A critical examination of the existing definitions of the city in the light of sociological theory. (I, 1, 2, 3, 4.)
Almost every textbook in the field of sociology has some sort of a working definition of the city. In addition there are available the various conceptions of the city underlying the social surveys.
II. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE CITY
The history of the city is almost synonymous with the history of civilization. The sociologist is interested in the natural history of the city as a phase of social evolution. Unlike the historian, he is not aiming to get the concrete facts of the rise and the decay of any particular city, but rather seeks to find in the study of the history of various cities the genesis of the typical city as a basis for the classification of types of cities and of social processes, irrespective of time and place.
1. Most of our ideas as to the origin of the city we owe to the findings of the archeologists. Exactly when cities began to appear in the story of mankind is still a doubtful question. We hear of cave cities in the paleolithic age. When we come down to historic times we find numerous cities whose main purpose was defense. The ancient cities of Memphis, Thebes, Babylon, and several others were already imposing aggregations of human beings and were centers of administration and of culture. Such a vast literature exists on the Greek city-state and on Rome, that is available in almost any library, that only a few references need be cited here.
Clerget, Pierre. “Urbanism: A Historic, Geographic, and Economic Study,” Smithsonian Institution Annual Report, 1912 (Washington, D.C., 1913), pp. 653–67. (II, 2, 3; III; V, 1, 2, 3; VI; VII; VIII.)
Coulanges, Fustel de. The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome (Boston, 1894). Translated by Willard Small.
Davis, W. S. A Day in Old Athens: A Picture of Athenian Life (New York, 1914).
Fowler, W. W. The City-State of the Greeks and Romans (London and New York, 1895). (I, 2.)
Friedländer, L. Roman Life and Manners under the Early Empire. Authorized translation by L. A. Magnus from the 7th rev. ed. of the Sittengeschichte Roms (London, 1908–13), 4 vols. (III, 4.)