Street Smart!: Cities of the Ancient World (Buried Worlds) [Library Binding]

Lerner Geography Dept (Author), Geography Department (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8?Published previously under the stodgy title City Planning in Ancient Times (Lerner, 1977; o.p.), this book has been updated and revised, with additional new photos as well as being flamboyantly rechristened. Stodginess persists in the text, however, and may be the product of construction by committee rather than creation by an interested individual (authorship is credited to the Lerner Geography Department). Still, it is a reasonable, if bare-bones introduction to the development of cities in disparate cultures through the ages, and demonstrates how archaeological investigations prove the problems faced by today's city planners existed in the past?adequate food and water supplies with serviceable distribution systems, decent housing, crowd control and transport, and the disposal of human wastes and garbage. Obviously not in-depth, Street Smart! provides some basic knowledge on which to build further?perhaps with more tightly focused works, such as David Macaulay's fine City (Houghton, 1974) and Xavier Hernandez's Barmi (1990), Lebek (1991), and San Rafael (1992), and Abderrahaman Ayoub's Umm El Madayan (1994, all Houghton)?fictional settings, perhaps, but still gold mines of information.?Patricia Manning, Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 6-9. Based on the publisher's City Planning in Ancient Times (1977), this volume widens the focus beyond Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome to include ancient cities in Asia and the Americas. Don't toss out the old book, though, because with a broader territory to cover, many more illustrations, and the inclusion of slightly-off-the-subject features like a page on city planning in Washington, D.C., the coverage of the original ground is considerably shallower than before. Numerous photographs, many in color, make this a brief but attractive introduction to the subject. Check the Series Roundup for another book in the series, Scrawl: Writing in Ancient Times. Carolyn Phelan

Product Details

• Library Binding: 96 pages
• Publisher: Runestone Pr (October 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822532085
• ISBN-13: 978-0822532088
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,511,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)