Roadtown

audiobook

Roadtown

by Edgar Chambless

EN·~2 hours·16 chapters

Chapters

16 total

DEDICATION

0:45

FOREWORD

4:49

THE MAN CHAMBLESS

5:09

CHAPTER I WHEN I BEGAN TO THINK

3:41

CHAPTER II A NEW CONCEPTION OF TRANSPORTATION

10:39

CHAPTER III LINE DISTRIBUTION—THE LOGICAL OUTCOME

9:47

CHAPTER IV THE ROADTOWN PLAN OF CONSTRUCTION

19:45

CHAPTER V CIVILIZATION THROUGH PIPES AND WIRES

14:28

CHAPTER VI ROADTOWN HOUSEKEEPING

15:24

CHAPTER VII THE SERVANT PROBLEM IN ROADTOWN

0:08

Description

The opening pages launch a sweeping critique of modern cities—crowded, noisy, and riddled with inefficiency—while hinting at a bold, collective yearning for a cleaner, freer way of living. The narrator frames the problem in vivid terms, from the suffocating walls of historic metropolises to the hollow comforts of suburban sprawl, setting the stage for a radical re‑imagining of how we inhabit space.

Against that backdrop, Mr. Chambless presents “Roadtown,” a straight‑line settlement that stitches together homes, railways, and utilities into a single, self‑sustaining ribbon across the continent. Concrete‑poured houses sit atop silent, high‑speed trains; mechanical services handle chores while residents work from compact workshops; fresh air, pure food, and affordable living replace slums and endless commutes. The proposal blends practical engineering with an idealistic vision, inviting listeners to contemplate a future where personal independence and communal harmony finally align.

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Details

Language

en

Duration

~2 hours (165K characters)

Publisher of text edition

Project Gutenberg

Credits

Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

Release date

2019-02-25

Rights

Public domain in the USA.

About the author

EC

Edgar Chambless

1870–1936

Best known for the 1910 book Roadtown, this American visionary imagined a continuous linear city that fused housing, transport, and utilities into one bold system. His ideas were eccentric, practical, and far ahead of their time, which is why urbanists and science-fiction historians still bring him up today.

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