Regional Planning. By L. B. Escritt. (Allen and Unwin. 12s.
6d.) THERE are many approaches to town and country planning. Mr. Escritt, deprecating the architectural approach, claims for planning the status of a deductive science based on geophysical and demo- graphic survey, and for his book the status of an outline of the science. His own approach, however, is that of an engineer, with an interest in regional survey which he has not pursued far enough to engender definite planning aims. Himself a water and drainage expert, he is at his most reliable when summarising the planning considerations in that specialised field. When he comes to sum- marising the considerations in the sociological field, he is in- adequate and not free of unscientific prejudice. He gives, for in- stance, quite wrong impressions of the tenor of the Barlow Report and Lewis Mumford's Culture of Cities. Perhaps his bibliography
reveals why his book does not live up to Its ambition's specification, It is strong in works on engineering and descriptive geography, but oblivious of most of the planning literature of the last decade. Mr. Escritt can tell the student much about sites and much about con- struction, but is not so trustworthy on the needs and desires of the planner's client—the human community.
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