Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City

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Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 · rating details · 270 ratings · 59 reviews

For numerous city planners and urban activists, Jane Jacobs' The Death & Life of American Cities (1961) and The Economy of Cities (1969) were life-changing manifestos. As Douglas Martin writes, "Ms. Jacobs' enormous achievement was to transcend her own withering critique of 20th century urban planning and propose radically new principles for rebuilding cities. At a tim...more

Paperback, 272 pages

Published February 8th 2011 by Random House Trade Paperbacks (first published 2009)

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Jan 22, 2012 J rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book tries, and succeeds, to do many things at once. It is a biography of Jane Jacobs the author, journalist, activist and mother who helped redefine urban planning and cities themselves. It is also a biography of Robert Moses, the skilled manager who dominated New York public works for decades. And finally it charts developments in urban planning throughout the 20th century, especially the rise and fall of modernism.[return][return]Anthony Flint's work reads almost like a novel at times, s...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Ashland Mystery Oregon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: architecture

Though I grew up in New Jersey and had family in the East Village, I was not aware of Jane Jacobs' life of sacrifice and her dedication to preserving and protecting this pocket of Manhattan. I'm ashamed not to know of her contributions, and so glad to learn of them now.

Born in 1916, Jane Jacobs was a funny looking woman, with a keen intelligence and the ability to articulate her ideas and organize for action. She is credited as the founder of 1960s grass roots, community activism.

Robert Moses (1...more Though I grew up in New Jersey and had family in the East Village, I was not aware of Jane Jacobs' life of sacrifice and her dedication to preserving and protecting this pocket of Manhattan. I'm ashamed not to know of her contributions, and so glad to learn of them now.

Born in 1916, Jane Jacobs was a funny looking woman, with a keen intelligence and the ability to articulate her ideas and organize for action. She is credited as the founder of 1960s grass roots, community activism.

Robert Moses (1888-1981) was a master planner and master politician, engineering the city of New York and many parts of New York state. He created parks, built roads, designed public buildings and community centers. He build the Lincoln Center and Fire Island. In building the infrastructure of New York City and its boroughs, Moses destroyed countless communities, homes and small businesses. He displaced thousands of poor as his policies and commisions razed the slums and relocated people to souless high rise apartment buildings. His methods of urban renewal spread throughout the country and were used to salavage some of the great cities of the United States.

Jane Jacobs set herself in opposition to Robert Moses and all he represented. She chose Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village as the battleground, and organized the community to respond to every threat with legal action, community hearings, physical occupation and above all, the power of the media. Her landmark work, The Death and Life of American Cities was founded in the sense of place and belonging that she enjoyed in the Village, after Moses and the city of New York retreated in 1961. It wasn't long though before Moses was back with yet another plan to improve a nearby neighborhood, that included Jacobs home on Hudson Street. She and her community, beat this one back too.

With the exception of mass transit, Moses advocated and constructed the infrastructure that enabled U.S. 20th century economic growth through transportation and the regeneration of failing cities. Jacobs unilateraly objected to any change not condoned by the people, and set a standard for consultation and collaboration between government and its people.

Moses' approach to government and planning was the gold standard for many years until Jacobs overturned the doctrine. Today, the cycle of change and hindsight reveals that both approaches are needed for economic development and the survival of cities as human-centered communities.

It's fascinating to have a more informed view of lower Manhattan and its history. Looking through my postcards of Washington Square Park in the heart of Greenwich Village, I can date them just by seeing the features that changed between 1950-1980. I have some sense now of what each change means and how this small piece of land is a monument to urban planning.

Thank you to the marvelous book shop at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC where I found Anthony Flint's excellent work. Thank you Flint. Thank you Jacobs. And thank you Moses.

--Ashland Mystery

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Apr 30, 2012 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

The earlier chapters of this book are a bit derivative and feel more like a report on Robert Caro's tremendous work THE POWER BROKER. It is understandable in a way given that Caro's book is the definitive biography on Moses and there is little else to reference, but there is something not quite right about the way that Flint narrates ... and I add my bias here for the historical research conducted by Caro who carefully cites his sources over this more novel-like narrative. It could just be a mat...more

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Jan 24, 2010 Alex Csicsek rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Anthony Flint's narrative history recounts three important battles for the future of lower Manhattan between renowned urbanist Jane Jacobs and New York City masterplanner. While Jacobs's story as a community organiser and Moses's as planner have both been scrupulously recorded, Flint's intention was to give both equal prominence in the same book. He falls short in that effort, however, as it mostly reads from the view of Jacobs fighting against a rather faceless boogie man. At times, it also fee...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Catherine Siemann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Unlike Robert Caro's magisterial The Power Broker, about Robert Moses, this one's a quick read. I especially enjoyed learning more about Jacobs (whose Death and Life of Great American Cities has been on my TBR pile for far too long). While there's an attempt at the end to balance the good with the bad in Moses' career, it's Jacobs who is at the heart of this story, and I found myself wishing there was more on her later life and work in Toronto.

Living in a New York City which is flourishing, but...more

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Dec 10, 2009 Daniel Hadley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The story of Robert Moses, a manically driven city planner with a vision of New York as infrastructure, verses Jane Jacobs, the folk hero of Greenwich village and matriarch of contemporary planning. The story is familiar, but it never gets old.

I met the author at school. He said the book had been labeled "beach reading for urban planners." That seems about right. He also mentioned that he conceived the idea during Alex Krieger's course on planning history. Krieger (whose class I took once and TF...more

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Jan 15, 2011 David Jedeikin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Compelling yarn about how Jane Jacobs, a Greenwich Village writer and mom, took on one of New York's most influential urban-planning power brokers and won. Told from a an earnest-yet-accessible angle (I think the author himself called it "beach-reading for urban planners") it manages to draw both Jacobs and Moses with depth and nuance -- even going so far, at the end of the book, as to show that the pendulum may have swung a bit too far in Jacobs's direction of late: When latter-day "neighborhoo...more

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Oct 28, 2012 Matthew rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: essaysjournalism, history

It is amazing how much I can continue to learn about America and about New York 7-8 years after having left the city. I knew people there who were intensely activist, and increasingly I begin to fathom this spirit of political and social activism that at first seemed so simultaneously admirable and alien. 'Wrestling with Moses' is about one of NY's most well-known (well, in the 1950-60s) urban activists, Jane Jacobs, and her work to prevent the demolition and reconstruction of parts of lower Man...more It is amazing how much I can continue to learn about America and about New York 7-8 years after having left the city. I knew people there who were intensely activist, and increasingly I begin to fathom this spirit of political and social activism that at first seemed so simultaneously admirable and alien. 'Wrestling with Moses' is about one of NY's most well-known (well, in the 1950-60s) urban activists, Jane Jacobs, and her work to prevent the demolition and reconstruction of parts of lower Manhattan, as pushed by powerful bureacrat and builder Robert Moses. There are five chapters here: The first two provide a short background to first Jacobs and then Moses; the third narrates their first big battle over the extension of Fifth Avenue into Washington Square Park (where Jane lived); the fourth describes how, after Moses' defeat, his method lived on in the hands of his successor bureacrats and Jacobs had to rally the community yet again; the fifth then turns to her leadership of the SoHo community in opposition to another Moses proposal, the Lower Manhattan Expressway. While written as a journalistic account of the immense odds the fragmented local families faced in protecting the organic nature of their communal neighbourhood, the book is obviously ideologically tilted to the side of Jacobs and the community. Not that this is a unattractive stance -- Jane Jacobs and her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities stand for the ground-up approach to urban planning, respect for the human scale in architecture, respect for what the people who live there really want and think, for diversity, for the organic blooming of city life. Moses, on the other hand, stood for the modern approach, grand plans, glass and steel superstructures and soaring expressways, and effectively bulldozing over friendly if somewhat scruffy neighbourhoods in the name of cleaning up slums.

This is fascinating on two levels:

First is the implicit description of the political process in New York. I can't imagine it taking place in Asia (oddly, the only place I can imagine this is in China, for certain reasons; but surely not in Singapore or other Southeast Asian capitals): there are too many requisite elements that are simply not present here. You need an active and committed citizenry, you need a local press that is willing and able to opine on public policy, you need a localised political process with politicians willing and able to take sides (interestingly and ironically, Jacobs was welcomed more by the Republicans, who felt she stood for smaller government). The citizenry question is difficult, and I come back to demographics: too much population pressure in Asia, people don't earn enough to have time for activism, people who are wealthy enough are more interested in consumption or have entered the status quo elite and don't have the incentive for activism. And the very idea of public hearings, of raising communal opposition to public works projects already announced in the newspapers -- the whole feeling of it is so uniquely and admirably American.

The second is this clash of ideas between large-scale top down government planning vs bottom up organic hustle and bustle. The question is raised in the book of how a city government can provide for the needs of low income households if it cannot seize and redevelop land for public projects -- this is certainly a valid question and not one, imo, that the Jacobs school adequately answered. And it is surely more pressing (and no better addressed) in Asia. Yet if it is not possible to dream of Asian capitals built entirely in European scale, I'd argue the top down approach to infrastructure building has also worked very imperfectly -- although possibly due to institutional issues (corruption, pork barrel projects) rather than because large scale infrastructure is bad.

There is, indeed, an ambivalence in the book regarding Moses and the top-down approach -- it acknowledges his valuable contributions to, for example, the interstate highway network, the triboro bridge, as well as vastly increasing the amount of park space in NYC. The failure at heart seems less the man himself than the hubris and insensitivity that set in during his later years, after two decades of succcess, when at the height of his powers he forget to listen to the people who would live in the cities he wanted to build.

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Feb 07, 2010 Terry rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a big fan of Jane Jacobs, I was really looking forward to this book, but it was a big disappointment. The writing is mundane and the author makes the huge battles between Jacobs and Moses (grassroots/neighborhood folks v. urban redevelopment) sort of boring and Jane Jacobs herself almost unlikeable (which maybe she was) while actually and completely unintentionally making Robert Moses somewhat sympathetic. But it does make very clear the significant about turn in urban planning that was produ...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arts-and-historical

To a young Jane Jacobs, Greenwich Village, with its winding cobblestone streets and diverse makeup, was everything a city neighborhood should be. The activist, writer, and mother of three grew so fond of her bustling community that it became a touchstone for her landmark book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. But consummate power broker Robert Moses, the father of many of New York’s most monumental development projects, saw things differently: neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village w...more To a young Jane Jacobs, Greenwich Village, with its winding cobblestone streets and diverse makeup, was everything a city neighborhood should be. The activist, writer, and mother of three grew so fond of her bustling community that it became a touchstone for her landmark book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. But consummate power broker Robert Moses, the father of many of New York’s most monumental development projects, saw things differently: neighborhoods such as Greenwich Village were badly in need of “urban renewal.” Notorious for exacting enormous human costs, Moses’s plans had never before been halted–not by governors, mayors, or FDR himself, and certainly not by a housewife from Scranton.

The epic rivalry of Jacobs and Moses, played out amid the struggle for the soul of a city, is one of the most dramatic and consequential in modern American history. In Wrestling with Moses, acclaimed reporter and urban planning policy expert Anthony Flint recounts this thrilling David-and-Goliath story, the legacy of which echoes through our society today.

The first ordinary citizens to stand up to government plans for their city, Jacobs and her colleagues began a nationwide movement to reclaim cities for the benefit of their residents. Time and again, Jacobs marshaled popular support and political power against Moses, whether to block traffic through her beloved Washington Square Park or to prevent the construction of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, a ten-lane elevated superhighway that would have destroyed centuries-old streetscapes and displaced thousands of families and businesses.

Like A Civil Action before it, Wrestling with Moses is the tale of a local battle with far-ranging significance. By confronting Moses and his vision, Jacobs forever changed the way Americans understood the city, and inspired citizens across the country to protest destructive projects in their own communities. Her story reminds us of the power we have as individuals to confront and defy reckless authority.(less)

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Aug 10, 2009 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Three seminal battles over NYC Urban Planning. It's biased in the sense that Flint chooses three events where Jacobs and her peers defeat Moses, but I'd say there could be a much uglier portrait of Robert Moses. Maybe that's to be found in The Power Broker, but I don't know that I have time for its 1300 pages. This slim volume is an accessible guide to what Jacobs did to preserve NYC's essential character. In two of the three battles that boiled down to not superimposing motorways in certain urb...more

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Aug 20, 2010 DJ Yossarian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: architecture, community-activism, design, new-york, urban-studies, us-history

Having read Death and Life of Great American Cities about 20 years ago, I found this book about its author and the causes she championed to be enthralling, even-handed, and well-written. Flint doesn't demonize Robert Moses, and gives him due credit for the parks, beach facilities, and bridges he built. The author also demonstrates that, although Moses was extraordinary in both his maniacal work ethic and the amount of power he amassed, his approach to how cities should be revitalized was very mu...more

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Mar 15, 2010 penny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library-nypl

Over a decade ago I had the pleasure of taking Professor Kenneth Jackson's great course "History of the City of New York" at Columbia. As a Computer Science undergrad I was a bit scared to take the course, my required reading was generally much different in scale and scope from history courses. I emailed the professor that summer and asked what texts might be included, hoping to both get a head start and to pick up used copies. I received a kind reply and two books listed were The Power Broker a...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Nicholas Kotecki Kotecki rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you like Jane Jacobs this is the book for you. but other then a over dramatic portrail of Jane Jacob and Robert Moses and their two confrontations in New York City it is not much of anything. the author stretches the book out after finding that there wasn't enough material with the two. i will give it points for his detailed look at how they both organized opposition against each other. that part was interesting but this could of been an article in a magazine and not a book.

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Sep 15, 2011 Zach rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is a great introduction to Jacobs: her life before, during, and after her most popular battle with "the establishment" and the reasons she penned "Death and Life of Great American Cities". (Which is now on my reading list.)

Many consider her to be libertarian, many conservative, some liberal - but I believe she was simply focused on fighting for what she believed to be the best human living conditions possible...in the heart of a vibrant urban neighborhood.

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Jun 13, 2012 Jill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012reads

I really appreciated this book for painting both portraits. I've always and only heard bad things about Moses, and there's plenty to be said on that point, but never knew of his involvement with state and city parks, swimming pools, etc. And I've heard so many good things about Jacobs, but it was sort of refreshing to hear that she was a piece of a broad organizing movement and in every case mentioned in the book, joined a pre-existing network of fighters. An easy read that definitely felt like...more

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Nov 26, 2011 Stephanie Aaron rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a good fast read and is a great follow up to Robert Caro's tome "The Power Broker" The subject matter is a must for anyone who cares for cities. It made me want to read Jane Jacobs actually books. One picky comment is that the author sometimes doesn't get his neighborhoods and directions correct, he places Sty Town in the Lower East Side, when it is above 14th Street well out of the bounds the neighborhood, and says that Gramercy Park is a few blocks east of Washington Square when it's a...more

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Oct 01, 2009 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-studies

THis book is rad, if you love New York history books. Its all about the battle between Robert Moses, who build all of these famous NYC things like bridges, state parks, playgrounds, Lincoln Center, the U.N, Shea Stadium, Jones Beach, and Central Park Zoo, and Jane Jacobs, who kept him from destroying Washington Square Park, the West Village, and SoHo. Cool stuff. Did you know Washington Square Park hosted a gallows, a burial ground for paupers, a parade ground for soldiers, and when it was a par...more

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Jan 01, 2010 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was captivated by this story from the first to last page. Jane Jacobs advocacy for high density urbansim and historic preservation is well known. Robert Moses' philosphy of modernizing and slum clearance is well known. But what this book does is capture their battle for the soul of New York city like nothing I have read before.
I highly reccomend for those who care about the making of our cities.

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Jul 11, 2012 Corey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This might be the best history available of the battle between Greenwich Village residents - led by Jane Jacobs - and Robert Moses, particularly since Robert Caro's giant biography of Moses doesn't even mention Jacobs once.

Read along with The Life and Death of Great American Cities to get the theory behind Jacobs' activism. Very enjoyable.

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Jun 17, 2012 Patricia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Good read for architects, urbanists, students, and New York City history lovers .
I read a lot about Jane Jacobs at architecture school, so this was a great book to get know more about her background, her personal life, audacity and commitment with her city and the future of it. And of course, about Robert Moses witch was also a visionary.

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Aug 28, 2011 Beth Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a Jane Jacobs fan, I was excited to read this book about her efforts to preserve the neighborhoods of NY against the madness of Moses, a New Havener by birth. It wasn't nearly as long as I thought it would be, but it did prove to be interesting to me as a city lover and a fan of municipal understanding. Made me admire Jacobs even more, and also feel complicated about Moses and want to know more about him. Finished it on the beach on an island, far from Manhatten.

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Dec 28, 2012 Nicholas rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Weaves a good story about two iconic figures in recent NYC history. Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses were not at each Luther's throats, but did offer two distinctly different visions for NYC residents.

Wrestling follows Ms Jacobs's story more than Moses's, but if you want more Moses, you can always turn to Caro's seminal book. This book is, by contrast to Caro's, short and succinct.

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Nov 19, 2011 Mike Edwards rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: current-events, history, biography, usa

An excellent primer in the conflicts that lead Jane Jacobs to write "The Life and Death of American Cities," this short book also provides some explanation for why modern-day American cities (particularly New York City) look the way that they do. If Jacob's opus is a must-read, this is a useful companion piece.

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Jul 21, 2010 Payton rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was spoiled by "Boozy: The Life, Death, and Subsequent Vilification of Le Corbusier and, more importantly, Robert Moses," which tells the outlines of this particular story with a lot more ironic downtown verve and a whole lot more poetic license. (Oh, and less theory, which I hardly need more of.)

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Aug 30, 2011 Roberta rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: top-11-2011, political

A quick and information packed book. Well written and well researched. I learned so much. Have always like Jane Jacobs and enjoyed finding out more about her as a person. Her views fit in with where I am at in terms of thinking about community. I loved her tenacity and originality and her fearlessness as she took on Moses and the developers. Some of what Moses accomplished was amazing as well.

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Nov 10, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was definitely an inspirational take on the power of citizen activism. I really enjoyed it and it made me want to read Jacobs' Death & Life of American Cities and the PowerBroker (biography on Robert Moses). It also makes me want to take a trip down to the West Village!

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Dec 28, 2009 Alice rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, americas

A very interesting book about the advent of greater citizen involvement in public works projects. It certainly made me see the Water Bureau's current dealings with the local neighborhood associations in a different light. I think the author was very even handed - not portraying Moses as a devil, or Jacobs as an angel.

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Oct 05, 2009 Chris is currently reading it · review of another edition

This book is about how housewife/journalist/reformer Jane Jacobs stood up to developer/politico Robert Moses, and was instrumental in shaping the future of New York City. Fascinating -- a true story of the power of the individual to make a difference.

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May 15, 2013 Ali rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It's so easy to vilify Robert Moses now, in hindsight. But at the time the automobile was the wave of the future, and standing in the path of progress was senseless. And so now we strive to undo the damage that was done in those decades.

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About Anthony Flint

Anthony Flint is author of "Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took On New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City." A journalist for twenty years, primarily at The Boston Globe, he writes about architecture, urban planning and sustainability. He was a visiting scholar and Loeb fellow at the Harvard Design School, and also served in the Office for Commonwealth Development, the M...more

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