Lewis Mumford appeared on the cover of TIME on 18 April 1938 (click here to view), after the publication of his first book on the city, The Culture of Cities. Read the review here. He published a second, The City in History, in 1961, reviewed in TIME with the title “Books: Necropolis Revisited” (read here). I spent many afternoons in the Mumfords’ country house and got to know Lewis through long conversations with his widow, Sophia, and I’ve read his books and gone through many of his letters and photographs. But I had never seen him speak until a few days ago when someone I met at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation told me I could find him on YouTube. It’s a revelation! Click here to listen to Lewis Mumford talk about the city in history.