Becoming Jane Jacobs

Peter L. Laurence is Associate Professor of Architecture at Clemson University School of Architecture.

"Excellent. . . . One of the best books of the year. This is the biography of Jacobs I have wanted to read for forty years." (Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution) "Fascinating. . . . This scrupulously and minutely documented intellectual biography, based on extensive original archival research, set against a detailed history of urban policies adopted between the early Roosevelt and late Eisenhower administrations, reveals how the mind-set of the legendary author and activist was formed." (The Atlantic) "Architectural historian Peter Laurence aims to counter the notion that Jacobs was just a spunky naif who stumbled onto her theories about city planning and urban renewal. Instead, he argues, her views were shaped by years of careful study working as a writer and editor. . . . Becoming Jane Jacobs provides a crucial rebalancing of the public record." (Women's Review of Books) "Jane Jacobs taught the world to perceive the city with new eyes, but first she had to teach herself to see. In this superbly researched and wonderfully original book, Peter L. Laurence for the first time reveals the depth and complexity of Jacobs's self-education. As a writer, activist, and archetypal New Yorker, Jacobs put herself at the center of a debate on modernism that was also a profound struggle over the future of the American city. This book is both a worthy tribute to Jacobs's genius and a brilliant exposition of the broader context of designs and ideas that made her work possible." (Robert Fishman, University of Michigan) "Much has been written about Jane Jacobs over the years-from her audacious challenge to top-down urban planning approaches to her successes as a neighborhood activist in New York and later Toronto-but Peter Laurence is the first to account fully for the originality of her thinking and to provide a complex picture of her intellectual formation against the backdrop of urban America in the post-World War II decades. Deeply researched and richly illuminating, Laurence's book will fundamentally change the way we think about Jacobs today." (Joan Ockman, editor of Architecture Culture 1943-1968: A Documentary Anthology) "Peter Laurence peers behind Jane Jacobs's distinctive glasses to reveal a keen investigator, a synthesizing intellect, a poetic writer, and an unwavering conscience. Becoming Jane Jacobs adds immeasurably to our understanding of her rich, formative years in New York City, leading up to the publication of The Death and Life of Great American Cities." (Robert Wojtowicz, Old Dominion University)

• Introduction. The Unknown Jane JacobsChapter 1. To the CityChapter 2. The Education of a City NaturalistChapter 3. "We Inaugurate Architectural Criticism"Chapter 4. Advocating the "City-Planner Approach"Chapter 5. "Seeds of Self-Regeneration" for City DesertsChapter 6. Urban Sprawl, Urban Design, and Urban RenewalChapter 7. A New System of ThoughtConclusion. A Vita Activa and ContemplativaSources and AbbreviationsNotesIndexAcknowledgments