The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Originally published thirty years before this description was written, The Death and Life of Great American Cities was called by The New York Times "perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning." The book functions as both a work of literature and urban analysis. Jacobs describes street life as a kind of ballet and offers a satiric critique of traditional planning theory, elements that remain readable independent of the book's core arguments. Jane Jacobs, an editor and writer on architecture in New York City during the early 1960s, contends that urban diversity and vitality were being destroyed by powerful architects and city planners. Her work presents a blueprint for the humanistic management of cities. The book is rigorous, logical, and epigrammatic in style. This Modern Library edition includes a new foreword by the author.