NEW! Watch Countering Nationalism: Remembering the Quest to Build One World here. RECENT: Read about Trumpism, 1/6, and the derangements of sovereignty on H-Diplo; Hear about The Idealist on The Also-Rans; Read a forum on The Idealist at H-Diplo; The Idealist won the 2021 Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize
Winner: Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize
The Idealist: Wendell Willkie’s Wartime Quest to Build One World
“This deeply researched and wonderfully written book leads us to wonder how the twentieth century might have unfolded if the United States had embraced Wendell Willkie’s ‘new world idea.’ … Speaks urgently to today’s America.” Stephen Kinzer, author of All the Shah’s Men
“Exhilarating and timely…” The New Republic
“If isolationist slogans such as ‘America First’ drive you to despair, The Idealist might be the book for you….[Zipp] has captured Willkie’s ‘brief, blazing moment,’ a little-remembered interlude when America was at war but already worrying about the postwar order.” Wall Street Journal
Award-winning New York City history
Manhattan Projects: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal in Cold War New York
"Makes a convincing case that [urban renewal] transformed 'the terms by which cities were understood' and recast debates over 'the impacts of modernism, progress, public and private power, and cold war ideology on culture, politics and social life.'" New York Times
"Richly detailed and thoughtfully written." Times Literary Supplement
"Zipp's rigorous, thoughtful, and careful argument is a guide out of the intellectual dead end represented by the conventional narrative of urban renewal. This is a masterpiece of research, synthesis, and persuasion." Journal of Urban History
"Beyond his capacity for detailed research, Zipp's greatest talent as an historian may be his ability to pursue the various threads of his arguments to their conclusions, leaving the door open to the many ironies that have typified New York's conflicted history." New York History
Edited essays by the famous urbanist
Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs
“Editors Samuel Zipp and Nathan Storring have done readers a great service. They’ve brought together the best of this brilliant autodidact’s compelling arguments for why planners and designers must never forget the importance of small-scale diversity given it results in interesting cities created, first and foremost, for people.” The Huffington Post
“The editors’ introduction is a feast of details and insights. The way in which the editors have organized this trove of short pieces works beautifully. . . . [The] sections underline her consistent commitments, and give us nearly a century of urban history.” Times Literary Supplement
"Jane Jacobs’s aura was so powerful that it made her, precisely, the St. Joan of the small scale. Her name still summons an entire city vision.” Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
“These short essays and lectures present a startling breadth of ideas, and an unflagging advocacy not just for the built environment, but for the human struggles within it.” Los Angeles Review of Books
“Jane Jacobs saw the city like no other, and her observational genius, practical wisdom, and moral courage are on full display here, making this brilliantly curated book essential reading. With our cities facing unprecedented sustainability and affordability challenges, we need to listen to Jacobs more than ever.” Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted
Samuel Zipp is a writer and historian. He is the author and co-editor of three books on American culture and history. He has written articles and reviews for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, n+1, The Baffler, Metropolis, Cabinet, In These Times. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he is Professor of American Studies and Urban Studies at Brown University.