Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been drawn to community, meaning how people get together, live, love, and support each other. That love drew me into caring about cities, in all their various forms, because cities are places for people to gather and build lives together. This can be in an Italian hilltown from the 1000 AD, a 15th-century neighborhood in Barcelona, an elegant street on the Upper East Side of New York City, or a subdivision near a highway interchange in Phoenix. Once I started caring about cities, I started asking why these places are the way they are, and this produced my book.


I wrote

How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken

By Alex Marshall,

Book cover of How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken

What is my book about?

I wrote this book after working as a newspaper reporter at The Virginian-Pilot for 10 years. Although I had noā€¦

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Alex Marshall Why did I love this book?

Jane Jacobā€™s groundbreaking, disruptive classic is first on many peopleā€™s lists. A journalist without a college degree and no formal training in urban planning, she blew up the once-established view that old-fashioned streets and buildings were done for, and that towers in the park surrounded by highways and parking lots were the way to go. Her portrait of her neighborhood in the West Village is deeply moving, and she almost single-handedly brought back these types of places as ideals.

However, she missed a lot. She didnā€™t understand the importance of infrastructure. She barely mentions the subways. She described her beloved streets as if they grew there, which was not the case. Reading this classic with a critical eye is the best way to do it. Jane Jacobs has become Saint Jane to many, but itā€™s important to see what she missed and what she got right.

By Jane Jacobs,

Why should I read it?

15 authors picked The Death and Life of Great American Cities as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this classic text, Jane Jacobs set out to produce an attack on current city planning and rebuilding and to introduce new principles by which these should be governed. The result is one of the most stimulating books on cities ever written.

Throughout the post-war period, planners temperamentally unsympathetic to cities have been let loose on our urban environment. Inspired by the ideals of the Garden City or Le Corbusier's Radiant City, they have dreamt up ambitious projects based on self-contained neighbourhoods, super-blocks, rigid 'scientific' plans and endless acres of grass. Yet they seldom stop to look at what actuallyā€¦


Book cover of Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise And Fall Of Suburbia

Alex Marshall Why did I love this book?

New sections of cities, new neighborhoods, and big infrastructure projects are aspirational for societies. They arenā€™t just about problem-solving. In this great book, historian Robert Fishman shows how London and Paris developed differently because they had different ideals and different aspirations.

As it began to grow due to industrialization in the late 18th century, London prioritized the development of townhouses, its urban ideal. This caused it to become a sprawling, low-rise city. Paris developed in the mid-19th century as a city of glamorous, stylish apartment buildings because this was Parisā€™s ideal.

Parisians valued the street and cultural life that apartment life generated. The title of this book is off-putting for me because it sounds so academic. But Fishman, a trained historian, writes well and gives you big ideas and details in a readable package. 

By Robert Fishman,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bourgeois Utopias as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A noted urban historian traces the story of the suburb from its origins in nineteenth-century London to its twentieth-century demise in decentralized cities like Los Angeles.


Ad

Book cover of Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

Native Nations by Kathleen DuVal,

A magisterial history of Indigenous North America that places the power of Native nations at its center, telling their story from the rise of ancient cities more than a thousand years ago to fights for sovereignty that continue today

Book cover of New York, New York: How the Apartment House Transformed the Life of the City (1869-1930)

Alex Marshall Why did I love this book?

I can still remember so much from this book. A great stat Hawes included was that in the year 1870, 90 percent of upper-class New Yorkers lived in townhouses or other types of single-family homes. By 1930, 90 percent lived in apartment buildings or ā€œFrench flats,ā€ as they were sometimes called. Basically, almost alone among American cities, New York chose to emulate Paris in its model of urbanism rather than London.

New York developers built and sold ā€œFrench flatsā€ that were large and ostentatious, like the Ansonia and the Dakota, which are still there today. These iconic apartment buildings were built along the streetcar and subway lines. Hawes was a writer for The New Yorker, so this is very readable.

By Esme Hawes,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked New York, New York as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Recounts New York City's transformation from a provincial, Victorian town to a bustling city, focusing on the architectural emergence of the apartment building after the Civil War and its influence.


Book cover of Edge City: Life on the New Frontier

Alex Marshall Why did I love this book?

Joel Garreau, a longtime reporter for The Washington Post, was one of the first people to take the sprawling suburbs, the collections of malls, subdivisions, and office parks seriously. He was one of the first people to call them cities. After publishing his book, academics, and professional urban planners began discussing ā€œedge cities.ā€

Garreau gives many specifics because he is a reporter, which is how he works. He travels the country looking at different edge cities, starting with the one in his own backyard, Tysonā€™s Corner, outside Washington, D.C.

By Joel Garreau,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Edge City as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

First there was downtown. Then there were suburbs. Then there were malls. Then Americans launched the most sweeping change in 100 years in how they live, work, and play. The Edge City.


Ad

Book cover of An Italian Feast: The Celebrated Provincial Cuisines of Italy from Como to Palermo

An Italian Feast by Clifford A. Wright,

An Italian Feast celebrates the cuisines of the Italian provinces from Como to Palermo. A culinary guide and book of ready reference meant to be the most comprehensive book on Italian cuisine, and it includes over 800 recipes from the 109 provinces of Italy's 20 regions.

An Italian Feast isā€¦

Book cover of The Highway and the City

Alex Marshall Why did I love this book?

Accurate prophets are few, but in the title essay of this book, the critic Lewis Mumford tells with eerie precedence just how the United States of America will be transformed, often for the worse, by the overinvestment in highways and the neglect of railroads.

Mumford originally wrote this for The New Yorker, where he was the in-house architecture critic. As the country was going all in on the new Interstate Highway System, Mumford was one of the few who foresaw the flaws of this one-dimensional megaproject. 

By Lewis Mumford,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Highway and the City as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A collection of essays by the respected social commentator on some problems faced by cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and Paris, on the architecture of Saarinen, Le Corbusier, and Wright, and on city and highway planning.


Explore my book šŸ˜€

How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken

By Alex Marshall,

Book cover of How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken

What is my book about?

I wrote this book after working as a newspaper reporter at The Virginian-Pilot for 10 years. Although I had no training as an urban planner or critic, I had many thoughts.

My first book shows how various decisions, in particular transportation, shaped Portland, Silicon Valley, Celebration, FL, and Jackson Heights in New York City. I also talk about how the sprawling cities created by the modern highway have changed how we live and connect to each other. After the book was published, I was gratified to see graduate schools of urban planning use it, which is still true today.

Book cover of The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Book cover of Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise And Fall Of Suburbia
Book cover of New York, New York: How the Apartment House Transformed the Life of the City (1869-1930)

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

2,007

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

šŸ“š You might also likeā€¦

Book cover of Return to Vienna: The Special Operations Executive and the Rebirth of Austria

Return to Vienna by Peter Dixon,

"Captain Charles Kennedy" parachuted into a moonlit Austrian forest and searched frantically for his lost radio set. His real name was Leo Hillman and he was a Jewish refugee from Vienna. He was going home. Men and women of Churchillā€™s secret Special Operations Executive worked to free Austria from Hitler'sā€¦

Book cover of Glimmer of the Other

Glimmer of the Other by Heather G. Harris,

Delve into this internationally best-selling series, now complete! A fast paced laugh-out-loud mix of Urban Fantasy and Mystery.

I can tell when youā€™re lying. Every. Single. Time. Iā€™m Jinx, a PI hired to find a missing university student, I hope to find her propped up at a barā€“yet my gutā€¦

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in New York City, Paris, and presidential biography?

New York City 1,169 books
Paris 400 books