Until very recently, this new social situation was one which only a minuscule proportion of the earth's population ever had to face. Massive urbanization is a very new phenomenon. Even in the great city-building civilizations of the Mediterranean area, most people went about· their business encased in the kinds of little personal worlds described above.

QUESTION: What specific timelines or thresholds mark the shift to mass urbanization, and how quickly did it accelerate?

Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order a…, loc. 1056