically. Immigration also fueled urbanization, as millions of immigrants flooded American cities, the size of the cities swelled to huge numbers and areas. The chaos that was the growth of American cities was out of control. A solution was sought for that would make cities more planned and more civilized. Architectural planning and reform took over the growth of cities, as people wanted better cities that would attract even more people. All across America cities were making improvements and following the lead of our n...