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.

簡·雅各布斯（1916-2006），齣生於美國賓夕法尼亞州斯剋蘭頓，早年做過記者、速記員和自由撰稿人，1952年任《建築論壇》助理編輯。在負責報道城市重建計劃的過程中，她逐漸對傳統的城市規劃觀念發生瞭懷疑，並由此寫作瞭《美國大城市的死與生》一書。1968年遷居多倫多，此後她在有關發展的問題上扮演瞭積極的角色，並擔任城市規劃與居住政策改革的顧問。1974年成為加拿大公民。她的著作還有《城市經濟學》（1969）、《分離主義的問題。（1980）、《城市與國傢的財富》（1984）、《生存係統》（1993）。