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A groundbreaking critique of 20th-century urban planning and a classic of post-ware social thought.

Table of Contents

• • 1: Introduction
• Part One: The Peculiar Nature of Cities
• • 2: The uses of sidewalks: safety
  • 3: The uses of sidewalks: contact
  • 4: The uses of sidewalks: assimilating children
  • 5: The uses of neighbourhood parks
  • 6: The uses of city neighbourhoods
• Part Two: The Conditions for City Diversity
• • 7: The generators of diversity
  • 8: The need for mixed primary uses
  • 9: The need for small blocks
  • 10: The need for aged buildings
  • 11: The need for concentration
  • 12: Some myths about diversity
• Part Three: Forces of Decline and Regeneration
• • 13: The self-destruction of diversity
  • 14: The curse of border vacuums
  • 15: Unslumming and slumming
  • 16: Gradual money and cataclysmic money
• Part Four: Different Tactics
• • 17: Subsidizing dwellings
  • 18: Erosion of cities or attrition of automobiles
  • 19: Visual order: its limitations and possibilities
  • 20: Salvaging projects
  • 21: Governing and planning districts
  • 22: The kind of problem a city is

About the Author

Jane Jacobs was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1916, and now lives in Toronto, Canada. She is also the author of The Economy of Cities, The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty, Cities and the Wealth of Nations, and Systems of Survival. She died in 2006.

Reviews

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
*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

Perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning... Jacobs has a powerful sense of narrative, a lively wit, a talent for surprise and the ability to touch the emotions as well as the mind
*New York Times Book Review*

An immensely provocative and rewarding book... It challenges comfortable assumptions...but it does so in a manner that is neither rancorous nor contentions
*Washington Post*