ABSTRACT
Three of the most remarkable trends in the development of the United States in the first half of the twentieth century have been the continuous increase in the proportion of the population living in cities, so that today it is essentially an urban society; second, the increasing concentration of affairs in mammoth cities—the ‘megalo-politan civilization’ that is the target of Lewis Mumford's gloomy invectives; and third, the suburban sprawl of low-density housing and other urban land uses around and between the mammoth cities, so as to produce vast urbanized regions which are making alarming inroads on the land and amenities of the country. Innumerable collections of statistics, books, and commentaries have been written on these themes and there is certainly nothing new that can be added here. We shall, however, try to put these trends into a perspective that is relevant to understanding the relations between the city and its dependent region. This calls for a brief review of the growth and spread of urban population and urbanized areas, for an appraisal of the functions of the metropolitan cities, and for a definition of the areas dependent upon these cities in respect to the distinctive production and demands of their regional economies.
