City Planning Biography: Selected References

Abstract

Interest in the origins and history of city planning in the United States has made it necessary to provide more information about biographical and reference sources on the subject. In tracing the evolution of American city planning, it is often necessary to identify individuals active, for the most part, during the period from 1900 to 1950, who are significant either for the roles they have played in the development of particular cities or regions, or for their advocacy of particular planning principles. Anthony Sutcliffe, who organized the first International Conference on the History of Urban and Regional Planning in 1977, points out the importance of city planning biography in his book, The History of Urban and Regional Planning; An Annotated Bibliography (1981). In the introduction to his chapter on individual planners, he notes the “great attraction of the biographical approach to planning historians” (139).