The Contributions of the Medieval City to Our Understanding of Western Urbanization

The Contributions of the Medieval City to Our Understanding of Western Urbanization

Order Description

In completing this essay assignment you will need to review your notes and to do a little thinking about some of the material that you have already dealt with in the course textbook. You are to write a short, analytical essay that discusses Lewis Mumford’s views on the nature of the Medieval City in Western Europe (see Chapters 9, 10 and 11 in the course textbook). You will need to identify what you believe to be the key insights that he makes, justifying your choices. Do you agree or disagree with his interpretations? Why do you agree or disagree? The essay should discuss these insights in some detail and establish their importance to our understanding of Western urbanization. Be careful not to let this become an ‘opinion piece’. Opinion yes, but you have to be able to defend your position. You will need to make suitable citations to Mumford’s work to back up the key points that you make. The essay should be approximately 1000 words in length, double-spaced, and formatted properly, including suitable footnotes, a bibliography, etc. Use graphic illustrations wherever appropriate.

Course Textbook:

Mumford, Lewis (1968). The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations and

Its Prospects. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company.