Cities and urban life books
Cities and urban life books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
Start here
New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Jane JacobsArgues from close observation of city streets and neighborhoods that mixed uses, short blocks and dense, active sidewalks make cities safe and lively, and attacks the large-scale urban renewal planning of the time.
Street Corner Society
William Foote WhyteA participant-observation study of an Italian American neighborhood in Boston, showing how social networks and street-corner groups structure urban life.
The City in History
Lewis MumfordA broad history of the city from its earliest settlements to the modern metropolis, treating the city as a social and cultural institution as well as a physical form.
Evicted
Matthew DesmondFollows eight families in Milwaukee who rent from or are evicted by landlords, and documents how housing insecurity shapes poor urban households.
A Theory of Good City Form
Kevin LynchProposes criteria such as vitality, sense, fit, access and control for judging how well a city's form serves the people who use it.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
More cities and urban life books
- The Culture of Cities
The Culture of CitiesLewis Mumford - The Uses of Disorder
The Uses of DisorderRichard Sennett - Victorian Cities
Victorian CitiesAsa Briggs - The City Shaped
The City ShapedSpiro Kostof - Cities in Evolution
Cities in EvolutionPatrick Geddes - The City of To-morrow and Its Planning
The City of To-morrow and Its PlanningLe Corbusier - Sundown Towns
Sundown TownsJames W. Loewen - The Economy of Cities
The Economy of CitiesJane Jacobs - Triumph of the City
Triumph of the CityEdward L. Glaeser - Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth
Four Thousand Years of Urban GrowthTertius Chandler - Child of the Dark
Child of the DarkCarolina Maria de Jesus1960 - The Lost Continent
The Lost ContinentBill Bryson1989