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Cities and the Wealth of Nations: Principles of Economic Life Paperback – March 12, 1985

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Jane Jacobs (Author)
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Jane Jacobs (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars 17 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (March 12, 1985)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0394729110
  • ISBN-13: 978-0394729114
  • Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 0.6 x 7.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsWealth Creation
By Professor Joseph L. McCauley on February 21, 2001
Format: Paperback
"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, ... .Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsSpecialization and Adaptation
By anne_rowe@hotmail.com on November 13, 1998
Format: Paperback
Jacobs writes convincingly that individual firms are not the basis of the economy. She identifies the city as a place in which economic activity is generated by a network of interlocking dependencies amkng firms as the basis of an economic analysis. She identifies these interdependencies as either being capable of adapting to change or incapable. A closed fixed system of interdependencies is the hallmark of a city (or a firm) which is ready for decline. Cities or enterprises in which the economic components are free to exploit new opportunties can adapt to challenges from outside. Jacobs charaterizes this adaptation as taking the form of a specialization of an existing economic component to supply a new need.
Contary to popular belief this notion of local as central to economic life is not opposed to glabalization. On the contrary it is opposed to the view that the nation state is central. Jacob's analysis explains economics as global network of independent local units. In this network each local unit will continuously adapt to the challenges and opportunities supplied by the needs and supplies of the other units.
Jacobs shows that only by being open to change, by being willing to adapt, by being willing to let old ways die oif they no longer serve their purpose can a city or an enterprise ensure its long term survival.
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5.0 out of 5 starsAn exciting, observant, and enduring work
By Eric on April 26, 2000
Format: Paperback
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.
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4.0 out of 5 starsDated in some particulars but not as a whole
By PGB on October 19, 2004
Format: Paperback
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

The late Ms. Jacobs is the bedrock for understanding our still-misguided "classical" macroeconomics.

Published 4 months ago by Donald W. Gregg
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Enlightening

Published 6 months ago by david dwyer
4.0 out of 5 starsFour Stars

Satisfied

Published 15 months ago by Craig Barham
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Excelent product!

Published 16 months ago by ryan jones salcido
5.0 out of 5 starsGenius...

Jane Jacobs is a genius. She is one of the most original and creative minds I have ever encountered. The future is with her thinking, if there is to be one.

Published 19 months ago by Richard Bledsoe, Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsgood ready

Enjoyed reading this classic on capitalism, we have coma a long what from the principals in this book, Capitalism works

Published on August 22, 2013 by Norman
5.0 out of 5 starsJacobs enlarges her theories from cities to economies. As well-known...

[This review is a paper I wrote in the mid-1990s as an undergraduate for a general audience, so please excuse any undergraduate tones or mistakes in it! Read more

Published on October 10, 2012 by Clint Ballinger
5.0 out of 5 starsI Come Back to This Book Again and Again

As I consider the problems of our current economy and all the opinions and advice offered up about it, I keep remembering this book. Read more

Published on September 21, 2011 by D. Howard
5.0 out of 5 starsMrs. Smith Should Go to Washington!

Jane Jacobs does everything well in this text, as in all the others which I have read. Given the publication date and the continued application of the text to current problems, it... Read more

Published on February 13, 2011 by Michael Brown
5.0 out of 5 starsCities are the fundamental macroeconomic units -- not nations

In The Death and Life of American Cities, Jane Jacobs demonstrated with clarity, intelligence and righteous indignation that city planners had for decades -- going on a century, in... Read more

Published on July 1, 2007 by Stephen R. Laniel

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