Death and Life of Great American Cities

Author(s): Jane Jacobs

Architecture

In this classic text, Jane Jacobs set out to produce an attack on current city planning and rebuilding and to introduce new principles by which these should be governed. The result is one of the most stimulating books on cities ever written.


Throughout the post-war period, planners temperamentally unsympathetic to cities have been let loose on our urban environment. Inspired by the ideals of the Garden City or Le Corbusier's Radiant City, they have dreamt up ambitious projects based on self-contained neighbourhoods, super-blocks, rigid 'scientific' plans and endless acres of grass. Yet they seldom stop to look at what actually works on the ground.


The real vitality of cities, argues Jacobs, lies in their diversity, architectural variety, teeming street life and human scale. It is only when we appreciate such fundamental realities that we can hope to create cities that are safe, interesting and economically viable, as well as places that people want to live in.


'Perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning... Jacobs has a powerful sense of narrative, a lively wit, a talent for surprise and the ability to touch the emotions as well as the mind' New York Times Book Review


Product Information

-The most refreshing, provacative, stimulating and exciting study of this [great problem] which I have seen. It fairly crackles with bright honesty and common sense.---Harrison Salisbury, The New York Times-One of the most remarkable books ever written about the city... a primary work. The research apparatus is not pretentious--it is the eye and the heart--but it has given us a magnificent study of what gives life and spirit to the city.---William H. Whyte, author of The Organization Man

Jane Jacobs was the legendary author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, a work that has never gone out of print and that has transformed the disciplines of urban planning and city architecture. Her other major works include The Economy of Cities, Systems of Survival, The Nature of Economies and Dark Age Ahead. She died in 2006.

General Fields

  • : 9780679741954
  • : Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
  • : Vintage
  • : 0.331122
  • : October 1992
  • : 203mm X 133mm X 31mm
  • : United States
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Jane Jacobs
  • : Paperback
  • : Vintage Books ed.
  • : English
  • : 711.40973
  • : 480
  • : illustrations