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The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Paperback)

by J. Jacobs (Author) "Streets in cities serve many purposes besides carrying vehicles, and city sidewalks-the pedestrian parts of the streets-serve many purposes besides carrying pedestrians ..." (more)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 458 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Books; Vintage Books ed edition (13 May 1993)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 067974195X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679741954
  • Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 13 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 45,659 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #23 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Sociology > Family & Social Groups > Urban Communities
    #26 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Urban & Rural Planning
    #42 in  Books > Reference > Genealogy

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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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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The classic exposition of how cities work. A must-read., 12 Oct 1996
By A Customer
This review is from: Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library) (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.

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.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Why was she ignored?, 21 May 2008
By Justin Murphy (Luxembourg) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library) (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.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars urban, 8 Oct 2004
By Paul Snell "Paul Snell" (London) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Death and Life of Great American Cities (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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5.0 out of 5 stars 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 Jul 2007 by Rochelle

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