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The Death and Life of Great American Cities

50th Anniversary Edition

50th Anniversary Edition

By Jane Jacobs

By Jane Jacobs

By Jane Jacobs

By Jane Jacobs

By Jane Jacobs

By Jane Jacobs

By Jane Jacobs
Read by Donna Rawlins
Introduction by Jason Epstein

By Jane Jacobs
Read by Donna Rawlins
Introduction by Jason Epstein

Best Seller

Category: Nonfiction

Category: Classic Nonfiction

Category: Domestic Politics

Category: Audiobooks

Paperback $19.00

Dec 01, 1992 | ISBN 9780679741954

Hardcover $25.00

Sep 13, 2011 | ISBN 9780679644330

Ebook $14.99

Jul 20, 2016 | ISBN 9780525432852

Audiobook Download $27.50

Sep 13, 2011 | 1080 Minutes

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    The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
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    Jul 20, 2016 | ISBN 9780525432852

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    • Paperback $19.00

      Dec 01, 1992 | ISBN 9780679741954

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    Hardcover
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    • Hardcover $25.00

      Sep 13, 2011 | ISBN 9780679644330

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      Jul 20, 2016 | ISBN 9780525432852

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    About The Death and Life of Great American Cities

    Compassionate, bracingly indignant, and keenly detailed, a monumental work that provides an essential framework for assessing the vitality of all cities.

    “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.” —The New York Times

    A direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in this century, The Death and Life of Great American Cities has, since its first publication in 1961, become the standard against which all endeavors in that field are measured.

    In prose of outstanding immediacy, Jane Jacobs writes about what makes streets safe or unsafe; about what constitutes a neighborhood, and what function it serves within the larger organism of the city; about why some neighborhoods remain impoverished while others regenerate themselves. She writes about the salutary role of funeral parlors and tenement windows, the dangers of too much development money and too little diversity. 

    About The Death and Life of Great American Cities

    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.

    About The Death and Life of Great American Cities

    Thirty years after its publication, 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, Jacobs’s small masterpiece is a blueprint for the humanistic management of cities.  It is sensible, knowledgeable, readable, indispensable.  The author has written a new foreword for this Modern Library edition.

    About The Death and Life of Great American Cities

    Thirty years after its publication, 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, Jacobs’s small masterpiece is a blueprint for the humanistic management of cities.  It is sensible, knowledgeable, readable, indispensable.  The author has written a new foreword for this Modern Library edition.

    Read An Excerpt

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    Also by Jane Jacobs

    The Question of Separatism
    Vital Little Plans
    Dark Age Ahead
    The Nature of Economies
    Systems of Survival
    See all books by Jane Jacobs

    Also by Jane Jacobs

    The Question of Separatism
    Vital Little Plans
    Dark Age Ahead
    The Nature of Economies
    Systems of Survival
    See all books by Jane Jacobs

    Also by Jane Jacobs

    The Question of Separatism
    Vital Little Plans
    Dark Age Ahead
    The Nature of Economies
    Systems of Survival
    See all books by Jane Jacobs

    Also by Jane Jacobs

    The Question of Separatism
    Vital Little Plans
    Dark Age Ahead
    The Nature of Economies
    Systems of Survival
    See all books by Jane Jacobs

    About Jane Jacobs

    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… More about Jane Jacobs

    About Jane Jacobs

    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… More about Jane Jacobs

    About Jane Jacobs

    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… More about Jane Jacobs

    About Jane Jacobs

    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… More about Jane Jacobs

    Product Details

    Category: Nonfiction

    Paperback | $19.00
    Published by Vintage
    Dec 01, 1992 | 480 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780679741954

    Category: Classic Nonfiction

    Hardcover | $25.00
    Published by Modern Library
    Sep 13, 2011 | 640 Pages | 4-11/16 x 7-1/4 | ISBN 9780679644330

    Category: Domestic Politics

    Ebook | $14.99
    Published by Vintage
    Jul 20, 2016 | 480 Pages | ISBN 9780525432852

    Category: Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $27.50
    Published by Random House Audio
    Sep 13, 2011 | 1080 Minutes | ISBN 9780307969651

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    Praise

    “Refreshing, provocative, stimulating and exciting . . . It fairly crackles with bright honesty and common sense.”—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 City: Rediscovering the Center

    Awards

    Sidney Hillman Prize WINNER 1961

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