A reader writes:

Richard Florida's post notes the history of anti-urbanism in conservatism, but the history extends longer than that into the industrialization of Europe during the 1700s and 1800s. Goethe depicted the city not just as the realm of the intellectual, but of the debaucher. Mephistopheles corrupts Faust, the intellectual, in the city. William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge rebelled against the artificiality and inhumanity of the city. Joseph Conrad coupled the city with the immoral impulse of business to colonize and dominate. Wheras Karl Marx, and other like him, viewed the city as a savior for the unintelligent farmer. At the core of all critiques of urban areas, from these first author's to Florida's neoconservatives, is the fear of disenchantment.