- Hardcover: 624 pages
- Publisher: Random House Inc; New edition edition (30 Jun 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0679600477
- ISBN-13: 978-0679600473
- Product Dimensions: 18.8 x 12.4 x 4.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 166,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
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<br /><br />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
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
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
Book Description
A groundbreaking critique of 20th-century urban planning and a classic of post-ware social thought.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
Streets in cities serve many purposes besides carrying vehicles, and city sidewalks-the pedestrian parts of the streets-serve many purposes besides carrying pedestrians. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Streets in cities serve many purposes besides carrying vehicles, and city sidewalks-the pedestrian parts of the streets-serve many purposes besides carrying pedestrians. Read the first page
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Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
49 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Even 35 years after it was written, The Death and Life of Great American
Cities remains the classic book on how cities work and
how urban planners and others have naively destroyed
functioning cities. It is widely known for its incisive
treatment of those who would tear down functioning neighborhoods
and destroy the lives and livelihoods of people for the sake of a
groundless but intellectually appealing daydream.
Cities remains the classic book on how cities work and
how urban planners and others have naively destroyed
functioning cities. It is widely known for its incisive
treatment of those who would tear down functioning neighborhoods
and destroy the lives and livelihoods of people for the sake of a
groundless but intellectually appealing daydream.
But although many see it as a polemic against urban planning,
the best parts of it, the parts that have endeared it to
many who love cities, are quite different. Death and Life
is, first of all, a work of observation. The illustrations
are all around us, she says, and we must go and look. She
shows us parts of the city that are alive -- the streets,
she says, are the city that we see, and it is the streets and
sidewalks that carry the most weight -- and find the patterns
that help us not merely see but understand. She shows us the city as
an ecology -- a system of interactions that is more than
merely the laying out of buildings as if they were a
child's wooden blocks.
But observation can mean simply the noting of objects.
Ms. Jacobs writes beautifully, lovingly, of New York
City and other urban places. Her piece "The Ballet of
Hudson Street" is both an observation of events on the
Greenwich Village street where she lived and a prose poem
describing the comings and goings of the people, the rhythms
of the shopkeepers and the commuters and others who use the
street.
In this day when "inner city" is a synonym for poverty
and hopelessness, it is important to be reminded that
cities are literally the centers of civilization, of
business, of culture. This is just as true today as it was
in the early 1960s when this was written. We in North
America owe Jane Jacobs a great debt for her insight and her
eloquence.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I found this book fascinating. I live and work in a country that has been badly planned since the war and that suffers from all the mistakes that Jane Jacobs describes. What astonishes me is that planning was not influenced by this book when it was written. Most if its lessons are self-evidently correct. Yet even today planners continue to zone for dead, empty streets and monopolistic commerce. It has opened my eyes and made me feel a little angry. I wasn't interested in planning or urbanisation before I read this book, but now I am.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A little slow, but then again, who else addresses the real conditions of city living without a load of fantasy academic nonsense? Jacobs highlights the issues and processes that transform city districts into hostlie or livable areas - and it's not planners and estate agents that she's thanking! Nice to see some actual research make its way into a useful, readable book on urban living / planning.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
a must for those in social and urban design spheres
A must read for those who think that the city is an unworkable mess and that sub-urban layouts are the best solution for the world populatioons. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Sammy Elaasar
How to create cities that work
Good: commonsensical (or does it just seem so in retrospect?), imaginative, solutions-focused, people-oriented and persuasively argued. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Isafish
Masterpiece
I couldn't actually put this book down, this book about urban planning from almost 50 years ago! But it contains so much sense, currency, intellect and elegance that it transcends... Read more
Published on 23 Dec 2009 by Marcia
I Developed Doubts About This Book: Is Jacobs the Chomsky of Urban...
I was introduced to this book in about 1970 by a girl who'd completed an M.A. on England's first council estate. Both she, and this book, impressed me. Read more
Published on 12 May 2009 by Rerevisionist
An extraordinary book
I first encountered this book in the early 1980s when I was a geography student taking an Urban studies' course at Manchester University. Read more
Published on 19 July 2007 by Rochelle
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