This collection of essays addressing Jane Jacobs' work on cities is very uneven, and none of them really qualify as "reconsidering". None of the essays venture to attack the general truth or current applicability of Jacobs' ideas, even though such critiques do exist. However, some do offer some very useful and intelligent commentary on Jacobs' works, including those she wrote after "Death and Life".

The first essay, Peter Laurence's "The Unknown Jane Jacobs" provides Jacobs' history - who was this woman whose observations of her particular time and place overturned the dogma of the urban planner? Her history is fascinating, and helps explain, while giving her a little more credibility. J.C. Rowin's "The Literary Craft of Jane Jacobs" discusses how Jacobs' use of language helped drive home her message. Any academic interested in producing a general-audience book on their subject ought to read this essay.

The various essays on the urban experience in countries outside North America are worthwhile, even though some of the essayists don't seem to quite grasp the point of Jacobs' ideas, or place their focus on more peripheral issues. The essay on Abu Dhabi is a case in point - the essayist describes how Abu Dhabi somewhat accidentally produced a Muslim working-class version of Jacobs' idealized Greenwich Village, including the fact that the streets were safe, despite the poor, multilingual melting pot population, but then goes on to describe, in relatively positive terms, the Emirate's future plans which would inevitably destroy the best features of what had been created.

The last essay is, in some ways, the worst, as it's a planner, representing his profession, complaining how Jacobs ruined the field and that people don't trust planners, while seeming oblivious to the damage that planners did, and continue to do. Fortunately, the profession isn't all as blinkered as the last essayist, as they did publish the collection, including its gems. ( )