The Well-Tempered City: What Modern Science, Ancient Civilizations, and Human Nature Teach Us About the Future of Urban Life

New Haven’s efforts to replace old neighborhoods with brutally modern architecture received national attention, and won many design awards, but by the late 1960s they had largely failed because they concentrated poverty, isolated residents

Cognitive science has now shown that the experience of awe is deeply associated with increased compassion, and the practice of ritual with social affiliation.

To administer its complex domain, Uruk developed more sophisticated counting and recording systems, and the world’s first writing.

These two cultural practices, the belief in “big gods” and advances in agriculture, evolved hand in hand, and are evident in the foundation of very early cities in history.

To a volatile world of competing cities, Prince Henry the Lion offers a particularly salient message. He expanded his realm by widely disseminating free copies of his rules for ordering a diverse city. The best ideas for city planning and governance won, providing the tempering system that gave rise to a powerful network.

“This is the earliest complex society in the world. If you want to understand the roots of the urban revolution, you have to look at the Ubaid.”

Connectivity, culture, coherence, community, and compassion are the protective factors of civilized cities.

The fourth quality of a well-tempered city is community—social networks made of well-tempered people.

Modern cities operate under an economic theory that is less than 300 years old, and our theory of evolution is less than 150, so we don’t yet fully understand their implications. We have not developed an overarching meh to energize our cities, to permeate them with a worldview that aligns our economic, technological, and social advances with the we