Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Wolfgang Sonne examines the relationship between urban design and politics in five major capital cities, all of which underwent comprehensive planning at the beginning of the twentieth century: Washington, Berlin, Canberra, New Delhi and the World Centre of Communication, a proposed international capital of peace. With more than 150 illustrations, this book explores the evolution of the ambitious urban design schemes of the period and the difficulty in integrating architecture with the political ideals it endeavours to represent. Book jacket.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• I. Introduction: The Political Iconography of the City (p. 29)
• 1. What is a Capital City? The Definition of the Topic (p. 32)
• 2. What is Representation? On the Role of Symbolism in Politics (p. 35)
• a. Representation (p. 36)
• b. Symbol and Politics (p. 37)
• 3. Reconstructing Meaning: Remarks on the Method (p. 40)
• 4. Capital City Planning in Context: Urban Design in the Early Twentieth Century (p. 44)
• a. The Tasks of Urban Design (p. 44)
• b. National Schools and International Connections (p. 46)
• II. Washington 1902: National Self-presentation of a Consolidated Democracy (p. 50)
• 1. Events up to 1902 (p. 50)
• 2. First Plans (p. 52)
• 3. The Senate Park Commission Plan (p. 55)
• a. The Comprehensive Plan (p. 56)
• b. The Public Buildings (p. 58)
• c. The Mall (p. 59)
• d. Design Means (p. 62)
• 4. Protagonists and Positions (p. 63)
• a. Beauty, Unity, Civic Pride: Architects Supporting the Plan (p. 63)
• b. Patriotism, Democracy, Public Education: Politicians and Public Representatives Supporting the Plan (p. 70)
• c. Formalism, Autocracy: Architects Opposing the Plan (p. 77)
• d. Extravagance, Absolutism: Politicians and Press Opposing the Plan (p. 79)
• 5. Steps towards Implementation after 1902 (p. 81)
• a. Bills (p. 82)
• b. Buildings (p. 83)
• c. Monuments (p. 86)
• 6. Imperial Representation on the Philippines: Manila and Baguio (p. 89)
• a. Manila (p. 90)
• b. Baguio (p. 92)
• 7. "Washington of the North": Ottawa (p. 94)
• a. First Plans (p. 94)
• b. The Federal Plan Commission 1913-15 (p. 97)
• III. Greater Berlin 1910: Raising a European Capital to Imperial World Status (p. 101)
• 1. State Buildings in Berlin (p. 101)
• 2. Launching the Competition (p. 104)
• 3. Ideas and Expectations (p. 105)
• a. Government and Citizen Representatives: Health and Power (p. 105)
• b. Architects and City Planners: Monumental Expression of National Greatness (p. 106)
• 4. The Competition Designs (p. 110)
• a. A First Prize: Hermann Jansen (p. 111)
• b. A First Prize: Joseph Brix and Felix Genzmer (p. 114)
• c. Third Prize: Bruno Mohring, Rudolf Eberstadt and Richard Petersen (p. 114)
• d. Fourth Prize: Bruno Schmitz, Otto Blum, Havestadt & Contag (p. 117)
• e. Acquisitions and Other Designs (p. 121)
• 5. Uniformity, Metropolis, Internationality, Democracy (p. 123)
• 6. Picturesque, Small Town, Nation, Hierarchy (p. 130)
• 7. Sentiment, Nature, Necessity (p. 133)
• a. Architecture as a Language of Sentiments (p. 133)
• b. Urban Design as a Product of Nature (p. 135)
• c. Necessary Expression through Fulfilment of Purpose (p. 137)
• 8. Consequences (p. 138)
• 9. Other European Capital Cities (p. 140)
• IV. Canberra 1912: Searching for Democratic Monumentality (p. 149)
• 1. Events (p. 149)
• 2. Australian Ideas (p. 151)
• a. Politicians: Greatness, Height and Centrality (p. 151)
• b. Architects: Meaningful Plan and Picturesque Elevation (p. 152)
• 3. First Prize in the Competition: Walter Burley Griffin's Plan and His Comments (p. 155)
• a. Functional Fulfilment of Democratic Needs (p. 156)
• b. Symbolic Representation of Democratic Values (p. 156)
• c. Searching for a Democratic Language of Architecture (p. 158)
• d. Rooting Democratic Urban Design in Nature (p. 161)
• 4. Other Award-winning Competition Plans (p. 162)
• a. Second and Third Prizes: Saarinen and Agache (p. 162)
• b. Prizewinners of the Minority Vote: Griffiths, Coulter & Caswell, Comey and Gellerstedt (p. 166)
• c. Acquisitions: Magonigle and Schaufelberg, Rees & Gummer (p. 169)
• 5. Eliminated Competition Entries (p. 170)
• a. Comprehensive City Types: Radio-concentric, Grid and Informal (p. 170)
• b. Government District Types: Ring, Axis, Mall, Forum and Castle (p. 172)
• 6. Reactions to the Competition and Other Consequences (p. 178)
• a. Overseas: Democratic Spirit and National Sensibility (p. 178)
• b. Australia: Griffin, the Progressive Rebel, and Canberra, the City of Freedom (p. 179)
• 7. The Failure of the 1914 Competition for the Houses of Parliament (p. 183)
• a. A New Democratic Style (p. 184)
• b. Democratic Monumentality (p. 185)
• V. New Delhi 1913: Manifestation of the Empire's Supremacy (p. 189)
• 1. Positions and Plans in the Empire (p. 189)
• a. The Urbanistic Debate in Great Britain (p. 189)
• b. Plans for an Imperial London (p. 194)
• c. The Union Buildings in Pretoria (p. 199)
• 2. New Delhi: Events (p. 201)
• 3. Positions and Opinions of the Participants (p. 207)
• a. Politicians: Enduring Rule through Selective Adaptation (p. 207)
• b. Architects: Western Superiority through Universal Classicism (p. 213)
• 4. The Plan and the Buildings (p. 220)
• a. The Plan of the Delhi Town Planning Committee (p. 220)
• b. The Buildings by Edwin Landseer Lutyens and Herbert Baker (p. 223)
• 5. Reactions and Critiques (p. 230)
• a. Travel Guides and History Books: Delhi as the Indian Rome and Key to Rule over India (p. 230)
• b. Newspapers and Journals: A Combination of Styles for a Co-operative Empire (p. 231)
• c. Architecture Journals: Imperial Politics between Colonial Export of Style and Benevolent Support for Regional Traditions (p. 234)
• VI. World Centre of Communication 1913: The Futile Invention of an International City of Peace (p. 241)
• 1. Academic and Other Ideal City Plans (p. 241)
• a. Austria (p. 241)
• b. France (p. 242)
• 2. Peace Traditions (p. 253)
• a. The Hague: Peace Conferences, Peace Palace and World Capital of Peace (p. 253)
• b. Brussels: Paul Otlet, Henri La Fontaine and the International Organisation of Knowledge (p. 257)
• 3. The World Centre of Communication by Hendrik Christian Andersen and Ernest Hebrard (p. 258)
• a. Layout (p. 259)
• b. Political Goals: Communication, Progress and Peace (p. 267)
• 4. Reactions and Criticism (p. 269)
• a. Dignitaries: Approval and Restraint (p. 270)
• b. Newspapers and Journals: Enthusiasm, Derision and Some Criticism (p. 272)
• 5. Aftermath (p. 277)
• a. The League of Nations and the League of Nations Palace (p. 278)
• b. Otlet and the Mundaneum (p. 280)
• c. Andersen and the World Centre (p. 281)
• d. Hebrard and Urban Planning for the French Colonies (p. 282)
• VII. Conclusion: City Images and their Political Meaning (p. 286)
• 1. Aesthetic City Types and their Political Connotations (p. 286)
• a. The Beaux-Arts City (p. 287)
• b. The Metropolis (p. 289)
• c. The Picturesque City (p. 290)
• d. The Garden City (p. 291)
• e. The Skyscraper City (p. 293)
• 2. Urban Design and Architectural Means of Political Communication (p. 294)
• a. The Comprehensive City (p. 294)
• b. Urban Elements (p. 295)
• c. Building Types and Elements (p. 297)
• d. Architectural Styles (p. 298)
• 3. How Capital Cities Mean: Architecture and City as Signs (p. 300)
• a. Conventional Signs (p. 302)
• b. Natural Signs (p. 305)
• c. Complex Signs (p. 308)
• d. Unfocused Signs (p. 309)
• 4. What Capital Cities Mean: Possibilities of Representing the State in the City (p. 311)
• Notes and Bibliography (p. 317)
• Appendix (p. 343)
• Index (p. 363)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Sonne (architectural history, Univ. of Strathclyde, Glasgow) reviews the early-20th-century urban development of four very different cities--Washington, DC; Canberra; Berlin; and New Delhi--and one utopian project--the World Center of Communication, and assesses the planners' intentions, which vacillated between the will to monumentalize democracy and the desire to celebrate empire. The author also addresses the process of planning and the effects of construction. The histories of these grand schemes are treated with the thoroughness that might be expected of a German doctoral dissertation. The shape of city planning and the styles of structures that control urban space are clearly described (though the postage stamp-size illustrations are too small to do their job properly). The politics of development are well documented (though the largely German-language apparatus will be impossible for most American scholars to check in their college libraries). The central question that the author sets and the answer he offers seem naive: "Is there a political iconography of city images circa 1910?" "We cannot deduce a specific political message from any urban form...." The worth of this volume lies not in its thesis, but in the record of urban histories that forms its considerable bulk. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through professionals. A. J. Wharton Duke University