Dark Age Ahead [Paperback]

In this indispensable book, urban visionary Jane Jacobs argues that as agrarianism gives way to a technology-based future, we’re at risk of cultural collapse. Jacobs—renowned author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and The Economy of Cities—pinpoints five pillars of our culture that are in serious decay: community and family; higher education; the effective practice of science; taxation, and government; and the self-regulation of the learned professions. The corrosion of these pillars, Jacobs argues, is linked to societal ills such as environmental crisis, racism, and the growing gulf between rich and poor.

But this is a hopeful book as well as a warning. Drawing on a vast frame of reference—from fifteenth-century Chinese shipbuilding to Ireland’s cultural rebirth—Jacobs suggests how the cycles of decay can be arrested and our way of life renewed. Invigorating and accessible, Dark Age Ahead is not only the crowning achievement of Jane Jacobs’ career, but one of the most important works of our time.

She once again has proven herself to be one of the most trenchant observers and challenging critics of American culture and character.  —The Christian Science Monitor

There's no writer more lucid than Jane Jacobs, nobody better at using wide-open eyes and clean courtly prose to decipher the changing world around us. . . . It's a tribute to Jacobs that her observations still resonate, succinct yet dead on. That's whyDark Age Aheadis a treat to read for the way it snaps our perceptions into focus.  —San Francisco Chronicle

A short, dense, terse and often lyrical book that sets the wistful against the hopeful. . . . Wonderful and essential.  —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Dark Age Aheadis witty and damning. . . . It's hard to disagree with Jane Jacobs. . . . Wortlƒ(