3 Review(s)

The Death and Life of Great American Cities is a study into the urban planning of American cities by Jane Jacobs. Summary of the Book Urban planning isn’t what it used to be. Jane Jacobs discusses how American cities have dwindled in time, with poorly designed streets and layouts. She discusses how streets become safe or unsafe based on their design, and how neighbourhoods come into being. She studies the evolution of the city and how it functions as an organism. Readers will understand how some neighbourhoods develop better than others due to their location and layout, and how others decay and collapse into slums. Explaining how even funeral parlors and tenement windows have their place in town planning, she gives readers a resource from which to understand how all cities are born and how some of them die. A classic ahead of its time, it teaches readers about the aesthetics of cities and has become a definitive text on the subject through the decades since its initial publication. About Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs was an American-Canadian journalist, best remembered for her contributions to urban planning. She also wrote: The Economy of Cities, The Question of Separatism: Quebec and the Struggle over Sovereignty, and Cities and the Wealth of Nations. The Rockefeller Foundation created the Jane Jacobs Medal to recognize individuals who have made a significant contribution to thinking about urban design, specifically in New York City to commemorate Jacobs for her contribution to the field.