Great Cities Of The World [antikvár]

PREFACEwhen I was writing The Government and Misgovemment of London,1 I was struck by the remarkable dearth of books dealing with the government of great cities in foreign countries or within the Commonwealth. 'There is a tendency,' I wrote in the preface to that book, 'for the government of the principal metropolitan cities to be either ignored by social scientists, or else treated as part of the general subject of local government. It is obvious, however, that giant conurbations such as London are in a category by themselves and demand separate and individual treatment. Such treatment has so far been lacking or else inadequate in depth and extent, in view of the magnitude and complexity of the subject. I have not so far discovered any satisfactory studies of Paris, New York or Berlin.'Several books have been published dealing with metropolitan areas in the United States, such as The Government of Metropolitan Areas by Paul Studenski (1933); The Metropolitan Community by R. D. McKenzie (1933), and the report on Urban Government of The National Resources Committee (1939). But these are general in character and do not attempt the intensive study of a particular city. An exception is the Chicago region, on which a good deal of research was carried out under the guidance and stimulus of the late Professor Charles E. Merriam. Among the valuable results of Merriam's impulse and interest were his own book Chicago: A more intimate view of urban politics (1929), and the monograph on The Government of the Metropolitan Region of Chicago by Merriam, Parratt and Lepawsky (1933). In 1942 Dr. Victor Jones published his Metropolitan Government, but this again was quite general in its scope and outlook; and, like other American books on this subject, it dealt only with U.S. cities. In recent years a number of monographs have been published dealing with individual cities of the United States. These afford welcome evidence of the increased attention being paid to the problems of metropolitan areas, but they are related entirely to American experience.21George Allen and Unwin. First published in 1939. Second revised edition 1948.2Geddes, William Rutherford: Administrative Problems in a Metropolitan Area: the National Capital Region (Public Administration Service. Special Publications No. 61, Chicago, !952); Betty Tableman: Governmental Organization in Metropolitan Areas. This deals mainly with the State of Michigan, and particularly Detroit. A whole series of studies of Los Angeles have been produced by the Haynes Foundation. See Edwin A. Cottrell and Helen L. Jones: Characteristics of the Metropolis; Richard Bigger and James D. Kitchen: How the Cities Grew: a century of municipal independence and expansion in metropolitan Los Angeles; Judith Norvell Jamison: Regional Planning; Robert F.Wilcox: Law Enforcement; Winston W. Crouch and others: Sanitation and Health; James Trump and others: Fire Protection; all published in Los Angeles in 1952.