An enduring legacy of the World's Columbian Exposition was the statement it made about the future of city life - the possibility for something better than the squalid, overcrowded, polluted, largely unplanned industrial cities of the 19th century, where machines and factories seemed more important than the quality of human life.

1. Do you think Daniel Burnham was right when he said making cities livable would be "the third great debate in our country's history" after the American Revolution and the Civil War?

2. How do you think most Americans feel about living and working in big cities?

3. What are some of the positive and negative aspects of city life?

4. Is there something odd about the way Americans speak fondly of rural life and open spaces while they continue to flock to cities?

5. Is the American suburb a compromise between life in cities and life in rural America? Or is it something new and different altogether?

© 2000 WGBH Educational Foundation. All Rights Reserved.