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Reviews by Contributor: Jacobs, Jane (1)

An attack on then-current city planning and rebuilding

The Death and Life of Great American Cities

By Jane Jacobs  

3 Dec, 2015

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The Death and Life of Great American Cities is Jane Jacobs’ 1961 polemic on what makes cities work and what makes them fail. She wrote in reaction to the dominant urban planning doctrine, doctrine that she saw as counter productive.

Although Jacobs thanks a long list of people for their assistance in writing this work, from Saul Alinsky to Beda Zwicker, the name Robert Moses” is strangely absent. Curious, since one could argue this book might never have been written without his efforts to shape New York. 


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