ABSTRACT

Three major transformations have altered the course of human life. The first was the revolution that led to the development of agriculture around 7000 BC and the growth of Neolithic farming settlements such as Jarmo in Iraq and Jericho in modern Israel. The second was the pre-industrial revolution that brought cities into being. The third was the industrial revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that created the urban industrial forerunners of our present cities. This chapter begins by focusing on the pre-industrial revolution to examine the origins and development of the earliest urban settlements, before going on to consider the character of industrial and post-industrial cities.