Representing the state

In this work of exceptional scholarship, Wolfgang Sonne examines the relationship between city planning and politics. He analyzes a handful of exemplary cities—Washington, D.C., Berlin, Canberra, and New Delhi —each of which underwent major reconstruction during the years spanning the turn of the twentieth century and the advent of World War I. He also discusses the failed plans for the World Centre of Communication, an attempt at creating an international city of peace in 1913. Because this era was marked by the heyday of Imperialism and its related illusions of grandeur, the book evokes the clashing and melding of political and architectural ideals—a conundrum that continues to plague city planners today.