The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of its initial publication, this special edition of Jane Jacobs s masterpiece, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, features a new Introduction by Jason Epstein, the book s original editor, who provides an intimate perspective on Jacobs herself and unique insights into the creation and lasting influence of this classic.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities was described by The New York Times as perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning. . . . It] can also be seen in a much larger context. It is first of all a work of literature; the descriptions of street life as a kind of ballet and the bitingly satiric account of traditional planning theory can still be read for pleasure even by those who long ago absorbed and appropriated the book s arguments. Jane Jacobs, an editor and writer on architecture in New York City in the early sixties, argued that urban diversity and vitality were being destroyed by powerful architects and city planners. Rigorous, sane, and delightfully epigrammatic, Jane Jacobs s tour de force is a blueprint for the humanistic management of cities. It remains sensible, knowledgeable, readable, and indispensable.

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) was a writer who for more than forty years championed innovative, community-based approaches to urban planning. Her 1961 treatise The Death and Life of Great American Cities became perhaps the most influential text about the inner workings and failings of cities, inspiring generations of planners and activists.

Samuel Zipp is a writer and historian. He is the author of the award-winning Manhattan Projects: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal in Cold War New York, which tells the larger history of the battles over urban renewal that propelled Jane Jacobs to national fame. He has written articles and reviews on urbanism and culture for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Nation. He is currently associate professor of American studies and urban studies at Brown University.

Nathan Storring is a writer, curator, and designer who specializes in making contemporary urban design, planning, and policy accessible to the general public. He has served as acting curator of Urbanspace Gallery in Toronto (founded by colleagues of Jane Jacobs) and worked on permanent exhibits at the Chicago Architecture Foundation and the Boston Society of Architects. He has written for various outlets, including Canadian Architect, Next City, and the Metropolitan Revolution blog, and is a regular contributor to the Project for Public Spaces blog.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780140206814
ISBN 10	0140206817
Title	The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Author	Jane Jacobs
Series	Pelican S
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Penguin Books Ltd
Year published	1972-07-14
Number of pages	480
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.