TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 675 the prototype of American industrial growth is to tell a fairy tale. The assertion that American factory machinery in the 19th century was built with a deliberately high rate of obsolescence is poppycock. The most serious objection to Raymond’s book is the misleading view of technology that it purveys. Technology is described in the style of Samuel Smiles as a linear sequence of successively greater inven tions. Each solves a problem and clears the way for a further leap forward. In fact, the achievements of technology, particularly metal lurgical technology, have been largely at the hands of many anony mous artificers who, through skill and experience, have mastered complex processes that are not easily described in words. The skills, the mastery of complexity, and the meticulous attention to detail re quired in metallurgy are still the essential components of technology today. A book such as this, that may teach those who have command of resources but lack personal experience of technological processes— as does an increasing proportion of the population of the United States—that technology progresses by great leaps forward for the benefit of mankind, not only degrades the basic standards of schol arship but is a positive danger to our future well-being in an economy dependent on real, rather than imagined, technological expertise. Robert B. Gordon Dr. Gordon teaches in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale University. The Architecture of the Roman Empire. Vol. 2: An Urban Appraisal. By William MacDonald. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986. Pp· x + 316; illustrations, notes, appendix, bibliography, index. $40.00 (cloth); $24.95 (paper). William MacDonald’s second volume on Roman imperial architec ture, devoted to public urban structures, contrasts with and comple ments his first volume, The Architecture of the Roman Empire: An Introductory Study (New Haven, Conn., 1965, revised 1982), in which a small number of major works, patrons, architects, and construction techniques were examined. An Urban Appraisal is a broad reflective statement about the essential nature of Roman imperial buildings as they relate contextually to each other in an urban setting. From a variety of archaeological data ranging chronologically from Augustus to Constantine and geographically from the capital throughout the provinces, MacDonald asks quite simply: What are the architectural common denominators visible across the empire? What are the key elements that gave Roman cities meaning, that is, their essential Ro manness versus the Hellenistic legacy of classical traditions, and what then accounts for the de facto long-lived success of these public struc tures over such a large area? 676 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE To address these questions, MacDonald uses the concept of a con nective “armature” as a methodological tool to discern the organizing principle of Roman cities: “Armatures consist of main streets, squares, and essential public buildings linked together across cities . . . from gate to gate withjunctions and entranceways prominently articulated. They are the setting for the familiar Roman civic building typology, the framework for the unmistakable imagery of imperial urbanism” (p. 5). From this perspective, which MacDonald stresses is quite dif ferent from and supersedes rectilinear city planning, common build ing types, such as fora, markets, amphitheaters, and baths and tombs erected for “public display,” can be seen in their proper functional relationship to the urban armature. The vital connective structures are distinguished: colonnaded thoroughfares or main avenues; plazas, both curved and rectilinear; stairs; and terraces. This linkage of build ings is enhanced, the author argues, in almost all imperial sites by socalled passage architecture consisting of monumental arches over tho roughfares; arched gates and facades; four-square structures, such as the tetrakionion at Palmyra; and public conveniences like fountains and benches, all of which combine to give cities their specifically Roman content. Having clearly illustrated the critical parameters of the urban view point, MacDonald devotes the remaining chapters to the style and content of mature Roman classicism that had its roots in the period of Augustus. For this development, including the so-called theatrical proto-Baroque strain, novelty, adaptability, and yet coherence of or ganization of architectural elements and space emerge as key features of the urban, imperial style. Above all, the author...