Abby's review
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
by Jane Jacobs
Abby's review
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
Abby's review
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recommended for: anyone who lives in or cares about life in major cities
Very well-written and thorough; it's amazing how little has changed in the discourse of urban structure in nearly fifty years.
Jacobs' argument is extremely thorough. Her ideas seem quaint and idealistic on the surface, but she backs up her theories with detailed logic. While she might not have the hard statistics to illustrate every point, she uses a more comprehensive argument to show the way that planners of the time (mid-20th century) misinterpret the hard data anyway. The final few chapters are the weakest as they become more rhetorical and abstract attempting to explain the framework with which city problems should analyzed. The main theses of the book are tightly argued while presented in a conversational, albeit sometimes too angry, tone.
Jacobs' argument is extremely thorough. Her ideas seem quaint and idealistic on the surface, but she backs up her theories with detailed logic. While she might not have the hard statistics to illustrate every point, she uses a more comprehensive argument to show the way that planners of the time (mid-20th century) misinterpret the hard data anyway. The final few chapters are the weakest as they become more rhetorical and abstract attempting to explain the framework with which city problems should analyzed. The main theses of the book are tightly argued while presented in a conversational, albeit sometimes too angry, tone.