The New Republic (TNR) recently reviewed Greg Heller‘s new book, Ed Bacon (The City in the Twenty First Century).

Greg is a Senior Adviser of Econsult Solutions, Inc., where he consults on economic development and urban reinvestment projects.

Robert Moses Redux

Our new infatuation with old urban titans.

July 11, 2013

By Inga Saffron 

This year, Gregory L. Heller finally corrects that lapse with a biography of Bacon. Its modest, folksy title, Ed Bacon, is the first hint that this is a very different book from Caro’s 1974 The Power Broker. Though not as majestic in its storytelling (or, for that matter, in its physical heft), Heller’s book gives us a fascinating—and sympathetic—account of Bacon’s accomplishments. This, in itself, is big news. Until recently, the imperious midcentury planners were invariably cast as bullies, who steamrolled heroic community types and flattened living neighborhoods. Not anymore. >Read the full article here.