The main point of this book is the idea that we currently are in a social and economic position in the history of the US to choose between developing walkable urban space or drivable sub-urban (he always hyphenates this word) space or some combination of these two extremes. He explains how drivable sub-urban real estate was turned into a commodity that could be traded on the stock exchange. This commoditization explains the uniformity of every suburban streetscape in the country. There are 19 standard drivable sub-urban products that are recognized as commodities that can be bought and sold on the NYSE. That seems hard for me to believe that the explanation is so simple.

* Barber, Benjamin R. Jihad vs. McWorld. New York: Times Books, 1995.

* Bellah, Robert N. [et al.]. Habits of the heart: individualism and commitment in American Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1985.
"A great and relatively recent critique on American society generally."

* Berman, Marshall. All That is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981.

* Berry, Wendell. The unsettling of America: culture & agriculture. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1996.

* Boyle, Kevin. Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age. New York: H. Holt, 2004.

* Calthorpe, Peter, and William Fulton. The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl. Covelo, CA: Island Press. 2001.
“articulately advocates for a sustainable region through New Urbanist design and social equity�

* Diamond, Jared. Guns, germs, and steel: the fates of human societies. London, W.W.Norton. 1999.
“Pulitzer Prize winner gives a sweeping history of human societies and their environments over time.�

* Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck. Suburban nation : the rise of sprawl and the decline of the American Dream. New York : North Point Press, c2000.

* Durning, Alan Thein. How much is enough? the consumer society and the future of the earth. New York: Norton, 1992.
"A provocative and very readable critique of our very unsustainable ways of life."

* Farley, Reynolds Sheldon Danziger, and Harry J. Holzer. Detroit Divided. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, c2000.

* Fishman, Robert, ed. The American planning tradition: culture and policy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr. 2000

* Fishman, Robert. Urban utopias in the twentieth century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier 1st MIT Press pbk.ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1982, c1977.
“an eloquent intellectual history of three leading urban visionaries of the 20th Century�

* Flyvbjerg, Bent. Rationality and power: democracy in practice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1998.
“a seminal case study of the tensions between scientific analysis and political power in planning�

* Garvin, Alexander. The American city: what works, what doesn't. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2nd ed 2002.

* Gore, Albert. An inconvenient truth: the planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it. Emmaus, Pa. : Rodale Press, c2006.

* Hall, Peter. Cities of tomorrow: an intellectual history of urban planning and design in the twentieth century. updated ed. Oxford: Blackwell. 2001.
“a very widely-read and sweeping tour of Anglo-American planning history and ideas.�

* Hawken, Paul. The ecology of commerce: A declaration of sustainability. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers. 1993.

* Hayden, Dolores. Redesigning the American dream: the future of housing, work, and family life. Rev. and expand ed. New York: W. W. Norton. 2002.
“combines a suburban history and a feminist critique of urban society to offer a more equitable alternative�

* Jacobs, Jane. The death and life of great American cities. New York, Vintage Books 1961.
"A classic critique of planning" "a paradigm shifter"; from a student: "If you could read only one, read this."

* Jacobs, Jane. Systems of survival: a dialogue on the moral foundations of commerce and politics. New York, NY: Random House, First Edition 1992.
"an interesting and readable theory on ethics (not necessarily related to planning)"; "a paradigm clarifier"

* Klinenberg, Eric. Heat wave: a social autopsy of disaster in Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2002.
"an important sociological case study that examines how the structure of a neighborhood is critical in averting public health disasters."

* Krumholz, Norman and John Forester; with a foreword by Alan A. Altshuler. Making equity planning work: leadership in the public sector. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1990.

* Leinberger, Christopher. The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2008.

* Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County almanac. With other essays on conservation from Round River. New York: Oxford University Press, 1966.
"A classic set of essays on land use and the environment; especially the chapter entitled 'A Land Ethic'."

* Levine, Jonathan. Zoned Out: Regulation, Markets, and Choices in Transportation and Metropolitan Land Use. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2006.

* Logan, J.R. and H. L. Molotch. Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.

* Lynch, Kevin. The image of the city. 1st MIT Press pbk.ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1964, c1960.
“40 years later, still a highly influential text that guides and inspires urban designers�

* Massey, Douglas and Nancy Denton. American Apartheid. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.

* Mumford, Lewis. The city in history: its origins, its transformations, and its prospect. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1st ed.1961.
“a classic from a giant among 20th Century urbanists: an intellectual bridge between Ebenezer Howard and Patrick Geddes from the past and the modern regionalists.�

* Orfield, Myron. American metropolitics: the new suburban reality. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. 2002.
“a leading voice in the call for greater regional/metropolitan equity between city and suburb.�

* Pollan, Michael. The omnivore’s dilemma : a natural history of four meals. New York: Penguin Press, 2006.

* Rybczynski, Witold. City life: urban expectations in a new world. New York: Scribner. 1995.

* Sandercock, Leonie. Towards cosmopolis: planning for multicultural cities. John Wiley & Sons, 1997.
“explores how cosmopolitan cities responds to the economic, political and cultural demands and needs of so many diverse, and sometimes opposing groups.�

* Shatkin, Gavin. Collective Action and Urban Poverty Alleviation: Community Organizations and the Struggle for Shelter in Manila. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007.

* Sorkin, Michael. Variations on a theme park: the new American city and the end of public space. New York: Hill and Wang. 2nd ed 2002.
“a lively, accessible anthology on postmodern urban America and the privatization of public space.�

* Sugrue, Thomas J. The origins of the urban crisis: race and inequality in postwar Detroit. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c1996.
“a modern classic and a compelling read on the decline of Detroit and the connection between segregation, housing markets and workplaces�

* Thomas, June Manning. Redevelopment and race: planning a finer city in postwar Detroit. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, c1997.

* Wilson, William J. When work disappears: the world of the new urban poor. New York: Knopf: Distributed by Random House Inc. 1996.