Description: Jaqueline Tyrwhitt, a British town planner, editor, and educator who was at the center of the group of people who shaped the postwar Modern Movement played a central role in Twentieth Century design history and yet her contributions to planning and urban design education and practice, mapping, CIAM discourse are largely unacknowledged. This intellectual biography not only details these landmark contributions, working alongside Geddes, Sert, Giedion and Doxiadis, but also indicates their relevance for contemporary scholars and practitioners, particularly those concerned with 'healthy' community design and sustainability.
Review Quotes: The full and fascinating story of the Englishwoman who, at one time or another, connects with almost every strand of twentieth-century global urbanism. Michael Hebbert, Manchester University, UK Jacqueline Tyrwhitt's previously underappreciated influence on city and regional planning in the US and UK, as well as her role in the global exchange of ideas about urban design, has finally achieved appropriate recognition. In this fascinating biography, Ellen Shoshkes chronicles the life and ideas of this remarkable woman and places her in the context of the social and political transformations of her times. Susan S. Fainstein, Harvard University, USA 'One of the great strengths of the book is that the author painstakingly recreates the web of personal contacts, acquaintanceships, and chance encounters through which Tyrwhitt's life and involvement in the history of twentieth-century planning unfolded'. Planning Perspectives 'In writing this book, Ellen Shoshkes has not only provided a fascinating picture of the lifework of an unsung hero of urban planning and, by extension, practical utopian thought; she has also cataloged in detail some of the reasons why it is so vitally important to proactively make better places and many of the often neglected tools that make this possible. In this respect this biography should be of interest to historians and practitioners alike'. Utopian Studies