From the Bookshelf of Not Exceeding Ten Miles Square…

Between Justice and Beauty: Race, Planning, and the Failure of Urban Policy in Washington, D.C.

Howard Gillette Jr.

Start date: December 8, 2016

Finish date: February 1, 2017

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Feb 02, 2017 ambyr rated it liked it

Shelves: book-club, authorㅡmale, acquiredㅡlibrary, genreㅡnonfictionㅡcities, genreㅡnonfiction

A dry-as-dust, 10,000 foot overview of DC urban planing policy that draws insightful connections between seemingly disparate eras. I'm glad I read it but would struggle to recommend it to anyone else; there is unique and valuable information about the tension between urban renewal and social justice here, but man is it a slog to unearth. Gillette's prose is impenetrable, and he provides neither background for the individuals whose pronouncements and policies he discusses nor historical context o A dry-as-dust, 10,000 foot overview of DC urban planing policy that draws insightful connections between seemingly disparate eras. I'm glad I read it but would struggle to recommend it to anyone else; there is unique and valuable information about the tension between urban renewal and social justice here, but man is it a slog to unearth. Gillette's prose is impenetrable, and he provides neither background for the individuals whose pronouncements and policies he discusses nor historical context on how anything happening in DC reflected (or spurred) national and international trends. Fortunately, I have just enough background knowledge to mostly fill in the blanks for myself. If I didn't, I don't think I could give this three stars. As it is, I struggle, because I do not think it is a good book. But it is an important one, and I don't know of any better treatment of this particular material.

The best part is Part II, where Gillette, a historian by training, is clearly in his element rummaging through newspapers and other archival material. Some of the quotes and figures he unearths are fascinating. Part III suffers from his continued reliance on the same research techniques even as he moves into the last decades of the twentieth century, rather than expanding his toolbox to include interviews with the people discussed, many of whom are still living, or even looking at television, radio, and "new" media sources.

The Conclusion, an out-of-left-field argument for retrocession, feels like it belongs in a different book entirely, and I don't even know what to say about the Afterword, which offers a passionate paean to Al Gore. But Part II was pretty good. Read that, if you're interested, and skip the rest.

A note on this edition: even ignoring Gillette's prose, it is close to unreadable. As far as I can determine, University of Pennsylvania Press failed to acquire the original files from Johns Hopkins University Press and elected to simply scan and reprint a copy of the first edition. The result, well, looks like a bad copy--moire-distorted images, blurry and wavy text, and weirdly uneven margins. It is quite possibly the worst professionally published book I have ever seen in terms of typesetting. (The ebook is even worse.) If you are going to read Part II, do yourself a favor and pick up the original hardover edition. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 01, 2017 Bitsy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

While this book contained interesting information, I found it very hard to actually extract this information. Much of the book was presented as a series of actions taken by individuals who were not well introduced, and for whom I had little context. The best part of the book were the quotes from nineteenth century newspapers highlighting different points of view in the debates about Washington city planing--these are almost all in part two, which was by far the most readable part of the book (an ...more

Like · see review

Oct 05, 2017 Kayleigh marked it as to-read

Feb 01, 2017 kelly rated it liked it · review of another edition

Sep 01, 2018 DW Rowlands marked it as to-read

Shelves: category-academic, recs-alex-baca, recs-urban-book-club

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions

Photos Videos

Send invite Members Polls