American Ruins
Book description
The deterioration of the American inner city stands in stark contrast to the prosperity characteristic of the United States for much of the twentieth century. Skyscrapers that once defined the modern era stand derelict and abandoned. Massive industrial manufactories lie rusting, their cavernous interiors dark. Formerly vibrant theaters shed bricks…
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Why read it?
1 author picked American Ruins as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Little can match the raw power of urban photographer Camilo José Vergara’s images of our culture’s collective built fabric unraveling in plain sight. For more than four decades, Vergara has borne witness, in Detroit, in Newark, in Camden—in some of the most forgotten communities in America—to the devastating physical impacts of social, political, and economic forces gone relentlessly awry. In these chronicles marked by unassumingly brave, first-person pilgrimages to decaying mansions and among toppled public housing towers, Vergara helped me see what kind of mettle it truly takes to get the story straight.
From Jeff's list on what happens when cities fall apart.
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