Wrestling with Moses : how Jane Jacobs took on New York's master builder and transformed the American city
"The rivalry of Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses, a struggle for the soul of a city, is one of the most dramatic and consequential in modern American history. To a young Jane Jacobs, Greenwich Village, with its winding cobblestone streets and diverse makeup, was everything a city neighborhood should be. But consummate power broker Robert Moses, the father of many of New York's most monumental development projects, thought neighborhoods like Greenwich Village were badly in need of "urban renewal." Standing up against government plans for the city, Jacobs marshaled popular support and political power against Moses, whether to block traffic through her beloved Washington Square Park or to prevent the construction of the Lower Manhattan Expressway, an elevated superhighway that would have destroyed centuries-old streetscapes and displaced thousands of families. By confronting Moses and his vision, Jacobs forever changed the way Americans understood the city. Her story reminds us of the power we have as individuals to confront and defy reckless authority"--Back cover
Print Book, English, 2011
Trade paperback edition View all formats and editions
Random House, New York, 2011
Biographies
xvii, 231 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 21 cm
9780812981360, 0812981367
720378510
Introduction : anarchy and order
The girl from Scranton
The master builder
The battle of Washington Square Park
Urban renewal in Greenwich village
The lower Manhattan expressway
Epilogue : separate ways