Ebenezer Howard: The Genesis of a Town Planning Movement

Abstract

Abstract Nineteenth century communitarian activity was to many a search for forms of community that rested on cooperation, fraternity, and economic progress. First viewed as a response to the excesses of the capitalist order and in particular the inhumanity of the early factory system, communitarianism was, toward the end of the century, considered an alternative to the rapid rise of the industrial city. Ebenezer Howard, who was personally attracted to the variety and vitality of the metropolis, began to believe in the 1880's that its immensity, incurable physical and social problems, and divorce from nature proscribed the symbiotic relationships needed for individual fulfillment and societal progress. He sought to invent a new type of human settlement whose size, scale, and planned order would lead to development of rational communities for an industrial age. His vision of community combined a nineteenth century enlightened view of human nature and needs with an anticipation of twentieth century technolo...