The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs, is a greatly influential book on the subject of urban planning in the 20th century. First published in 1961, the book is a critique of modernist planning policies claimed by Jacobs to be destroying many existing inner-city communities. Reserving her most vitriolic criticism for the "rationalist" planners (specifically Robert Moses) of the 1950s and 1960s, Jacobs argued that modernist urban planning rejects the city, because it rejects human beings living in a community characterized by layered complexity and seeming chaos. The modernist planners used deductive reasoning to find principles by which to plan cities. Among these policies the most violent was urban renewal; the most prevalent was and is the separation of uses (i.e. residential, industrial, commercial).

The 43rd greatest nonfiction book of all time


This book is on the following lists:

  1. - 39th on The 100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the Century (National Review)
  2. - The 50 Best Books of the Century (Intercollegiate Studies Institute)
  3. - The New York Public Library's Books of the Century (New York Public Library)

Buy This Book

Name Binding Sales Rank Lowest New Lowest Used Published
The Death and Life Of Great American Cities Paperback 2307348 $5.20
The Death and Life of Great American Cities: 50th Anniversary Edition Audible Audio Edition 5693 $32.95 2011
By Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Reissue) Paperback 1141075 $24.93 $20.26 1992
By Jane Jacobs:The Death and Life of Great American Cities (50th Anniversary Edition) (Modern Library) [HARDCOVER] Hardcover 9332852 $23.89 $20.09 2010
The Death and Life of Great American Cities Kindle Edition 39972 2016
The Death and Life of Great American Cities Mass Market Paperback 2780736 $7.94
The Death and Life of Great American Cities Hardcover 1817733 $12.90
The Death and Life of Great American Cities Hardcover 245923 $49.25 $14.00 2002
The Death and Life of Great American Cities Mass Market Paperback 372818 $24.00 $2.00 1963
The Death and Life of Great American Cities Paperback 2067717 $21.38 $16.32 2000
The Death and Life of Great American Cities: 50th Anniversary Edition (Modern Library) Hardcover 30248 $14.85 $7.87 2011
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library Series) Hardcover 276100 $32.50 $2.66 1993
The death and life of great American cities Paperback 6177425 $22.50 $7.50
Dark Age Ahead Paperback 111362 $13.36 $9.00 2005
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics Paperback 369213 $9.45 $2.01 1994
The Nature of Economies Paperback 404965 $8.12 $1.00 2001
The Nature of Economies (Modern Library) Hardcover 247983 $8.09 $0.01 2000
The Nature of Economies (Vintage) Kindle Edition 883453 2002
The Nature of Economies Paperback 6095882 $0.01
Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs Hardcover 480829 $11.31 $4.64 2016
The Death and Life of Great American Cities Publisher: Vintage Paperback 1096356 $24.77 $13.07
The Economy of Cities Hardcover 3161009 $344.19 $38.70
THE ECONOMY OF CITIES (PELICAN) Paperback 5322802 $4.00
The Nature of Economies Hardcover 4240611 $53.26 $3.97
The Death and Life of Great American Cities Paperback 4285811 $4.00
The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Pelican) Paperback 4785047 $296.63 $6.89 1972
The Death and Life of Great American Cities Paperback 8776 $9.32 $3.52 1992
Economy of Cities Hardcover 4087279 $34.99