Author Description

"The late urbanist and author Jane Jacobs's canonical work on the life and planning of great cities and on city and national economies grew from social and ethical foundations formed in her home city, Scranton, Pennsylvania. The book is a detailed portrait of Jane's early life and of the city she grew up in. It shows the development of Jane's acute observational abilities from childhood through her desire in early adulthood to understand and write about what she saw. The seeds of her ideas developed in Scranton - once the thriving anthracite-mining capital of the world - that shared many qualities with other medium-size, industrial cities of the early twentieth century. It was a place of great diversity. Small businesses flourished and a wide variety of ethnic groups, including African Americans, lived cheek by jowl. Even recent immigrants could save enough to buy a house. Quality public education was cherished and supported by all. Opposing political parties joined forces to tackle problems, newspapers gathered and reported information with a sense of civic purpose and responsibility, and citizens worked together for the public good. The book demonstrates why, at the end of Jacobs's life, her thoughts and conversations increasingly turned to Scranton and the potential for cohesion and inclusiveness held by contemporary medium-size cities"--