The Myth and Reality of Our Urban Problems

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The author examines, in a study originally published in a paperbound edition in 1962, the disparity between the literature of protest on urban problems and the lethargy of the citizen. He contends that the majority of American urban dwellers actually regard their lifetime experience as one of improvement, not of retrogression, and that the very real problems of urban living have been presented in terms that have immediacy primarily for intellectuals and the well-to-do. The need, he maintains, is for new formulations, some of which are now emerging, to give the issue a direct bearing on the lives of most Americans.