Reclaiming American Cities

"A sophisticated, thorough, and comprehensive history of city planning in the United States over the last 125 years."—Alex Marshall, author of How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl, and the Roads Not Taken

"Platt's book offers a breathtaking historical sweep of attempts to shape the physical and social organization of U.S. cities-and why some of them succeeded while many others failed. Bringing us right up to the present through an impressive number of detailed examples, Reclaiming American Cities powerfully demonstrates how fresh approaches and place-based movements are making our communities more humane, livable, and sustainable."—Jennifer Wolch, Dean, UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design

"Each generation remakes the city in its own image. The past provides the problem and the future provides the opportunity. Rutherford Platt's excellent new book provides a perspective, literally a viewpoint, from which to see and contemplate the American urban landscape, and the people and ideas that have shaped it over the last century. Highly recommended!"—Eric W. Sanderson, author of Terra Nova: The New World After Oil, Cars, and Suburbs and Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City

"Reclaiming American Cities is perhaps the only historical narrative that seeks to gather up the disparate physical urban threads--housing, transportation, and parkland--in a complete package that reveals the contradictions and blind spots (as well as brilliant insights) that have guided our lurching city building movement for the past century."—City Parks Blog

"Platt does an excellent job summarizing historical trends in U.S. city planning as well as providing a blueprint for future developments in this often troubled and contentious field."—AAG Review of Books

"Any reader looking for one book that will situate over a century of U.S. urbanization trends into a very readable book would be well advised to select this book as their guide."—Jeremy Bryson, Weber State University