Outlines the opposed natures — creative and destructive — of the city throughout history, focusing on the elements that created the first cities about 5000 years ago and the forces that now threaten our "most precious collective invention."

A study of an old but still-growing problem: how to ensure the city is accessible to all without allowing cars to make it congested and uninhabitable.

Explores the tension and mutual dependence of urban and rural areas. How can sprawling metropolitan regions maintain or restore the balance?

A study of the growing sterility, dullness and congestion that is destroying the vitality, variety and human scale that once made cities physically attractive and humanly creative.

Contrasts the squalor of the working poor with the relative safety and security of the wealthy, asking what can be done to address "the spirit of social hopelessness" that thrives in the overcrowded slums where cities' poorest residents live.

An outline of the prospects for the city and some suggestions to restore its role as the focus of man's highest achievements.