With an eye toward the architecture, art, literature and technology of urban life one of America's observers of society gives us an incisive study of the search for shelter and the fear of exposure to strangers and new experience in Western culture - and how these two concerns have shaped the physical fabric of the city. The author examines the development of urban society and structure from the ancient world to the present. His discussion takes the reader from the assembly hall of Athens to the Palladium Club, from Augustine's City of Gold to the Turkish baths of the lower east side, from 18th century English gardens to the housing projects of east Harlem and from Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy to subway graffiti. By the author of The Hidden Injuries of Class, The Fall of Public Man and Authority.