From the preface: This anthology was planned with an interdisciplinary orientation; half of its contents are reprinted from the "community politics" topical issue of the Social Science Quaterly. It provides an orientation based upon current perspectives in both political science and sociology...

This book is about cities. It is about city people - their origins, their problems, and the social arrangements which sustain them. It deals in the hard facts the scientist musters to document and explain, and in accounts of personal experience which enliven and enrich with the humanist's touch....