The invention of the future : a history of cities in the modern world / Bruno Carvalho.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carvalho, Bruno, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

City planning--History.

City planning.

Urbanization--History.

Urbanization.

Urban renewal--History.

Urban renewal.

Cities and towns--History.

Cities and towns.

Genre:

Informational works.

Physical Description:

xviii, 417 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2026]

Summary:

The Invention of the Future is a historical and analytical study of urban planning over the past three centuries. Bruno Carvalho examines visionary designs, technological innovations, and key urban transformations in cities worldwide, showing how imagined futures often diverged from reality. Through case studies--from post-earthquake Lisbon to Manhattan, Paris, Brasília, and African cities--the book explores continuity and change in urban development and considers lessons for sustainable, transit-oriented city planning in the twenty-first century.

Contents:

Introduction

I. No city, no future?

II. Making plans

III. Under a warmer sky

1. In pursuit of the future (1750s-1790s) : Lisbon + Paris, London, St. Petersburg, Vila Rica, and more

I. Earthquake and revolutions

II. Inside the grid

III. Secular utopia

IV. Resonances

2. New worlds emerge (1790s-1840s) : New York + London, Washington, DC, Paris, Philadelphia, Salvador, and more

I. Leaping ahead

II. Outside the grid

III. Gained illusions and slavery

IV. Between Heaven and Hell

3. Everything seems possible (1850s-1880s) : Paris + New York, Barcelona, London, Berlin, Vienna, Boston, and more

I. The spectacle of progress and its discontents

II. Modernity as rupture and continuity

III. Competing futures

IV. Unplanned afterlives

4. Possibilities and limits (1870s-1910s) : Rio de Janeiro + Mexico City, New York, Chicago, Havana, and more

I. Black streets, white masks

II. Futures deferred

III. How the other half lives

IV. Haussmannization Americanizes

V. Reinventions

5. The sky is not the limit (1900s-1940s) : Buenos Aires + Garden Cities, New York, Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Paris Rome, and more

I. The world of tomorrow

II. Destructive torrents and explosions

III. Futures in transit

IV. The star of the south

V. Divided we stand

6. After the future? (1940s onward) : Lagos + Brasília, Suburbia, Algiers, Dakar, the Pacific Rim, and more

I. We were never modernist

II. Which dreams are over?

III. Endings and beginnings

Epilogue

I. Pedestrian futures

II. Where can the future go?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 379-401) and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

0691246556

9780691246550

OCLC:

1513550887

Publisher Number:

CIPO000314401