Prologue Summary and Analysis

In Kingsley Davis's "The Urbanization of the Human Population" (1965), Davis writes that the history of the world is in fact the history of urbanization. He describes how tiny European settlements grew slowly through the Middle Ages and the early modern period, with urbanization occurring because of rural-urban migration. He writes that the low production levels of this time period, due to the feudal system, favored an agrarian culture. The process became a lot quicker during the 1900s, especially in Great Britain. He makes the distinction of urbanization (the process of a society become more urban-focused) and the growth of cities - that is, the expansion of their boundaries.

Kingsley sees the urbanization process as occurring along an S curve, beginning slow, becoming fast, and then slowing again. Because of this S curve, he foresees an end to urbanization (noting that it...