A direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in this century, The Death and Life of Great American Cities has, since its first publication in 1961, become the standard against which all endeavors in that field are measured. In prose of outstanding immediacy, Jane Jacobs writes about what makes streets safe or unsafe; about what constitutes a neighborhood, and what function it serves within the larger organism of the city; about why some neighborhoods remain impoverished while others regenerate themselves. She writes about the salutary role of funeral parlors and tenement windows, the dangers of too much development money and too little diversity. Compassionate, bracingly indignant, and always keenly detailed, Jane Jacobs's monumental work provides an essential framework for assessing the vitality of all cities.

自1961年首次出版以来，《美国大城市的生与死》对本世纪大部分城市规划的短视和知识分子的傲慢进行了直接和基本乐观的控诉，成为衡量这一领域所有努力的标准。简-雅各布斯的散文具有突出的即时性，她写到了什么使街道变得安全或不安全；写到了什么是邻里，以及它在城市这个更大的有机体中发挥什么功能；写到了为什么有些邻里仍然贫穷，而其他邻里却能自我再生。她写到了殡仪馆和唐楼窗户的有益作用，写到了太多的发展资金和太少的多样性所带来的危险。简-雅各布斯的这部巨作充满了同情心，具有强烈的愤慨，而且总是非常详细，为评估所有城市的活力提供了一个基本框架。