Cities and the Wealth of Nations: Principles of Economic Life

by Jane Jacobs

Overview

In this eye-opening work of economic theory, Jane Jacobs argues that it is cities—not nations—that are the drivers of wealth. Challenging centuries of economic orthodoxy, in Cities and the Wealth of Nations the beloved author contends that healthy cities are constantly evolving to replace imported goods with locally-produced alternatives, spurring a cycle of vibrant economic growth. Intelligently argued and drawing on examples from around the world and across the ages, here Jacobs radically changes the way we view our cities—and our entire economy. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780394729114
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/12/1985
Edition description:	1st Vintage Books ed
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	4.30(w) x 7.20(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Jane Jacobs was the legendary author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, a work that has never gone out of print and that has transformed the disciplines of urban planning and city architecture. Her other major works include The Economy of Cities, Systems of Survival, and The Nature of Economies. She died in 2006.

Editorial Reviews

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Review Award for Non-Fiction

"Learned, iconoclastic and exciting . . . Jacobs' diagnosis of the decay of cities in an increasingly integrated world economy is on the mark."—The New York Times Book Review

"Jacobs' book is inspired, idiosyncratic and personal . . . It is written with verve and humor; for a work of embattled theory, it is wonderfully concrete, and its leaps are breathtaking."—Los Angeles Times

"Not only comprehensible but entertaining. . . . Like Mrs. Jacobs' other books, it offers a concrete approach to an abstract and elusive subject. That, all by itself, makes for an intoxicating experience."—The New York Times

From the Publisher

Jane Jacob's learned, iconoclastic and exciting study of the causes of economic stagnation and decline helps us look at familiar problems in new ways. By challenging ideas, schemes and pieties all across the political spectrum, ''Cities and the Wealth of Nations'' shows why so much of the familiar debate between the right and left is beside the point. . . . Although her subtitle, the ''Principles of Economic Life,'' suggests some fresh approaches to the crisis of the modern nation-state, she neither promises nor delivers any practical ideas for reorganizing the world economy. -- New York Times

Richard J. Barnet