In The Exploding Metropolis, first published in 1958, William H. Whyte, Jane Jacobs, Francis Bello, Seymour Freedgood, and Daniel Seligman address the problems of urban decline and suburban sprawl, transportation, city politics, open space, and the character and fabric of cities. A new foreword by Sam Bass Warner, Jr., and preface by Whyte demonstrate the relevance of The Exploding Metropolis to urban issues in the 90s.

William H. Whyte, Jr., editor at Fortune when this book was first published, is the author, most recently, of City: Rediscovering the Center (1989).

"No one who reads [The Exploding Metropolis] can escape the conviction that unless we are quickly and creatively aroused to the social, economic and political dangers inherent in the technology of the gasoline-combustion age, the underpinnings of our social structure may suffer irreparable damage."—Harrison Salisbury, New York Times Book Review

"A memorable matched set of probing, hard-hitting articles by the editors of Fortune designed 'for people who like cities and a critique of the plans of people who don't.' "—Charles Poore, New York Times

"The Exploding Metropolis ranks as one of the first most influential manifestos for choice, diversity, integration, anti-expertiseism, and citizens' participation in urban design. It provides a window into the undertow of post-modernist historicism in the 1950s and introduces problems that persist in current debates about the form and structure of urban life."—Zane L. Miller, author of Urbanization of Modern America