Anglo-American Conference of Historians 2009: Cities
Institute of Historical Research, 2 - 3 July 2009
Cities and modernity
Chair: Helen Meller (Nottingham)
Abstracts
The development of the modern city in the fin-de-siécle Hungary
Livia Szelpal (Central European University)
The formation and evolution of the Hungarian urbanisation process show essential features that are different to their Western European counterpart. These characteristics do not only originate from the ‘belatedness’ of Hungary, as Pál Beluszky argues, but can also be attributed to the location of Hungary compared to other historical regions of Europe. Hungarian urban development had been interrupted by forced pauses, like the conquest of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth century which resulted in the pluralist development of urbanisation. Thus, according to Beluszky, Hungary ‘got stuck’ in the Central European version of feudalism and only had an opportunity to ‘catch up with’ the West in the mid-nineteenth century. This was due to the elimination of the feudal legal system in 1848 and the Compromise in 1867.
In this transitory period, urban development took place in an essentially agricultural country; the countryside had a pure agrarian character. The focal point of economic development was the demand for capitalist transformation, the technical modernisation of the mainly agricultural production and the infrastructure of trade and transportation. The other crucial issue of urbanisation in the dualist era, as Beluszky argues, was the ‘demand for centre’ with the creation of institutional networks in civil public administration. This demand for centre became manifested both in the structure of the national railway system, whose centre was Budapest, and in the development of regional centres. Moreover, this process resulted in a significant abyss between the capital and the countryside.
In this sense, firstly, the focus of this presentation will be on the concept of the modern town and modernisation in the Hungarian fin-de-siécle era and how it differed from its Western European counterpart. Secondly, the presentation will focus on the issue of modernisation of the provincial towns and highlight the rapid urbanisation of Szeged, a provincial market town as a unique example.
Le Corbusier as urban historian
Emma Dummett (University of Edinburgh)
Le Corbusier is so notorious as an advocate of the tabula rasa approach to new urban form – his proposal of 1924 to replace large swathes of Paris’s right bank with modernist housing and office blocks is perhaps the best known example – that it is easy to overlook his equally strong interest in the history of cities. Time and again in his writing Le Corbusier used images of ancient cities, in particular Rome and Athens, to make the case for the new, modernist, urban centres which he dreamed of building. The focus of his interest in the historical city changed considerably over time, however, and gives a fascinating insight into his developing ideas about urban living. As a young man he admired the close-packed, winding streets of the medieval and Baroque city; further research led him to the new city squares and gardens laid out in France under Louis XIV; in the 1920s he turned to the grid plans so beloved of the ancient Romans. Nonetheless, the trajectory of Le Corbusier’s career as an urban historian is not simple or linear: the Garden City model which he followed as a young man remained important to him all his life, despite his reputation as an opponent of all things natural, small-scale and pedestrian-friendly. His plans for Algiers from the 1930s and forties preserve the medieval casbah, building a modern city alongside it rather than destroying it as the city authorities encouraged him to do. His very last project, the low-rise Venice Hospital, marked the culmination of his fascination with the city, whose plan he illustrated many times in different books. I want to suggest, then, that this most influential figure in the history of cities can himself be seen as an urban historian, and that an analysis of his approach to the historical city gives us a more complex picture of his urban vision than is usually acknowledged.
In pursuit of modernity: a comparative overview of urban
transport and planning in European cities before mass motorisation,
1920–40
Bernd Kreuzer (Johannes Kepler University of Linz)
Recent research in transport history has shown that even before mass motorisation set in after World War II, European cities were already eager to adapt themselves to the needs of automobile urban transport by giving systematic priority to the car in many respects of urban life. These measures towards a car-oriented city were not necessary due to increasing traffic, but were apparently mostly due to concepts of ‘modernity’ pursued by engineers and leading municipal employees following the American example.
Since, at that time, only the city functional was regarded as a ‘modern’ city, a closer look at the history of city planning could help us to better understand this early car-oriented urban politics in major European cities, relevant not only for transport and planning historians but also for those interested in the history of the built environment and of policymaking. What was the impact of those comprehensive city plans in the long run? Moreover: was there a genuine European way of integrating the car into urban life and urban transport that differed from the American way? What did European cities have in common and what were the differences? Contrary to US historiography, in Europe very few investigations have been made in this direction so far.
In my paper I want to present the first results of a larger project that aims to compare major European cities during the interwar period by looking at urban policies in general, and at comprehensive city plans worked out during that time and analysing the impact they had on urban transport. I will further draw on municipal statistics and on specialised journals in the fields of urban planning, traffic engineering, municipal administration, architecture and building from various European countries and the US. These journals inform us about connections and interactions between municipal administrations, study tours made by engineers, mostly to the USA, new books that often became the universal guideline for engineers, and national and international conferences (for example, town planning conferences).
