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Synopsis
An anthology of essays by a group of distinguished scholars, The Man-Made Future investigates post-1945 city planning in Britain not from a technical viewpoint, but as a polemical, visual, and educational phenomenon. It is structured in four sections: the first addressing postwar scientific humanism and the faith invested in the boffin--a potent metaphor for the hope that science and technology would lead European society out of the ashes of World War II and towards a bright, new scientifically planned future. The second section reveals the way in which visual imagery was used to depict and market this rebuilt, postwar world. The topic of the third section is the creation and education of the planning profession, while the fourth and last section analyses exemplary models of totally-planned environments.
While the postwar period and the 1950s are increasingly the focus of scholarly interest and research, the emotional and aesthetic context of postwar planning has been accorded comparatively little attention. Although each essay is grounded on original archival research, the book will be aimed at the general audience of architectural, economic, social, and urban historians, and at students in these fields.