Gordon De Rothschild, The City Thought Research

This thesis begins with the concept of “urban revolution” thendiscusses the urban theory of V. Gordon Childe. The paper can bedivided into three parts, the introduction, main body and conclusion.The introduction describes the life of Childe, his academicexperience as well as the research status of domestic and foreignscholars. The first chapter describes two theories-Cultural Evolution andNeolithic Revolution, the former is the theoretical basis of the conceptof “urban revolution”, the later is the material basis of which urbanrevolution can be achieved. The second chapter of Childe city thoughtis divided into three parts. First, urban origin is the result of theaccumulation of social surplus product, this conclusion from the study ofthe formation of early cities of Mesopotamia and Egypt; Second, the10characteristics of the early cities, to analyze the10characteristics of theearly cities that have been introduced in the paper of “urbanrevolution”, then summarized as EPOT mode; City origin is the result ofthe accumulation of surplus product, this invisible process wasembodied by the ancient urban layout, so the last part to explore theancient city planning thinking. The third chapter discusses the evolutionof the concept of “urban revolution” and the theoretical significance ofhis theory.Today, we no longer use the “urban revolution” to describe thehistorical process of urban origin and state formation, but the researchof complexity of the social and cultural are still concentrated in thepopulation, agricultural intensification, remaining products, handicraftspecialization, urbanization, social inequality, power and management,religion and art and so on. These factors had been formulated in thearticle of “urban revolution” for the first time, it can be said that morethan half a century ago, Childe has successfully draw the blueprint for the development of the field.