<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The critique of the city is an almost obligatory cliché of the 20<sup>th</sup>century cultural criticism. This paper offers a parallel critical analysis of the conceptions of American ecologist Lewis Mumford and Hungarian historian István Hajnal. They were contemporaries, and their approaches had been inspired by interwar cultural criticism. Mumford did not hate the city: it was, for him, the engine of history, a reservoir of cultural creativeness. The theory of Hajnal, from many aspects, runs parallel with Mumford’s – moreover, the Hungarian historian gives a detailed theory on the types of European city. What connects them is an ecological approach.</p></abstract>

The critique of the city is an almost obligatory cliché of the 20thcentury cultural criticism. This paper offers a parallel critical analysis of the conceptions of American ecologist Lewis Mumford and Hungarian historian István Hajnal. They were contemporaries, and their approaches had been inspired by interwar cultural criticism. Mumford did not hate the city: it was, for him, the engine of history, a reservoir of cultural creativeness. The theory of Hajnal, from many aspects, runs parallel with Mumford’s – moreover, the Hungarian historian gives a detailed theory on the types of European city. What connects them is an ecological approach.

City in Modern Cultural Criticism: Lewis Mumford and István Hajnal

Institute of Philosophy, Research Centre for the Humanities

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, European and Regional Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"City in Modern Cultural Criticism: Lewis Mumford and István Hajnal"}

The critique of the city is an almost obligatory cliché of the 20thcentury cultural criticism. This paper offers a parallel critical analysis of the...

City in Modern Cultural Criticism: Lewis Mumford and István Hajnal

Published Online: Dec 24, 2018

Page range: 11 - 18

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/auseur-2018-0002

Keywords
Spengler, cultural criticism, parasite, engine, Mumford, Hajnal

© 2018 Gábor Kovács, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

City in Modern Cultural Criticism: Lewis Mumford and István Hajnal

Published Online: Dec 24, 2018

Page range: 11 - 18

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/auseur-2018-0002

KeywordsSpengler, cultural criticism, parasite, engine, Mumford, Hajnal

© 2018 Gábor Kovács, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Spengler, cultural criticism, parasite, engine, Mumford, Hajnal