New Urbanism and American Planning presents the history of American planners’ quest for good cities and shows how New Urbanism is a culmination of ideas that have been evolving since the nineteenth century. In her survey of the last hundred or so years of urbanist ideals, Emily Talen identifies four approaches to city-making, which she terms ‘cultures’: incrementalism, plan-making, planned communities, and regionalism. She shows how these cultures connect, overlap, and conflict and how most of the ideas about building better settlements are recurrent. In the first part of the book Talen sets her theoretical framework and in the second part provides detailed analysis of her four ‘cultures’.She concludes with an assessment of the successes and failures of the four cultures and the need to integrate these ideas as a means to promoting good urbanism in America.

"William H. Whyte's curiosity compelled him to question the status quo--whether helping to make Fortune Magazine essential reading for business leaders, warning of "groupthink" in his bestseller The Organization Man, or standing up for Jane Jacobs as she advocated for the vitality of city life and public space. This compelling biography sheds light on Whyte's bold way of thinking, ripe for rediscovery at a time when we are reshaping our communities into places of opportunity and empowerment for all citizens" -- Backcover.

This book reviews the recent resurgence of town and urban design in America, with particular attention to the return to traditional forms of urbanism and building conventions.

New Urbanism, a movement devoted to building walkable, socially diversity cities, has garnered some successes and some failures over the past several decades. A Research Agenda for New Urbanism is a forward-looking book composed of chapters by leading scholars of New Urbanism. Authors focus on multiple topics, including affordability, transportation, social life and retail to highlight the areas of research that are most important for the future of the field. The book summarizes what we know and what we need to know to provide a research agenda that will have the greatest promise and most positive impact on building the best possible human habitat—which is the aim of New Urbanism.

American cities are increasingly turning to revitalization strategies that embrace the ideas of new urbanism and the so-called creative class in an attempt to boost economic growth and prosperity to downtown areas. These efforts stir controversy over residential and commercial gentrification of working class, ethnic areas. Spanning forty years, Latino City provides an in-depth case study of the new urbanism, creative class, and transit-oriented models of planning and their implementation in Santa Ana, California, one of the United States’ most Mexican communities. It provides an intimate analysis of how revitalization plans re-imagine and alienate a place, and how community-based participation approaches address the needs and aspirations of lower-income Latino urban areas undergoing revitalization. The book provides a critical introduction to the main theoretical debates and key thinkers related to the new urbanism, transit-oriented, and creative class models of urban revitalization. It is the first book to examine contemporary models of choice for revitalization of US cities from the point of view of a Latina/o-majority central city, and thus initiates new lines of analysis and critique of models for Latino inner city neighborhood and downtown revitalization in the current period of socio-economic and cultural change. Latino City will appeal to students and scholars in urban planning, urban studies, urban history, urban policy, neighborhood and community development, central city development, urban politics, urban sociology, geography, and ethnic/Latino Studies, as well as practitioners, community organizations, and grassroots leaders immersed in these fields.

The volume encapsulates and engages the dominant history of American suburbia, brings the work of prominent theorists of culture and science into the investigation of urban and suburban development, and broadens the focus of urban studies to the metropolitan region. It will be of particular interest to scholars of urban and suburban development, material culture, and professions, but is accessible enough for use in sociology, geography, planning, and urban and suburban studies courses.

Back to the Future explores new urbanism and urban revitalization within the context of public policy trends such as regional governance and the role of nonprofits. The purpose of this book is to provide students and professionals alike with a context for examining the beginnings of new urbanism, as well as to illustrate how this movement has become a nationwide trend in response to changing demographics and the real estate crisis. The book primarily utilizes comparative case studies within both inner city and suburban areas. While a growing number of articles have been written on both suburban and inner city new urbanist communities, few books have connected new urbanism to its roots in historical preservation communities. This book distinguishes itself from other works by assessing the commonalities between greenfield (suburban) new urbanist development and inner city (redevelopment) projects.