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The cover of The Death and Life of Great American Cities

The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Jane Jacobs, 1961

Jane Jacobs walks the sidewalks of Hudson Street and Boston's North End to show what makes city districts safe and lively, and why orthodox planning and slum clearance destroy them.

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22 parts, about 35 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Argues that cities thrive on mixed uses, short blocks, old buildings and density rather than orderly planning schemes
  • Teaches you to read a street: who watches it, when people pass, and why some parks stay empty
  • Built from close observation of real neighbourhoods instead of planning theory or statistical averages

Who it is for

  • City planners and architects reshaping neighbourhoods
  • Residents fighting a redevelopment scheme on their street
  • Policy students weighing housing subsidies and traffic plans

What the summary covers

  1. Introduction2 min
  2. The Uses of Sidewalks: Safety2 min
  3. The Uses of Sidewalks: Contact2 min
  4. The Uses of Sidewalks: Assimilating Children1 min
  5. The Uses of Neighborhood Parks1 min
  6. The Uses of City Neighborhoods2 min
  7. The Generators of Diversity2 min
  8. The Need for Mixed Primary Uses2 min
  9. The Need for Small Blocks1 min
  10. The Need for Aged Buildings2 min
  11. The Need for Concentration2 min
  12. Some Myths about Diversity1 min
  13. The Self Destruction of Diversity2 min
  14. The Curse of Border Vacuums1 min
  15. Unslumming and Slumming2 min
  16. Gradual Money and Cataclysmic Money2 min
  17. Subsidizing Dwellings1 min
  18. Erosion of Cities or Attrition of Automobiles2 min
  19. Visual Order: Its Limitations and Possibilities1 min
  20. Salvaging Projects1 min
  21. Governing and Planning Districts1 min
  22. The Kind of Problem a City Is2 min

Recommended by

  • William H. WhyteAmerican urbanist and author of City
    One of the most remarkable books ever written about the city . . . a primary work.

About the author

  • Jane JacobsAmerican Canadian journalist, author and urban theorist who died in 2006
    • Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on 4 May 1916; an author, journalist and urban theorist.
    • Moved from her hometown of Scranton to New York in 1935.
    • Studied at Columbia University's School of General Studies for two years.
    • Joined Architectural Forum as an associate editor in 1952.
    • Her Fortune article Downtown Is for People brought her to the notice of the Rockefeller Foundation, which gave her a grant in 1958 to write this book.
    • Chaired the Joint Committee to Stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway.
    • Moved to Toronto in 1968, soon after her arrest at a public hearing on the expressway.
    • Became a Canadian citizen in 1974.

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