Eyes on the street : the life of Jane Jacobs / by Robert Kanigel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kanigel, Robert, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jacobs, Jane, 1916-2006.

Jacobs, Jane.

City planners--United States--Biography.

City planners.

City planners--Canada--Biography.

City planning--United States--History--20th century.

City planning.

Sociology, Urban--Philosophy.

Sociology, Urban.

Urban renewal.

History.

United States.

City planning--Canada--History--20th century.

Urban renewal--United States--History--20th century.

Urban renewal--Canada--History--20th century.

Canada.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

viii, 482 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2016.

Summary:

The first full-scale biography of Jane Jacobs, the irrepressible woman who with her book The Death and Life of American Cities, and others that followed, so profoundly changed the way we think about and live in cities that, to this day, her influence can still be felt in any discussion of urban planning, or in any conversation about what cities mean to us. Jacobs is brought to life here by Robert Kanigel, the writer who introduced us to Indian mathematician Ramanujan and to industrialist Fredrick Winslow Taylor. Based on new sources and interviews, as well as on archival letters and other material, this is a revelation of the phenomenal woman, who, while raising three children, wrote seven groundbreaking books; saved neighborhoods; was arrested twice; and engaged--at home, on the podium, and on the streets--in thousands of impassioned debates, all of which, it could seem, she won. Here is the girl who challenged her third-grade teacher; the high school poet; the journalist who honed her writing and observational skills at Architectural Forum, Fortune, and other magazines, while amassing the knowledge and contacts she would draw upon to write her most famous book. We accompany her on New York's streets as she forms her opinions about what makes a city grow or fail, and meet the architects and planners and power brokers she battled with so vigorously. Each of her books and its reception are thoroughly discussed. Here, too, is the activist who helped lead ultimately successful protests against Robert Moses's proposed expressway that would have cut off her beloved Greenwich Village; and who, in order to keep her sons out of the Vietnam War, moved to Canada, where she applied her ideas about what made cities thrive to a new setting, becoming as well known and admired there as she was in the United States. Eyes on the Street--Jacobs's phrase for the vital human presence in a healthy neighborhood--is a penetrating, engaging portrait of a woman of fearless spirit an

Contents:

Part I: An uncredentialed woman, 1916-1954. A generous place to live ; Outlaw ; Ladies' nest of owls, and other milestones in the education of Miss Jane Butzner ; The great bewildering world ; Morningside Heights ; Women's work ; Amerika ; Trushchoby

Part II: In the big world, 1954-1968. Disenchantment

Ten minutes at Harvard ; A person worth talking to ; A manuscript to show us ; Mother Jacobs of Hudson Street ; The physical fallacy ; West Village warrior ; Luncheon at the White House ; Gas masks at the Pentagon

Part III: On Albany Avenue, 1968-2006. A circle of their own ; Settling in ; Our Jane ; Flummoxed ; Adam, Karl, and Jane ; Webs of trust ; Ideas that matter ; Civilization's child.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Albert M. Greenfield Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780307961907

0307961907