Anthony Flint's new book Wrestling with Moses has led to some great journalism on social critic Jane Jacobs, New York master builder Robert Moses, and urban life in general. Jacobs's most famous book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, is required reading for anybody who has the nagging sense that powerful men with grand plans for improving the world don't often have the peoples' best interests in mind. Hers is a deeply conservative book, in that it argues against the technocratic social engineering of "urban renewal" in favor of common-sense and mixed-use neighborhoods. Everyone should read it. What I learned from the journalism occasioned by Flint's book is how important activism was to Jacobs. She was not a disengaged critic. She fought the Power Broker himself, Robert Moses, whenever he got the feeling - and he got it often - that what New York really needed was to raze a neighborhood to make room for a super-highway. Robert Caro's incredible biography of Moses, The Power Broker, can be found here. Jacobs was a strange hybrid of right and left. She married her advocacy of localism and critique of technocracy to a passion for organizing and direct action. So it seems appropriate that Flint's book should arrive now, at a time when a mass portion of the right is adopting political tactics (rallies, marches) more commonly associated with the left. Edward Glaeser's review of Flint's book is here. Dwight Garner's review is here. Jason Epstein's (password protected) review is here.