Books: Balancing Act

THE CONDITION OF MAN — Lewis Mumford — Harcourt, Brace ($5).

In 1915 a 20-year-old U.S. engineering student discovered his dream man. The student was Lewis Mumford. His dream man was Sir Patrick Geddes, a thin, agile Scot with a beard like the gorse on his native moors.

Sir Patrick had been a student under great Biologist Thomas Huxley. He was one of those versatile men who are referred to every decade as "the last Renaissance man." When he felt that his scientific writings were detracting from his civic obligations, Geddes switched to town-planning and slum...

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