Talk:Lewis Mumford

Technics and Civilization

"However far modern science and technics have fallen short of their inherent possibilities, they have taught mankind at least one lesson: Nothing is impossible." I don't have the book handy. Could someone verify this? I doubt that a literate man of Mumford's generation would automatically capitalize the first word after a colon. That is a silly modern practice. AxelHarvey 05:31, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Cloverleaf

Perhaps his most attributed (About 43,500 results from Google) quote is: "Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf." After a brief attempt, I have been unable to locate the source. Anybody? For now I hope it is okay to put this under 'Unsourced'. ~Eric F 74.60.29.141 14:53, 13 October 2012 (UTC)

Unsourced

• Western society has accepted as unquestionable a technological imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo: not merely the duty to foster invention and constantly to create technological novelties, but equally the duty to surrender to these novelties unconditionally, just because they are offered, without respect to their human consequences.

• Adding highway lanes to deal with traffic congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity. [FYI, I found this quote sourced as follow in several instances but have not access to the original full text to verify: Lewis Mumford, 1955, The Roaring Traffic’s Boom. ]
  • I looked this one up. The correct quote is: "Most of the fancy cures that the experts have offered for New York's congestion are based on the innocent notion that the problem can be solved by increasing the capacity of the existing traffic routes, multiplying the number of ways of getting in and out of town, or providing more parking space for cars that should not have been lured into the city in the first place. Like the tailor's remedy for obesity—letting out the seams of the trousers and loosening the belt—this does nothing to curb the greedy appetites that have caused the fat to accumulate." Lewis Mumford, 1955 (Apr 16). "The Roaring Traffic's Boom—III," The New Yorker, p. 78-88 (quote on p. 78). --Harald Kliems (talk) 17:35, 13 January 2022 (UTC)

• Our national flower is the concrete cloverleaf.