Passages from the Text

As promised, below is the passage I quoted yesterday in class. At some point you should insert these in your notes in the appropriate place. In talking about the earliest cities, the authors suggest this was something of a "mixed blessing."

"This, then, was the period of the first urban revolution. From approximately 4000 B.C.E. (before the Christian era) to 500 C.E. (Christian era), urban sites multiplied and their populations grew to sizes previously unknown in human history. (Rome at its apex surpassed 1 million people)."
"In retrospect, the first urban revolution appears to have been something of a mixed blessing. The city's greatest positive attributes are its ability to improve people's standard of living, provide choice in the conduct of life, and stimulate the human imagination. On the other hand, these first cities also had rigid social class divisions that extended the city's benefits to only a small minority of the urban population. With the emergence of city-states and urban empires, human warfare and bloodshed rose to unparalleled levels." (pp. 32-33)

And note that I expressed some doubts as to whether the city is really to blame for war.

On Thursday we'll quickly survey the rest of European urban history, and then begin to focus on America, especially the period from 1950 to the present. And now that you all should have the correct URL for this blog, don't forget to respond to the little exercise I posted last week.