Civitas by Design: Building Better Communities, from the Garden City to the New Urbanism

Since the end of the nineteenth century, city planners have aspired not only to improve the physical living conditions of urban residents but also to strengthen civic ties through better design of built environments. From Ebenezer Howard and his vision for garden cities to today's New Urbanists, these visionaries have sought to deepen civitas, or the shared community of citizens.

In Civitas by Design, historian Howard Gillette, Jr., takes a critical look at this planning tradition, examining...