The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Why it’s on the list: Jane Jacobs’s major work — the canonical case for bottom-up urbanism, and the book on the other side of the Moses/Jacobs argument.

Where I heard about it

• Spotted at The King’s English Bookshop, Salt Lake City — April 2026 (Books photo album)

• David Perell — on the septivium list of best introductory books he shared, as the introductory book for cities and urbanism; I flagged it as a “most interesting name,” April 2020.

• Other books in my library — cited in Walt Disney and the Promise of Progress City and Working in Public, and named on Jane Jacobs’s own page as her major work.

Connections

• Jane Jacobs — the author; her page cites this as her major work.
• Walt Disney and the Promise of Progress City — where this book is cited.
• Working in Public — where this book is cited.
• David Perell — shared the septivium list that first surfaced it, saved April 17th, 2020.
• Hidden gem alert! Here’s a… (tweet) — the thread that carried the septivium list.