The Death and Life of Great American Cities

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The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Hardcover edition
Author	Jane Jacobs
Language	English
Subject	Urban planning
Publisher	Random House, New York City
Publication date	1961
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print
Pages	458 (1989 edition)
ISBN	0-679-74195-X
OCLC	500754
Followed by	The Economy of Cities

The Death and Life of Great American Cities is a 1961 book by writer and activist Jane Jacobs. The book is a critique of 1950s urban planning policy, which it holds responsible for the decline of many city neighborhoods in the United States.^[1] The book is Jacobs' best-known and most influential work.^[2]

Jacobs was a critic of "rationalist" planners of the 1950s and 1960s, especially Robert Moses, as well as the earlier work of Le Corbusier. She argued that modernist urban planning overlooked and oversimplified the complexity of human lives in diverse communities. She opposed large-scale urban renewal programs that affected entire neighborhoods and built freeways through inner cities. She instead advocated for dense mixed-use development and walkable streets, with the "eyes on the street" of passers-by helping to maintain public order.