This book offers a detailed record of one of the world's oldest environmental pressure groups. It raises questions about the capacity of pressure groups to influence policy; and finally it assesses the campaing as a major factor in the emergence of modern town and planning, and as a backdrop against which to examine current issues.

Dennis Hardy

Preface. Acknowledgements. Abbreviations. Introduction. A context of change. Organization of the book. The origins of a pressure group. Formation of the Garden City Association. The idea of the garden city. 'A peaceful path to real reform'. Choosing the ground, 1899-1914. Garden cities and town planning. Organizing for pressure. The long campaign, 1914-1939. Campaigning and the great war. A glimpse of utopia. Coming of age. Town and country. North and south. The campaign reviewed. Corridors of power, 1939-1946. Vision of Jerusalem. Propaganda and politics. Britain in 1945. Evaluation. Looking back. Making policy. Shaping planning history. Appendix: Main events from the formation of the Garden City Association to the New Town Act. Bibliography. Index.