From Urbanization to Cities: The Politics of Democratic Municipalism

by Murray Bookchin

In this far-reaching work, social ecologist and historian Murray Bookchin takes the reader on a voyage through the evolution of the city. Cities are not just monumental social and political facts, they are tremendous ecological facts as well. Far from seeing them as an inherent adversary of the natural world, though, Bookchin uncovers a hidden history of cities as “eco-communities” that fostered diversity and interconnection, living in balance with and awareness of nature. Just as ecosystems rely on participation and mutualism, so must cities—and their citizens—rediscover these qualities, establishing harmonious, ethical social relations as a basis for a healthy ecological relationship to the natural world.

Published for the one hundredth anniversary of Murray Bookchin’s birth, From Urbanization to Cities is the first in a series of his books that AK Press is reprinting and bringing to a new audience.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Urbanism, Urban Planning, Economics, Sociology

360 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1996

About the author

Murray Bookchin was an American libertarian socialist author, orator, and philosopher. A pioneer in the ecology movement, Bookchin was the founder of the social ecology movement within anarchist, libertarian socialist and ecological thought. He was the author of two dozen books on politics, philosophy, history, and urban affairs as well as ecology. In the late 1990s he became disenchanted with the strategy of political Anarchism and founded his own libertarian socialist ideology called Communalism.

Bookchin was an anti-capitalist and vocal advocate of the decentralisation of society along ecological and democratic lines. His writings on libertarian municipalism, a theory of face-to-face, assembly democracy, had an influence on the Green movement and anti-capitalist direct action groups such as Reclaim the Streets.

Reviews

[Lydia Wallace · Rating 1 out of 5]

Communist drivel! And bombastic to boot.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well. I'm annoyed. This book was a real rollercoaster - vascilating between interesting and insufferable. You know how in high school "world" history is taught as beginning with Greeks and then moving to the English and then following the anglo men as they inhabit an america that centers on northeastern puritans? Well this is basically that history except with more complicated narratives that include a larger group of white men. Asia doesn't exist. Africa doesn't exist. Most egregiously, given the US focus, indigenous ppl don't exist. Women barely exist to note their absence. Patriarchy is in quotes. Debunked theories of how gun technology defeated indigenous ppl are stated as fact. And lord don't get me started on the Greek chapter. That said, I do appreciate the more complex picture of the European middle ages. The subtle and not so subtle digs at Marxists are hilarious. And there is much to agree with in the overall criticisms of the state and the municipalist vision. This is a book I might recommend to a white dude who has a school taught idea of anglo American history and a spark of leanings toward direct democracy, but probably not anyone else.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy cow this book was boring. I think theory and philosophy are important, and a world where most people read and understood these books would be ideal. Unfortunately that's never going to happen if the most important of those books are written for the tiny minority of people who are intellectuals with a lot of time and focus.

From Urbanization to Cities is mostly a history book. More specifically a history of white men in Europe and the US. The last 5 percent of the book goes in to Bookchin's ideas but by the time I got to that point I just wanted to be done.

I gave it 5 stars because right-wing trolls who very clearly didn't read a single page have been giving it one star. As boring and racist as it is, it deserves more than that.

[Michael Arnold · Rating 2 out of 5]

The last of a few Anarchist books I randomly picked up. Took me a while because life and also this was very dry.

This is not what I thought it would be. Urbanized communities, suburbia, and theoretical (in both senses of the word) conflicts between them. That sounds like political theory, but it reads more like a history book focused on Europe and North America.

Being completely honest, I didn't read every word. But this is also lacking in scope and it's outdated. It was written in the 80s, it shows.

[Tom Booker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly a history book, finding (few) historical cases of Europe and North America where municipalities were the site of politics, what Bookchin would call real politics i.e. done by everyone not just elites/professionals, and involving debate and engagement, not just voting.

It was mostly interesting and quite dense. I must say the case against the state and for decentralisation was made clear to me.

But I think Bookchin's personality shines through. Why does he want politics to be done by everyone? He claims that modern everyday life is mundane, just a matter of consumption and entertainment. Meanwhile, a life of politics is one of meaning and purpose. These ideas I can only agree with to an extent. It seems to me that Bookchin was not content with a 'normal' life, is highly extroverted, etc.

Inspiring, challenging, but probably won't do anything to convert new people to the cause.

[Ilves · Rating 3 out of 5]

A revolution obscured

In Urbanization to Cities, Murray Bookchin is trying to make an important point about how direct democracy is possible in cities in a way that is not possible anywhere else. He argues that the only way to build a non-capitalist society that is both humanely and ecologically sustainable is by local-level communal democracy. At least, I'm pretty sure that is his point.

In terms of politics, Bookchin's ideas are some of the best I have come across. I'm not sure if I agree with him on all details, but in a world where it has become evidently clear that even representative democracies will devolve into oligarchies (not to mention dictatorships or systems that are democracies only on paper – like the USA), what he outlines for a future of organising societies is appealing and well-thought. The problem is, this man really can't write, or organise, a book in a way that would be easy to understand for the reader.

It should not be necessary for a writer to hold the reader’s hand, and overexplain every point repeatedly in great detail. Bookchin, however, takes his writing to an opposite – and much more harmful – end: he writes in painstaking detail, but he explains very little. The book has practically no clear outline of what is being discussed and what the main arguments are in the beginning, which means that while Bookchin's explorations of the cities of ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Italy, renaissance Low Countries in the bulk of the book are clearly meant to illuminate his points, they obscure. A proper explanation what the book is actually about only comes in the last chapter. If you still remember what he was saying 200 pages earlier, things start making sense at this point.

A part of the issue is Bookchin’s commitment to exact correct terminology. Again, usually this is a good thing. But when the author insists on using terms in Greek, Latin and Italian when discussing those places, he – again – obscures when he is trying to illuminate. Similarly, Bookchin’s choice of words in English is equally difficult for the reader. I admit I am not a native speaker, but as someone who has written five books of nonfiction, I know the language fairly well. Yet I had to pick up a dictionary repeatedly when reading this book.

If, like me, you are looking for ideas on how to organise a sustainable society, I do recommend checking out this book. In terms of politics it is 5/5. However, because the writing is 2/5 at best, you should start at the last chapter (Chapter eight) and the appendix, where Bookchin actually explains his ideas. If you feel the need for historical examples on municipal organisation after that, read the rest of the book.

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dry political history preceding a tacked-on political philosophy and call to action. I'm not entirely convinced. Bookchin leaves unanswered many of the messy realities of politics, namely how to deal with bad actors--both foreign and domestic--who wish to override the democratic desires of his confederation of municipalities. Still, he presents interesting ideas about the necessity of a culture of democracy to supplement (and nourish) the legal and political structures of democracy, and his thoughts on the dissolution of social bonds through corporatized media are more relevant than ever. Perhaps, despite my complaints, there is enough material here to constitute a seed of an alternative to the Musk-Zuck-Thiel-Yarvin nexus of evil that has taken root in American society.

"The crisis of our time as expressed in the decline of political life and citizenship, of community and individuality in the classical sense of these concepts, stems from a highly metastatic capitalistic technics and its commodities. Objectified and fragmented, the social bond itself faces dissolution. What we call the 'grassroots' of society is turning to straw, and its soul--the locality or municipality--is turning into sand. Whatever evidence of 'fertility' and 'life' these roots exhibit seems to be the result of toxic chemicals--mass media, bureaucratic sinews, and managerial controls--the nation-state and corporations seem to be pouring into its bedrock, just as agribusiness generates 'food' out of the chemically saturated sponge we call 'soil' today." (229)

[Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been somewhat involved in trying to prevent a business improvement district (BID) from opening in Rochester. During the summer, I got this book in the mail and started reading. Bookchin examines the history of the city as a "locus for directly democratic politics." Unlike a BID, that seeks to transform city/public space into privatized/commercial space, Bookchin's examination provides evidence of other possibilities. Bookchin can be a bit inaccessble at times but after a chapter or two I really got into. Reading it in conjunction with Graeber's and Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything really drives home the point Bookchin makes in the book: cities are more than just commercial zones where people buy and sell goods but are what we make of them as a space of freely associating community members.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

From Urbanization to Cities is pretty good for 1987, but whew lad, is this book dated. This is a "history of the city," but only cities in Europe and the US. Other places simply don't exist. The part in the last chapter where he tries to rehabilitate the puritans and downplay their patriarchy was particularly cringe. I still feel like his main thrust holds up within a western context, but I'd recommend reading Graeber's and Wengrow's "The Dawn of Everything" first to get a fuller picture. In fact, I'd really only recommend this if you were already a fan of Bookchin, and you already understand his ideas (and his faults). This is a great companion to Ecology of Freedom.

[Christina Hambleton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like the first and last chapters and the ideals that they express. The fact that I finished the book is a testament to how inspiring I found Bookchin's premise. It's a shame that all the middle chapters are an exercise in histiography masquerading as an attempt to provide "practical, real" examples of how municipalist communities have functioned in practice. Worse, that histiography centers exclusively on White European and colonial U.S. history.

[Jenni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Eurocentric (and dense), but the ideas here...are very good! Also a nice complement to some of the porto-historical work in The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

[Bex Romer · Rating 2 out of 5]

only read the last 2 chapters. the rest is about the holy roman empire? also what in the academic jargon was that?

[Robert Webb · Rating 2 out of 5]

so brain dead disagree with most of what he says also very boring book

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

So people are getting in a chaotic organization, and they need a strong king to force them to make the higher plans of Bookchin's government god. So much for ”anarchy” in this intellectual fraud living off taxes collected from the working people, from those who could be the free people.

[joe2436 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a great admirer of Murray Bookchin, but I did not feel that this was his strongest work. If you have read "The Ecology of Freedom" - which I highly recommend you do - 90% of this book will feel like a review. "Urbanization" felt like a recycled Ecology of Freedom through the lens of urbanization.

My favorite chapter was "The New Municipal Agenda." This is where Bookchin actually discusses how urban and regional governments could use confederalism to increase democratic representation and decentralize power. He uses his adopted home state of Vermont as an example of how this has been done in an effective manner. He shows how local government is the best place for direct democracy, and that, through decentralization, this could happen in any place, urban or rural. I wished he had spent more time talking about this instead of getting into the weeds of historical analysis.

All in all, solid book, but not my favorite of Bookchin's. Ecology of Freedom is more challenging but a better overall read. The last chapter is probably the best part and most worth reading.