The Death and Life of Great American Cities

"Seeing Like a State" by James C. Scott I started my career in international development, and the book above provides a dozen case studies on states using scientific management, stats, etc. to try and control their growth/populations/economies and failing miserably. It is a beautiful book in that it illustrates how difficult it is to actually manage a country and economy well, especially if you are trying to completely change it (i.e., "develop" it, solve poverty, etc.). It humbled me as a 22 year old "professional" wanting to fix the world. "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jane Jacobs is a close second to this theme of economic, technocratic development. EDIT: I notice 22 upvotes. WOW! If you are a fan of this book or curious to hear more, please comment. Happy to elaborate. If you want a third book, The Evolution of Civilizations[1] is another fun one here. It tries to apply scientific principles and hypothesis testing to historical analysis! [1] https://10millionsteps.com/review-evolution-of-civilizations

Lots of entrepreneurial suggestions here already, so I'm going do something different by suggesting more humanities-focused books/papers that could help round out our understanding of the state of things: * Status Update by Alice Marwick - an ethnography of the SF tech scene in the mid-late 2000s, a very detailed examination of the status structures in Silicon Valley and how we were changed by the rise of social media. * Postscript on the Societies of Control by Deleuze - short, insightful, somewhat prescient paper on the evolution of "control" mechanisms in postindustrial, capitalist societies. * Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? by Mark Fisher - a very compelling analysis of the neoliberal postmodern condition, and how the cultural milieu has changed since the fall of the Soviet Union, and free-market capitalism became the only extant economic system in the world.…

Adventures of a Bystander by Peter Drucker. Jane Jacobs's three city books: The Death and Life of Great American Cities, The Economy of Cities, and Cities and the Wealth of Nations.

I'm not sure I have two most favored books. But, I'll recommend two: The Life and Death of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Searching online I eventually found one on Amazon for $12 - about the cheapest I saw (lots on Amazon uk, starting at about 15 pounds) - from Powell's. If you found pg's cities essays interesting or clueless, read Jane Jacobs's trilogy on cities: The Death and Life of Great American Cities The Economy of Cities Cities and the Wealth of Nations The quality of the writing, and the thought, more than fully justify the hubris of the last title.