Ben Waber reviewed Liberty's Grid by Amir Alexander
An Interesting Examination of the US's Fixation on Grids
4 stars
Alexander reviews the historical forces that led to the widespread default of using grids at different scales of land development in the US. Starting with mathematical and scientific advances in the early 18th century, this book shows how Thomas Jefferson's bizarre fascination with Cartesian coordinates drove him to impose a farm-centric, gridded-vision of development in the American West and urban development. Manhattan's reinvention as a gridded city is enlightening and horrifying, but this history falls a bit short in digging into the political and social currents underlying many of these decisions. Still, if you're interested in why American cities are so distinct from those in the rest of the world and why the Western states are so block-like, this is probably the definitive history on the topic.
Alexander reviews the historical forces that led to the widespread default of using grids at different scales of land development in the US. Starting with mathematical and scientific advances in the early 18th century, this book shows how Thomas Jefferson's bizarre fascination with Cartesian coordinates drove him to impose a farm-centric, gridded-vision of development in the American West and urban development. Manhattan's reinvention as a gridded city is enlightening and horrifying, but this history falls a bit short in digging into the political and social currents underlying many of these decisions. Still, if you're interested in why American cities are so distinct from those in the rest of the world and why the Western states are so block-like, this is probably the definitive history on the topic.