Jacobs, Jane

The Death and Life of Great American Cities

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A milestone for city thinkers
Should be Required Reading for Every Graduate of Urban Planning!
All you need to know about what makes a viable, renewable neighborhood and city
How to teach engineering to a pie-in-the-sky type
Timeless and Brilliant

The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Jane Jacobs
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 067974195X
Release Date: 1992-12-01

Book Description

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.

Customer Reviews:

A milestone for city thinkers.......2007-05-14

This books presents some clear ideas of how to make a city livable and safety. With some concrete examples of bad and good urban policies in North American cities it shows the importance of diversed land-use neighborhoods for the 'life' of urban areas.

Should be Required Reading for Every Graduate of Urban Planning!.......2007-03-07

We all know what a difference lies between the ethereal and ideal world of EDUCATION and the hot asphalt of THE CITY STREETS right? Well, Ms. Jacobs really amplifies that ground zero viewpoint with wit, sardonic humor and daring insightfulness....As an Associate Planner for a city in Los Angeles County, I thought I saw and heard just about everything, including the moralists, hyper-semaritans, the beastly authoritarians and mind-numbing bureaucratic processes that alienate and disconnect home owners from that hopeful, comfortable sensation of "I own it" contentment. Jacobs makes an impressive argument regarding the seemingly impossible planning that is so badly needed but nearly non-existent in today's city management and community developmental thinking. If I had to sum up my impression of Jacob's book- it's loaded with lampooning, lambasting and bullyragging, and after the smoke clears, I'd simply describe the read as....damn "it's a cruel cruel world."

All you need to know about what makes a viable, renewable neighborhood and city.......2006-11-02

Jane Jacobs writes well and the book is full of a-ha! moments. Chapter 2 is brilliant. If your city or neighborhood is threatened by developers who don't share your values, or you want to plan a development that will remind people of San Francisco or Paris, then this book is for you.

How to teach engineering to a pie-in-the-sky type.......2006-10-18

The great joy in Jacobs's book is that it's rabidly empirical, which makes it empowering. Naïve change-the-world types like me tend to get stuck on the size of the world they want to change. For instance: thinking about the problems Jacobs is addressing, I'm likely to go like so: "We need to reduce the number of cars in cities. So let's tax people who drive into cities, like London does, and boost mass-transit spending. But that would cost a lot, and we don't have the political strength for that. Man, city problems are hard."

Jacobs is altogether more productive. Her approach is: let's look at sidewalks. What purpose to they serve? How do we make sidewalks better? Then let's look at parks. What constitutes a good park? Why do some parks thrive and others turn into weedy, abandoned messes? Then let's look at streets. Then at slums. Then at districts. Then finally look at cities. At each level, let's ask some really specific questions, and look at which approaches work for different cities to solve each of those problems.

This makes her a) empirical, b) productive, c) encouraging and d) a good engineer. We need more of her. I can quibble with some of her specific details, but her program and her ideologial orientation are so spot on that I can only recommend you go out and read her book. It'll make you appreciate the particular problems of cities (they are not just larger suburbs, and much of urban planning, according to her, stems from the belief that they are), will make you understand the mistakes that urban planners have made, and will get you inspired to be a local activist.

Timeless and Brilliant.......2006-08-06

I first heard of this book referenced in Steven Johnson's "Emergence". I asked a friend if he'd heard of it, and the next thing I knew, I was being sent home with his copy with an assignment !

I just couldn't put it down. This isn't some abstract theoretical snotty work by an academia - this is an inspired and thorough examination of what makes a neighborhood functional, and what destroys that functionality. So much of what Jane Jacobs has to say is so common-sensual, it makes you wonder how on earth the central planners managed to wrest so much authority and control from the public.

Her observations and critiques are even more relevant today, and most of her predictions have been born out since the initial puiblication of this work back in '61.

But what moved me the most about this book was Jane's amazing sharp ability to observe and document and understand what is going on in the street. Again, this is not a book written by some dead old intellectual that lives in an upscale, isolated neighborhood you and I will never live in. This is a book written by a woman who loves her home and her neighborhood and the people in it.

What makes a street safe ? What makes it unsafe ? What is the function of the sidewalk ? How do people use the street and the landmarks in their neighborhood ? What do major landmarks DO to a neighborhood ? The answers to these questions will probably surprise you.

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a very useful beginning
Simple is best.
Beautiful translation
If I were stranded on a desert island...
Simple

Tao Te Ching [Text Only]
Lao Tsu , Jane English , and Jacob Needleman
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679724346
Release Date: 1989-08-28

Book Description

Available for the first time in a handy, easy-to-use size, here is the most accessible and authoritative modern English translation of the ancient Chinese classic. This new Vintage edition includes an introduction and notes by the well-known writer and scholar of philosophy and comparative religion, Jacob Needleman.

Customer Reviews:

a very useful beginning.......2007-02-13

the tao is a beautiful book, i would love to be able to read it in its original chinese. it seems to me that this book is water elemental, it emphasies bending, descending, humility, gentleness. i say that it is a useful befginning because this book... worked at can really aid one in beginning to free up ones mind. it can also be a useful tool in showing one what the ego is.

i say that it is a beginning because water is not the only element. water represents peace, but requires the other three elements in order to avoid its stagnation. fire (love/male producing light 'penetrates' darkness), gold (beauty/stability/male/bright), air (freedom/female/sometimes darkness). water represents peace which primarily is about balance, since it is in the nature of water, when undisturbed by the other elements, to balance out, balance brings peace. the strength of water is its ability to compromise (bend in order to be straight), to become dirty and impure and then through the other elements to become repurified. water can never be totally corrupted. it can always be re-purified.

in my opinion, the tao misses out on the extremes and passions of loves fire, it ignores the potential of golds beauty and airs freedom (though it can be a useful tool in leading towards this freedom of thought). it is however very strong on the element of water. the tao helps you to take the 'obvious', what one takes as given truths about reality and life and to question them. through the tao, one can begin to see that there are benefits on both sides of an opposite. the tao would say... be foolish in order to be wise. for most people this is seen as ridiculous, but there really is something in this statement.

the tao would also say "he who speaks does not know" and there is truth in this, whilst common knowledge says "he who speaks knows", of course there is truth in both of these statements. when i speak, i learn more about my subject, in a sense, in giving i receive. at the same time though not speaking may be beneficial too. i think that there is a time to speak and a time not to speak. the tao can aid one in learning when not to speak.

the tao says that the more you know the less you know, there is truth in this too, and the philosopher Carl Popper was clearly influenced by this aphorism. however it would not do to forget that the emptiness of water (crystal clarity as with air) is only half of the equation. without knowledge one will lack warmth.

i think that the important thing is not to take the tao blindly as some sort of cosmic or mystical truth of the universe. it is merely a tool, in my mind to help one see the benefits of both sides of any coin. if you take the water element of the tao and fixate on it you will be out of balance, and in my opinion, hopelessly lost.

as i see it air's freedom, like a leaf in the wind is something the tao points towards, it does not always exemplify waters qualites, though it does extoll the virtues of water. "water is like the highest good, it does not resist its enemies and settles in places where no one else would (ie, low places)."

whilst extolling water in its liquid state, it does not look at the virtues of ice, snow or steam.

all in all, i find the tao a little simplistic and one sided, but still, for someone young in the exploration of the mind, heart and life in general, a brilliant book to read. do not be discouraged by my words from reading this little book, this is why i have given it a high four stars. if one wishes to start a journey of a thousand miles it must begin with a single humble little step. dont try to fly before you can walk.

i found this translation was good, i also enjoy the penuin translation.

Simple is best........2006-12-31

Of the many translations of the Tao Te Ching I've read, this is the one I consider to be the finest. It's not scholarly (for that Ellen M. Chen's version is worth looking at), it's not artificially modern (as are the versions by Ursula Le Guin or Stephen Mitchell), it's just a simple clean presentation of the text with a short, but useful, introduction and end notes to flesh out each verse. The introduction and end notes have a decidedly Judeo-Christian slant, which might turn off some readers who want their Tao Te Ching with a purely Eastern flavour, but the translation itself is clear and apparently faithful to the original text.

The book also includes a very handy bibliography that describes the strengths of other available versions.

The other version that I'd strongly recommend is Witter Bynner's "The Way of Life According To Lao Tzu," which is more of an interpretation rather than a straight translation.

Beautiful translation.......2006-03-19

I have always found the Tao Te Ching to be a very clear guide for life. I own a few different translations and this is the one that I always come back to. It is translated with a poetic style that highlights the simplicity of the way. Because you can plumb this work to any depth of understanding you want, anything more than the minimal bacground would be arbitrary.

Also, I am probably alone here, but I recommend the book without the pictures, which I think artificially establish a mood that may not be appropriate for the chapter you're working through.

I would also emphasize that this translation is not for scholars. It does not contain a great deal of commentary or references to the myriad ways a given word or phrase could be translated.

If I were stranded on a desert island..........2006-01-20

This would be the only book I need to keep for the rest of my days here on earth. This book illustrates in the mind those tingling feelings I get when wading into a river. Instructions on how to live life...simple. The translation is much better than many I have read, less mechanic and utility, more art and poetry. Motivating, inspiring, insightful, and all encompassing, these chapters bring about a spiritual feeling and connection with the natural world and those around you. This book also contains advice for those in positions of power...W could learn a lesson here. Take this book wherever you go, never know where it will take you...

Simple.......2005-12-07

After looking over several different translations of the Tao te Ching, I found that this translation was the easiest to understand. The words are not complicated to understand, just as Tao is not meant to complicate understanding of what it is. I would recommend this translation above all others as a first choice if you are new to the subject of Tao. After reading this one, I have a greater appreciation for other translations that approach Lao Tzu's words in a more poetic, or intellectual form. However, big words are not necessary to understand Tao. Simple words will do the trick, and that is what this translation by Feng and English offers.

"Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one sees the manifestations."

Leading Physicians through Change : How to Achieve and Sustain Results

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Leading Physicians through Change : How to Achieve and Sustain Results
Jacob B. Silversin , and Mary Jane Kornacki
Manufacturer: American College of Physician Executives
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0924674814

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The book provides detailed information on the implementation of a model that can help an organization gain support from physicians for major organizational changes. The book includes tools for the model and a series of sidebars that describe successes with the model.

Average customer rating:

Important points but lacking overall
"The Hazard" is here
Not an entirely satisfactory assessment
Doomsday picture written with surprising appeal
an excellent "last push" for an established genius

Dark Age Ahead
Jane Jacobs
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1400076706
Release Date: 2005-05-17

Book Description

In this indispensable book, urban visionary Jane Jacobs--renowned author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and The Economy of Cities--convincingly argues that as agrarianism gives way to a technology-based future, we stand on the brink of a new dark age, a period of cultural collapse. Jacobs pinpoints five pillars of our culture that are in serious decay: community and family; higher education; the effective practice of science; taxation, and government; and the self-regulation of the learned professions. The corrosion of these pillars, Jacobs argues, is linked to societal ills such as environmental crisis, racism, and the growing gulf between rich and poor.

But this is a hopeful book as well as a warning. Drawing on her vast frame of reference–from fifteenth-century Chinese shipbuilding to Ireland’s cultural rebirth–Jacobs suggests how the cycles of decay can be arrested and our way of life renewed. Invigorating and accessible, Dark Age Ahead is not only the crowning achievement of Jane Jacobs’ career, but one of the most important works of our time.

Customer Reviews:

Important points but lacking overall.......2007-05-13

I was interested to see where Jacobs would take the five points outlined that she considers crucial pillars in decline that are currently being ignored. As another customer wrote, I was sad to find that while I agree with her diagnosis overall, the argument is poorly executed and I felt at the end as though I had wasted my time.

The first major point that I felt this book is lacking is a sense of reflection on the part of the author, in addition to basic fact-checking. There are several points, such as her discussion of the Ainu of Japan and her assertion that "most" women did not work after marriage until recently, are debatable at best. In general, I felt that her history of North America largely addressed well-off white experience, while ignoring the realities of people of color and people in poverty.

This point is important not only because of the major part that racism has played in North American history - especially in terms of access to housing, which has long-reaching effects such as resegregation of schools due to neighborhood segregation - but also because I feel that it would play a major part in reversing Jacobs' perceived course toward disaster. If people continue to perceive those superficially unlike them as "other," there will be no sense of true community, and no motivation to pool resources in projects that could benefit the community as a whole. Without addressing racism one can not get to the stage of fixing the problem.

The other point that demonstrated a glaring lack of reflection was the use of the word "culture" - what exactly is meant by this, and who gets to define it? One might argue that the answer is "it's variable, and defined by those in power." Jacobs frequently talks about nations as individuals, such as "Canada did such and such with its industry" and glosses over the huge diversity of perspectives and agendas grappling over the direction that a nation will take. Jacobs simultaneously engages in this glossing-over even while she criticizes economists for looking at national rather than local economic growth or loss. Similarly, I take strong issue with her definition of family as a nuclear unit (and her assertion that it has "throughout history" been "the" basic family unit, a largely untrue statement that she does not bother to back up), and would argue for more emphasis on community that can include all individuals, married, divorced, childless, single, old, young, rather than one that bends over backwards to accomodate a single kind of "acceptable" family.

Finally, I was disappointed to find that the book consists largely of generalization from a few anecdotes (although the analysis of those anecdotes is detailed and well-thought out), and offers no real solution to the problems outlined. I don't expect realistic, planned-out proposals from a 175-page book, but Jacobs gave the impression of having a clear idea of where she would like society to go, and it would have been more fulfilling to read her ideas than analysis of her anecdotes.

"The Hazard" is here.......2006-12-06

The West is living "The Hazard" of an impending "Dark Age", unable to anticipate clearly because of widespread "mass amnesia". The Dark Age is predictable from history, which shows that each major collapse of civilization was followed by a disturbing social transformation. The Dark Age Ahead (the book) agrees in part with Jared Diamond's account that Mesopotamia, for example, fell to ruins because of "environmental ignorance" (p. 15), but that was not the whole story. Part of the story is that there are cultural failings that have signaled the decline of major civilizations in the past, which offer lessons for the present and forecasts for the future.

In that connection the book identifies five factors that jeopardize pillars of the culture of the West, where West = North America + Western Europe. The five factors are: (a) the destruction of the traditional family and community; (b) the replacement of education by credentialization; (c) the dominance of technology over science; (d) the overpowering government and its opaque taxation system; and (e) the loss of self-policing attributes of culture. These factors constitute "The Hazard" society is currently facing, and are the subjects of the chapters of the book.

The superimposition of the household (economic family unit) over the nuclear family (biological family unit) has condemned many a family to failure. So "while politicians, clergy, creators of advertisement, and other worthies assert stoutly that the family is the foundation of society, the nuclear family, as an institution is currently in grave trouble" (p. 29). By blurring the difference between the nuclear family and other household units the automobile industry has done more harm to the family institution than illegal drugs.

The replacement of education with credentialization also threatens the West. Nowadays computer technology and engineering are preferred to computer science. As a result you now have skillful computer operators who do not understand the basic scientific principles behind a computer. Employers fund certification programs because they are presently good for the bottom line. Universities and colleges have bought into the credential subculture. Essentially both employers and educational institutions are destroying the scientific basis of Western culture. Truly educated people get no jobs, and "the worst side effect of unemployment is repeated rejection, with its burden of shame and failure" (p. 53).

Just as it happened in Mesopotamia, and early China, science is increasingly being abandoned for profit. The pursuit of profit is stifling the pursuit of pure science that drove early scientists. At the same time society has also abandoned two principles that are key to cultural vigor: "subsidiarity" and "accountability". The latter refers to a people's government in Abe Lincoln's sense; the latter to a transparent tax collecting system. Local government has become dysfunctional; tax revenues are either down or misused, and the production of public goods and services suffers and innovations decline. People needing public assistance are exposed to the cruelties of the Invisible Hand. Thus, "aid failure promotes instability and terrorism" (p. 124) and the dire consequences are predictable.

The subversion of self-policing professional organizations as exemplified by the Enron financial scandal is another sign of the Dark Age Ahead. It all boils down to the idea that "when efficiency becomes the sole goal of a culture, and the "redundancy of nurturers ... [is] eliminated (sic) as an extravagance, ... the vicious spirals go into action [leading surely to] self-inflicted cultural genocide" (p. 160).

The last chapter summarizes the book by describing the "patterns of the Dark Age". The hunter-gather culture was overtaken by the agricultural society. Losers in that take-over experienced a stressful cultural transformation, but soon people forgot until agriculture was "destroyed" by the industrial culture, and that one is gone too. Now human capital accumulation is the culture, but the poor cannot afford investment in the education required to build human capital, and government is either too broke or unwilling to help them. Even for those who can afford an education, education itself is no longer available, having been replaced by the credential subculture. Thus, the Dark Age is written on the wall, for "[a]ny culture that jettisons the values that have given it competence, adaptability, and identity becomes weak and hollow. A culture can avoid that hazard only by tenaciously retaining the underlying values responsible for [its] nature and success" (p. 176). Poignant!

A gloomier than hopeful book; a little below the stellar standard the author set with her previous book - The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Still the scholarship is high, and the message worth reading.

Amavilah, Author
Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
ISBN: 1600210465

Not an entirely satisfactory assessment .......2006-08-16

The author, now deceased but a noted commentator on culture, communities, and cities, is concerned that Western culture, led by the US, is in serious decline, perhaps on the way to a Dark Age. A Dark Age for her is a society-wide forgetting of more advanced knowledge and practice due to some sort of external or internal factor, like a severe environmental event or injurious political mechanizations. Her assessment is more that the decline of Western culture is short of a Dark Age but may be too far along to be reversible. A culture needs "stabilizing forces" to keep it on track or get it back on track. She contends that several of these steadying forces have deteriorated to the extent that they cannot perform the function of turning around our culture. A significant problem with this book is the lack of any real discussion concerning the nature of society before these sustaining factors began decaying. Was there a better cultural state at some previous time in our history?

The author identifies the isolation of families from broader communities, the emphasis on job-enhancing credentials over general education in colleges, scientific actions that pander to accepted expectations, misapplied taxation revenues, and the failure of professionals to police themselves ignoring responsibilities to society as areas that are harming our culture. Undoubtedly, troubling aspects can be found in these areas, but there is minimal discussion as to why they were selected. Are there more fundamental factors at work that are impacting the direction of culture that the author has overlooked?

Clearly, the answer is "yes." Corporate capitalism now dominates the globe. There are no areas of society on which corporations do not have huge impacts. They have altered basic social thinking, especially in the US, through ownership or influence of media empires and educational systems to accept that so-called free-market forces, combining the actions of self-interested individuals, will result in optimal social outcomes. Under that thinking the concept of society with collective interests is mostly irrelevant or misguided. Governments are seen as nefarious forces that can only obstruct the benign dictates of markets.

According to laissez-faire capitalism, the advent of television, the car culture, and sterile suburbs - all of these and more - reflect the desire of consumers, and not subtle manipulation by corporate interests. The allocation of degrees and the actions of professionals and scientists should not directly serve higher social purposes but should accord with self-interests, as long as legal. Of course, such thinking views any taxation beyond requirements for defense and law enforcement as illegitimate. Society has been hurt by laissez-faire capitalism in the past and has tried to institute regulatory controls. But those controls have largely been shed, reversed, or ignored since the 1970s. Furthermore, the size and penetration of corporations into all facets of life is unprecedented at the start of the 21st century. The media control and the domination at all levels in all departments of government as well as the electoral process virtually guarantee no real challenge to corporate hegemony.

It would be hard to find much to disagree with concerning the author's findings of deterioration in key areas of our society. If anything, much more could have been said. For example, though colleges have become credentialing institutions at the behest of both students and business, she does not discuss the disconnect between education and employment. The power of corporations to export jobs, import workers, and squash or ignore unions has made employment very insecure despite "credentials." The lack of face-to-face contact in communities virtually cripples democracy, as only watered-down "information" is available via a media heavily geared to entertainment. What could exemplify the breakdown of social comity more than the incivility and rage shown toward fellow motorists who are unconcerned with community judgment of their behavior.

Is there a Dark Age ahead? Reading this book is not really going to answer the question, though, as stated, troubling trends are somewhat discussed. But developments little mentioned in this book do have ominous portent: the nearly unquestioned power of corporations to impact society and individuals as they choose, the effective propaganda apparatus under corporate control, massive inequality with a few hundred individuals having the wealth of billions of others, and preemptive warfare - to mention in general terms only a few. There has never been a time in the US when society has even come close to maximizing lives and opportunities for all of its members. But we are definitely moving away from any such ideal now. Personal security is worsening while being discounted by corporate propagandists. Life is harsh now for many with only an increase in the numbers of those impacted foreseen. The demarcation between losers and winners is becoming sharper and more widespread. Maybe we are in the midst of an advancing Dark Age of an entirely new form. It is absolutely certain that we do not now live in the idyllic democratic society that one can find plastered all over the propaganda distributed as text books in our institutions of learning and trumpeted in presidential news conferences.

Doomsday picture written with surprising appeal.......2006-07-12

Despite the topic - the threat of culture collapsing into another dark age in the near future - this is a surprisingly charming, readable book. That is due to the way author Jane Jacobs combines a lifetime of research and thought on urban planning and the way societies function with very practical stories based on personal experience. Jacobs moves smoothly from a discussion of medieval tax strategies to accounts of a Sunday drive, and uses both to illustrate her ideas. Her style is friendly, almost casual, and at times she meanders from one topic to another in the style of the pedestrian-friendly cities she so clearly loves. However, while this provides a great deal of the book's charm, it also provides its two weaknesses. Problem one: the book often relies on scattered evidence - albeit by a world-class scholar - to address deeply serious problems. Problem two: Jacobs spends more time discussing society's failings than how one might fix them. The result is a fascinating book that is difficult to apply. As a result, we suggest this book to reflective readers who want an intelligent take on the issues involved in shaping the future of our cities, communities and countries.

an excellent "last push" for an established genius.......2006-06-18

jane jacobs has always proven herself to be a highly insightful and prescient author, and this book is no exception to this rule. while i have to concede that this is not her best or most well edited read, i think it reads and must be viewed as a beginning outline sketch of her perceptions of our culture's coming crises. it carries the strong feel, throughout, that she was attempting to put forth her still-forming ideas while she still was able--she herself admits, as asides or casual comments in the work itself, that her health was failing considerably. this work is still, as ever, a poignant collection of insights by one of the most qualified, intelligent, and experienced observers of urban environments our society has ever had the pleasure to include. read it as it seems to have been intended--as an urgent warning and series of instructions for further investigation by her successors.

Average customer rating:

Dated in some particulars but not as a whole
Age Does Not Wither the Provocative Appeal
Wealth Creation
An exciting, observant, and enduring work
One of the Best

Cities and the Wealth of Nations
Jane Jacobs
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Economy of Cities
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
The Nature of Economies
Dark Age Ahead
Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics

ASIN: 0394729110
Release Date: 1985-03-12

Book Description

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

Customer Reviews:

Dated in some particulars but not as a whole.......2004-10-20

It is true that the opening chapter of this book sounds dated, but the book as a whole still stands up well.

The first chapter provides the motivational background for the rest of the book by discussing the problem of stagflation, and how existing schools of economic thought failed to account for it (prices should not go up when the economy is in a slump). This does have a dated ring to it; who has been worried about stagflation in the past 20+ years? But the discussion of stagflation merely serves as motivation for what follows, and contemporary readers will be able to think up similar economic mysteries that we live with today, e.g. why did years of near-zero interest rates fail to stimulates Japan's economy as theory said they should, and similarly why is the US still struggling to recover from a recession when it interest rates have been at historic lows for several years?

The rest of the book is devoted Jacobs's thesis that the economic unit that matters is not the nation, nor the individual nor the corporation, but the city (or "city regions" as she calls them). She describes (using examples which still hold up today) the economic effects that cities have on each other and on less developed areas.

As in Jacobs's other books, the writing style is clear, direct and easy to understand.

I would like to hear Jacobs's perspective on European currency union: if she holds to the analysis of the effect of national currencies on cities given in this book then she should be predicting (in the long term) serious economic malaise in Europe, especially in those parts of the union which are currently less developed.

Age Does Not Wither the Provocative Appeal.......2003-04-03

Some of your other reviewers have said that they believe this book is outdated.

That is, I can't help but think, the reaction of internet babies, who are spoiled by the 24 hour round-the-clock updating of bloggers.

This is a printed book that gives evidence of having been written at a certain moment in history, and in a certain portion of the planet. So what? That is true of all great books, and the question for us is whether we can (a) appreciate that context while (b) taking from them something lasting.

The answer, for this book, is decidedly afirmative.

Wealth Creation.......2001-02-21

"Any settlement that becomes import-replacing becomes a city." Cities and the Wealth of Nations, Jane Jacobs

Written by an economist, this is a very unusual book. Ms. Jacobs is not hampered by orthodox preconceived notions, misleading postulated theoretical myths like utility optimization, rationality, or efficient markets. These standard phrases of neo-classical economic theory cannot be found in her book. Instead, and although her discussion is entirely nonmathematical, she uses a crude qualtitative idea of excess demand dynamics, of growth vs. decline. Her expectation is never of equilibrium. The notion of equilibrium never appears in this book. Jacobs instead describes qualitatively the reality of nonequilibrium in the economic life of cities, regions, and nations. She concentrates on the surprises of economic reality.

Jacobs argues fairly convincingly that significant, distributed wealth is created by cities that are inventive enough to replace imports by their own local production, that this is the only reliable source of wealth for cities in the long run, and that these cities need other like-minded cities to trade with in order to survive and prosper. Her expectation is of growth or decline, not of equilibrium. If she is right then the Euro and the European Union are a bad mistake, going entirely in the wrong direction. As examples in support of her argument she points to independent cites like Singapore and Hong Kong with their own local currencies. Other interesting case histories are TVA, small villages in France and Japan, other cases in Italy, Columbia, Ethiopia, US, Iran, ... .

The book begins in the chapter "Fool's Paradise' with discussions of Keynsian economics and Phillips curves (the Philips curve idea is demolished convincingly by Ormerod in "The Death of Economics"), I. Fisher and monetarism, and Marxism. These were all ideas requiring equilibria of one sort or another. Also interesting: her description why, in the long run, imperialism is bound to fail, written in 1984, well before the fall of the USSR. Her prediction for the fate of the West is not better. Jacobs is aware of the idea of feedback and relies on it well and heavily. She is a sharp observor of economic behavior and is well versed in economic history. This book will likely be found interesting by a scientifically-minded reader who is curious about how economies work, and why all older theoretical ideas (Keynes, monetarism, ... ) have failed to describe economies as they evolve.

I'm grateful to Yi-Ching Zhang of the Econophysics Forum for recommending this book.

An exciting, observant, and enduring work.......2000-04-27

Wow. Jacobs is so adept at explaining the complex currents of global, national and local economies that even the casual reader will be spellbound. The book is simultaneously radical (she essentially repudiates all modern macro-economic theory) and reasonable. This book is a great asset to anyone who wishes to comprehend the world around them.

One of the Best.......2000-03-12

I read this in 1984. It is one of the five best non-fiction books I have read. Really. It forced me to reconsider some long-held notions about the economic role of individuals, and their environments, in society.

Average customer rating:

Another Provocative Masterpiece
Still relevant, could use a new edition
A Comprehensible Explanation of Growth of Cities
Great insights into the origin of agrictulture
Still highly relevant.

The Economy of Cities
Jane Jacobs
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics

ASIN: 039470584X
Release Date: 1970-02-12

Customer Reviews:

Another Provocative Masterpiece.......2006-07-05

This book is almost as good as Jacobs' must-read classic, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Whereas Death and Life deals more with how to foster vitality in individual city neighborhoods, this work deals with the broad importance of thriving urban areas. Here Jacobs gives the reader an understanding of how economically healthy and diverse urban areas are essential to creating healthy economies in general - and more than that, to ultimately creating a healthy global economy. Her ideas fly in the face of much conventional wisdom. But I think she proves the essence of her case with pages of compelling, reasoned argument.

Most reformers, many of whom start out with earnest good intentions, end up wreaking havoc and plunging their countries into tyranny because they attack their countries' economic problems from the wrong end. Most reformers in recent history, from Pancho Villa, through Stalin and Mao, down to current day missionaries - set out to "help" struggling economies by first digging into the dirt of the poorest rural areas. They assume that change must start in the agricultural sector. So they reapportion land; they attempt to introduce modern technology to subsistence farmers; they establish schools, clinics, and communal wells in the rural areas. But often, these efforts come to naught. Indeed they frequently backfire and leave area residents worse off than before.

A typical scenario of the type Jacobs cites - a volunteer worker sets up a well in a parched rural area of some Third World country. But soon after the volunteer leaves, a valve in the well breaks. And there is no way for local residents to get a replacement valve. There is no nearby urban industry to supply valves or any other replacement parts for anything. So the well stagnates, becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes and a hazard.

Jacobs illustrates why these good will projects so often fail. There is no surrounding urban industry to back them up, to supply all the quirky, often small but oh-so-necessary parts to rural endeavor. Urban areas are also necessary as markets for rural produce. Without recourse to diverse urban economies, virtually all rural areas will fail to thrive in the long run, no matter how much charitable reform is pumped into them.

Jacobs goes further. She illustrates how the very idea of agriculture, as well as most advances in agricultural technique likely STARTED in denser urban areas. This is the most controversial, frequently contested idea in her book. Most people are geared to dismiss urban areas as being devoid of "nature. But the reverse is actually true. There is often more flora, more planting activity, more wildlife and domestic animal husbandry, more agricultural cross-fertilization of all kinds going on in cities than in rural areas. But because the city is by definition "urban," people don't see it and continue to feel they must escape to rural areas in order to experience nature.

However, even if you are of this frame of mind, and if you therefore trip on Jacobs' early contentions about the primacy of cities - I urge you to keep reading. You may not end up being completely convinced, but you will come away with a new tool kit of ideas that you can apply in a myriad of ways as a citizen of the world.

Any politician who will have to make decisions touching on the national or global economy should definitely read this book. Everyone from well-intentioned celebrity reformers down to individuals who simply send a few dollars a month to Guatemalan waifs should read this book, and learn how they might redirect some of their future contributions into more sustainable projects. Every voter should read this book. It's a well-written, interesting book that gives insights into how an economy can develop and diversify into vitality. It suggests definite solutions. In short, it's a book for everyone.

Still relevant, could use a new edition.......2005-10-27

This book has some great insights but is getting a bit outdated. I thought the section on the origin of agriculture was fascinating stuff, but I'd like to know how Ms. Jacobs' theories square with recent research.

The comparison of Manchester and Birmingham was great. I think Ms. Jacobs is basically correct with her analysis of what it takes to make a vibrant, prosperous city. Her basic recommendations for city layout--small, short blocks, high concentrations of people walking, a mix of buildings of various types and ages--are very good. She is right on point with her criticism of urban renewal programs and freeways.

Ms. Jacobs' analysis of how business development occurs is fun to read and very relevant to today. She makes it very clear that rural towns that try to develop by attracting a local assembly plant or the like for a large company are barking up the wrong tree.

The book has some problems. Ms. Jacobs dismisses problems with resource depletion far too easily as the product of a stagnant economy. She also dismisses population growth, seeing it as a symptom of a growing economy, not a problem. There is of course some truth to this, but in my opinion migration is perfectly adequate to take care of local labor shortages. The side effects of nationwide and worldwide population growth are too severe to be treated lightly as Ms. Jacobs does.

A Comprehensible Explanation of Growth of Cities .......2005-08-24

Jacobs starts with the claim that there would be no agriculture if there were no cities, confronting the general "agriculture first then cities" approach. She then explains how new work is added to the economy. She states that division of labour is needed for economic efficiency, but does not promote further economic activity. Thus, efficiency of operation is in conflict with development of new work. Jacobs suggests that cities grow by gradual diversification of its economy, starting from its initial exports. Local economy grows as the exports grow, and many imports are replaced by local products. More goods, raw materials and services become available to the producers. Although this is a very comprehensible book, it includes a degree of redundancy. Must be in a planner's library, and should be read.

Great insights into the origin of agrictulture.......2004-09-24

I loved this book for two reasons.

First, for the insight into the complex interplay of economic forces in cities really opens your eyes to how governmental policies affecting cities directly impact our standard of living.

Secondly it shows how the beginning of agrictulture may have come about almost by accident, simply by the combination of people's behaviour and the actions of (un)natural selection.

It is a surprisingly short read, when you consider the concepts presented.

Still highly relevant........2004-03-03

This book, written in the 1960's, couldn't be more relevant today, in our age of outsourcing and loss of jobs. In Jacob's thesis, cities must constantly evolve, developing new products, or they will stagnate and decline, as their old exports wither. She makes a good case that efficiency, as reflected in the large scale, focused enterprise, can often be the enemy of innovation. This kind of logic has been incorporated into mainstream thought, in that many large corporations try to foster growth by establishing small entrepreneurial units. Jacobs provides a historical basis for this paradigm, as well as the detailed economics which shows it is not simply a matter of encouraging people to be entrepreneurial. Even more interesting to me, was Jacob's well supported argument that the earliest cities preceded and fostered the development of agriculture, not the other way around. I have read Robin Wright's Non-zero, The Logic of Human Destiny and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, both great books, yet Jacob's thesis was still new to me. The Economy of Cities has a certain amount of unnecessary repetition, but not as much as Jacob's The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which I would also highly recommend despite that problem. Also, and this is not a major point, Jacobs recognizes that exports may contain inputs which have to be imported, but does not seem to see that import substitution may also rely on increasing the import of certain inputs - thereby overemphasizing the importance of import substitution relative to development of new exports (although if we could find a substitute for oil......). Despite having a mathematics and economics background, I did not find Jacob's D,N,A equation particularly enlightening, and advise the reader not to get hung up on it. Jacob's use of history as a series of case studies, and her ability to extract the proper lessons even when they defy conventional thinking, is far more important than any mathematical tools.

Average customer rating:

extraordinary

Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art

Manufacturer: University of California Press
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0520243463

Book Description

Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art documents the growing presence of Buddhist perspectives in contemporary culture. This shift began in the nineteenth century and is now pervasive in many aspects of everyday experience. In the arts especially, the increasing importance of process over product has promoted a profound change in the relationship between artist and audience. But while artists have been among the most perceptive interpreters of Buddhism in the West, art historians and critics have been slow to develop the intellectual tools to analyze the impact of Buddhist concepts. This timely, multi-faceted volume explores the relationships between Buddhist practice and the contemporary arts in lively essays by writers from a range of disciplines and in revealing interviews with some of the most influential artists of our time. Elucidating the common ground between the creative mind, the perceiving mind, and the meditative mind, the contributors tackle essential questions about the relationship of art and life.
Among the writers are curators, art critics, educators, and Buddhist commentators in psychology, literature, and cognitive science. They consider the many Western artists today who recognize the Buddhist notion of emptiness, achieved through focused meditation, as a place of great creative potential for the making and experiencing of art. The artists featured in the interviews, all internationally recognized, include Bill Viola, and Ann Hamilton. Extending earlier twentieth-century aesthetic interests in blurring the boundaries of art and life, the artists view art as a way of life, a daily practice, in ways parallel to that of the Buddhist practitioner. Their works, woven throughout the book, richly convey how Buddhism has been both a source for and a lens through which we now perceive art.

Customer Reviews:

extraordinary.......2006-10-02

Buddha Mind in Contemporary Art is such an extraordinary book that, as an art critic, I can only applaud its editors, Jacquelynn Baas and Mary Jane Jacob, as well as the writers who participated in its creation. The innovative concept of exploring artistic responses to, or reflections on, Buddhist philosophy and practices, has been dealt with thorough care and inclusiveness.

The artist interviews in the second section of the book open up a deeper understanding and awareness of contemporary visual artists. Happily, the emphasis is on artists, who have achieved a significant amount of international recognition for their work. What has been less well known, and what this book so admirably illuminates, are the links between their artwork and Buddhist thought.

I would highly recommend this book for artists in all disciplines as a potential source of inspiration for their own artwork. Educators, and all those interested in contemporary culture and the arts, would find much food for thought in the essays and the many color images.

Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics

Average customer rating:

Too confusing
an excellent, underrated book
A most insightful book
Why Regulators and Businessmen CAN'T Understand Each Other
Missing Something

Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics
Jane Jacobs
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Economic Conditions | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0679748164
Release Date: 1994-01-13

Book Description

The author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities looks at business fraud and criminal enterprise, overextended government farm subsidies and zealous transit police, to show what happens when the moral systems of commerce collide with those of politics.

Customer Reviews:

Too confusing.......2005-09-04

I was attracted to the author's premise for this book, as I have recently been struggling with the conflicting moral perspectives from which colleagues can view the same issue. But I found the book too confusing, and couldn't find compelling support for the author's hypotheses.

The book is framed as a Socratic dialogue among characters. Although this style seemed plausible, the characters' personalities were not developed enough for me to distinguish them and identify them with their arguments. Overall, the author's plausible premise was not supported clearly by illustration or research and I remain un-persuaded.

an excellent, underrated book.......2005-03-27

This is a superb, underrated book. Ignore the "sophisticated" naysayers and read it for yourself. There is, page for page, more insight here than you'll find in almost any work of academic philosophy or sociology on the same subjects. It will, of course, strike you as "simplistic" if you're offended by the book's message, its implications, or the unapologetic clarity with which the author defends her thesis. But that's not much of an objection.

A most insightful book.......2005-02-28

This is a most insightful book, in which the author convincingly expounds her thesis that the world uses two systems of ethics as systems for the survival of mankind: the commercial system, and the guardian system.

The commercial class lives by production and exchange, primarily by means of honest, binding contracts and voluntary agreements, and where initiative, inventiveness and efficiency are prized, along with industriousness, thrift and investment.

The guardian class is prevalent in governments, benevolent trusts, charity organizations, universities and schools, military and police. They shun trading and exchange, and live by taking, in the form of taxes and donations, and sometimes expropriation. They are dispensers of the good things, in the form of grants and largesse. Guardians issue commands and expect them obeyed, with courage if necessary, which they in turn are subject to themselves, for a hierarchical command structure is honored. And they use force and deception where necessary to accomplish objectives.

The greatest sin, and the cause of all corruption, according to Ms. Jacobs, is when the two systems are merged in one organization. I have read several books on ethics, but this is the first that points out that there are two systems in operation in society. And it explains so much that has been a puzzle for me. For example, we are taught to tell the truth, as in the commercial system of ethics, yet a government will lie in the interests of the state, and a general will try to deceive the enemy, and both expect to be applauded for that. This can be explained only by the distinct systems of morality that guide the guardian class and commercial classes.

The two systems explain the characteristics of nations too. The empire building nation is dominated by a guardian morality, and it guardian class despises the commercial morality. A good example is England, in the past, with its class system and colonial empire that puts business men and women at the bottom. You do not have to read too many Jane Austen or Anthony Trollope novels to become aware of that. To some extent this dominant guardian syndrome lingers in monarchical England to the present day, but the country is being forced into prizing a more commercial morality by an European Union led by successful, commercial-syndrome-dominated republics France and Germany.

In contrast, the growing nation with plenty of territory is dominated by the commercial morality, for example the United States through most of its history, with its strong corporations and industrious commercial class. The U.S., however, is now showing signs of trending more toward a stronger espousing of the guardian morality, as its interests force it to begin some empire building abroad. But even if the commercial ethic still dominates in the United States, the guardian ethic is present and strong, and Jane Jacobs' brilliant proposition explains the never ending conflict between the two.

And we can now see why communism failed. It removed the commercial ethic, and the sanctity of commercial contract. The commercial ethic, by the looks of it, has still not been reestablished in the new Russia, which explains its lack of real economic success in the modern world. I am not knowledgeable enough to dissect Japan with Jacob's thesis.

Her thesis also throws a great deal of light on the thinking of novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand , whose philosophy is explained and dramatized in the novels "Atlas Shrugged" and "Fountainhead". Rand strongly espoused the commercial system of ethics, and viewed the guardian system as closest thing to evil, best eliminated to the extent possible. She did concede that guardian institutions of police, military and courts were a necessary evil, however, to be closely monitored (by the commercial class). This viewpoint probably originated with the dominant, communist, guardian ethic in the violent, disorganized and impoverished Russia that she escaped as a young woman, after the communists confiscated (a 'taking' guardian action) the family business.

But if Jane Jacobs is right, then both systems are necessary. Instead of eliminating the guardian systems, as Ayn Rand seemed to advocate, we simply have to make sure that the guardian class is modest in size, no larger than necessary, and that the two systems of ethics are never allowed to mix. As a footnote, it could be argued that Michael Crichton's recent novel, about environmentalists and global warming, "State of Fear", is really about a conflict between the guardian and commercial classes.

"Systems of Survival" is a must read for anyone interested in what makes the world work.

Why Regulators and Businessmen CAN'T Understand Each Other.......2004-07-03

A very interesting dialog on paradigms which helped me understand better why "commercial" types and "government" types so often see each other as just plain evil and can't get past that emotional reaction.

The book explores two moral systems with very different ideas of honor, which is at the emotional root of how we perceive each other. Should be required reading in high school political science and social studies classes.

The reader needs to look past the cardboard cut-out "characters" which are there only to present the arguments, and focus on the insights produced from the arguments.

A quick, yet very informative read. I recommend also learning more about paradigms and how they limit what we CAN perceive... makes this book even more powerful in understanding limits to understanding.

Missing Something.......2003-01-24

Jane Jacobs - Systems of Survival

We deserve better from the woman who brought us "The Death and Life of Great American Cities." Systems of Survival is, more or less, Jacobs' explanation of how the world works: a celebrated urban sociologist using all the insight she has gathered over the years to give us her interpretation of the foundations of commerce and politics. Sounds great, doesn't it? Except it isn't.

Turns out that Jacobs' vision of commerce and politics comes down to "how we get stuff", or, in other words, the titular systems of survival. There are only two systems and they are pretty simple, either we take stuff ("guardian" system) or we trade for it ("commercial" system). Each system also comes with its own dictates, such as "Shun force" and "Compete" (the trading system) and "Exert prowess" and "Be ostentatious" (the taking system). The problem is that these systems that Jacobs deals with are little more than the "traditional/modern" society dichotomy that has been around for years and years. Consequently these systems aren't all that groundbreaking.

This wouldn't be so much of a problem except that about one third of the way through Jacobs circles the wagons and refuses to add anything new to the mix. Instead of taking these systems to the limits and covering some new ground Jacobs simply keeps chasing the same ideas around and around. More specifically, once we learn that the guardian system is good for some things (like administration) and the commercial system is good for others (like distributing goods) but that a combination of the two systems never works out, the book more or less stops generating ideas. Of course this excludes several questions: why do some societies have systems performing the "wrong" tasks, how have and how will these systems change over time, how do these contradictory systems coexist, what regulates them. Also, what about ideas that aren't covered by the two systems? There are a lot of questions implicit in Jacobs' thesis, most of which go unanswered.

Perhaps as a footnote to all this is the oddity that Jacobs chose to write this as a "Socratic" dialog. The dialog is chunky, the characters one dimensional, the plot is completely absent; clearly the book would have made more sense as a work of non-fiction.

Book Description

The Innocents Abroad is one of the most prominent and influential travel books ever written about Europe and the Holy Land. In it, the collision of the American “New Barbarians” and the European “Old World” provides much comic fodder for Mark Twain—and a remarkably perceptive lens on the human condition. Gleefully skewering the ethos of American tourism in Europe, Twain’s lively satire ultimately reveals just what it is that defines cultural identity. As Twain himself points out, “Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” And Jane Jacobs observes in her Introduction, “If the reader is American, he may also find himself on a tour of his own psyche.”

Customer Reviews:

Perfect Gift.......2007-03-05

If you don't know the person for whom you're buying a gift, well get them this. It's laugh-out loud funny even for someone who doesn't read much or who has never heard of Twain.

Review of INNOCENTS ABROAD by Mark Twain.......2007-01-15

In what must have been the first organized tour by Americans of the Old World, Mark Twain tells of his experiences as a member of a party of 150 taking a cruise steamer to tour the European mainland, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.

The "innocents" of the title applies to Twain and his comrades. It shows partly in their naivete such as being flattered by a French shopkeeper into buying a tawdry piece of apparel, and in their assumption that every native guide must be telling the truth. It shows partly in their attempting behavior that seasoned travelers would not attempt, such as riding a donkey all day, or making an evening foray to the shore of Athens--in violation of the quarantine--to observe the Parthenon under the moonlight. It shows mainly in Twain's sense of wonder at the monuments of civilization which tower over him in what seems the first confrontation of American culture with Europe and the East.

There are some memorable moments: Twain's audience with the Czar in the Caucasus; his arduous trek through the Syrian desert to the Holy Land; his measuring the blocks of the Baalbek temples and deciding they were as big as railroad cars; his being harassed by beggars in every town in the Middle East; his being made a virtual prisoner by his guide as he labors up the great pyramid in Egypt. And we realize that throughout this tour of the antiquities, some things remain as they were in 1867. Tour groups are still largely made up of the gray-haired, the Louvre with its miles of art galleries is still overwhelming, the sphinx remains inscrutable, and Arabs still hate Christians.

INNOCENTS ABROAD is typical Mark Twain, full of his humor, irony, and exaggeration. Brevity is not its virtue, however.

I found this non-fiction work useful for its travel information, but even more readable for its digressions: those anecdotes, legends, spoofs, and mini-essays that liberally infuse the book. Twain's reproduction of a fancied playbill for the Coliseum of 2,000 years ago is hilarious. His well-evidenced argument that Egypt is the wellspring of western culture is a startling one. His portrayal of his experience in the Tomb of the Holy Sepulcher shows a devoutness that we do not associate with this American iconoclast. In fact, he marshals a fund of knowledge of the Bible and Christian history in demonstrating that Ephesus, now largely in ruins, is really the most important city in Christendom.

I purchased INNOCENTS ABROAD after I read it. It is the only book of Twain's that I own, because I will want to read its passages again and again, to myself and to others.

As always a wonderful read.......2006-12-02

Twain is not only timeless but his observations may seem all the more timely. This excellent read follows him on a journey to Europe and then the Middle East in the 1860s. We learn much about the time period and his observations are helpful in learning about the past, we see the brutality od the slave market in Istanbul where European slaves are sold, we see the arrogance of the europeans and we see the true view of the 'Holy Land' as Twain puts to shame former romantic accounts of the land of the Bible and brings it to life in its brutal squalor. Twain is ever cynical and whitty and in this the read sheds light on a nascent quinitsential Americanism. The American culture of Twain is not taken in with old europe, he is not impressed by luxory and he is not easily taken in with romance, there is no Lawrence of Arabia in Twain, there is skepticism about religion, about the Catholic church. People are not inherently good or evil, but jaded, Twain has a sense of justice but he dares to challenge his contemporaries and ironically the way his contemporaries viewed say the European or the Arab beoduin, has not changed in 140 years. Twain dared to challenge popular thought and in that he was one of the first Americans.

Seth J. Frantzman

Timeless Twain.......2006-11-14

Journey to the east in 1860's with the best travel writer ever, Mark Twain.
Colorful descriptions of people, places and events abroad with Twain humor. If you love travel stories, this will delight you.

One of the funniest books ever written.......2006-05-30

When I read Chapter 13 of this book where he describes the scene in Paris where 'Ferguson' is eating his breakfast and generally ripping them off as he pretends to guide them to the Louvre I had to put the book down because I was giggling and laughing so hard. Even now when I reread it for the 100th time it never gets old. Anyone who feels Twain was racist doesn't get how universally he applies his satire.

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Authors

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