Flesh and stone: the body and the city in western civilization

Flesh and Stone is a history of the city in Western civilization, one that tells the story of urban life through bodily experience. It recounts how women and men moved in public and private spaces, what they saw and heard, the smells that assailed their noses, where they ate, how they dressed, the mores of bathing and of making love – all in the spaces of the city from ancient Athens to modern New York. This is a book that takes seriously people’s bodily needs, beliefs, and actions as a way to understand urban form in the past. In the present: we want to build more sensate and arousing cities.