The Death and Life of Great American Cities
By Jane Jacobs
Why this book?
The Death and Life of Great American Cities challenged the way we view cities when it was written in the early 1960s. Instead of seeing cities as problems to be solved by moving people out of them or dividing them up with roads, Jane Jacobs made the argument that cities were about people, and the everyday lives of ordinary people – lived together, generate huge social, economic value. I always say to my own students, if you read nothing else while at UCL (apart from my own books of course!) you should read this. It is as relevant today as when it was first written.
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