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This paper first reviews the descriptions and structural explanations for variations, in urban population densities in the United States over several decades. The research reviewed focuses on shifts in the technology and economics of travel as being the major influences on urban density distributions. These variables appear to be somewhat less adequate as explanations of the process in recent decades. After reviewing these findings and suggesting several research questions, we attempt to assess the evidence relating variations in population density to several other aspects of human behavior. A review of the research relating high population densities to various "social pathologies" indicates that little of the variance in rates of these pathologies can be attributed to density independently of other social structural variables. Some important consequences of population density have been reported, however, and possible research directions are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information about the author's views on controlling the population of man. The author holds that man has never been able to domesticate himself as evidenced by the wild manifestations of the workings. The present rates of human population growth confront the experts with a problem that is unique in the long history of man's species. For many years, the control of population had not been successful. Thus, the author believes that population studies should focus on the drama of living human beings, rather than on their entrances and their exits on the stage of life.