The free city of a walled town is the author's solution to doing away with the destructive effects of imperialism and materialism. "The next manifestation of monasticism should already be showing itself .. There will be groups of natural families, father, mother and children, entering into a communal but not by any means 'communistic' life, within those Walled Towns they will create for themselves, in the midst of the world but not of it." Ralph Adams Cram, born in 1863, was considered America's greatest church architect. He was also an editor, art critic, poet, and designer. The work of his architectural firm, Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson, is considered the finest representation of the spirit of the modern Gothic Revival in American ecclesiastical and academic architecture.