ABSTRACT

This chapter traces the history of town planning through a public health lens from the late nineteenth century to the present day. While the planning and public health professions grew out of and were united in their joint efforts to improve living conditions in the polluted, unsanitary cities of the nineteenth century, their subsequent relationship proved less symbiotic than cyclical. Others have written insightfully on these historical linkages from both planning (for example, Hebbert 1999; Sloane 2006; Corburn 2009; Lopez 2012) and public health (for example, Duhl and Sanchez 1999; Perdue et al. 2003; Frumkin et al. 2011) perspectives. Our interest lies with the evolution of healthful planning within the context of evolving mainstream planning concerns. The discussion draws on an extensive review of major planning and public health journals, significant scholarly monographs, and general reports. The chapter is focused on the western, and predominantly Anglo-American, experience.