Cities and the Wealth of Nations

Jane Jacobs was an urban writer and activist who championed new, community-based approaches to planning for more than forty years. Her 1961 treatise The Death and Life of Great American Cities became perhaps the most influential American text about the inner workings and failings of cities, inspiring generations of urban planners and activists. Her efforts to stop downtown expressways and protect local neighborhoods invigorated community-based urban activism and helped end Parks Commissioner Robert Moses’s reign of power in New York City. Jane Jacobs died in 2006.