Essay: London: unique no longer

摘要

Of the 20th century's histories of London's, the two most noteworthy appeared within ten years of each other. The first, by Rasmussen, a collection of thematic essays which as a whole identify those qualities that distinguish the London as it then was from its continental counterparts: the great cities of western Europe. John Summerson's later work, published just after the end of World War Ⅱ, but written while much of the material he was studying was being destroyed, describes London's expansion in the 18th century by means of the development of new suburbs, these of proximate houses, almost always built on aristocratic estates which were sold or leased to builders for its development.