Civitas by Design: Building Better Communities, from the Garden City to the New Urbanism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010.
“Gillette expertly and efficiently marches the reader through the main planning and reform movements of the late nineteenth, twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, focusing on those thinkers, movements and places that reflect a concern for the utility of design in promoting good community life.” –Planning Perspectives
Gillette’s book “should be read by design professionals, and should be required reading for all students of urban design,architecture, and planning.” –Canadian Planning and Policy
Listen to Howard Gillette’s interview (30 MB mp3, 33:31 min.) about Civitas by Design, from University of Pennsylvania Press Podcasts.
Camden After the Fall: Decline and Renewal in a Post-Industrial City (Politics and Culture in Modern America). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. Winner of best book prizes from the Urban History Association and the New Jersey Historical Commission.
A masterly narrative of the twists and turns of Camden’s renewal politics from the perspective of local politicians, regional and state power brokers, and citizens groups.”—Journal of American History
“A fascinating and frequently eloquent exploration of the city’s history since World War II.”—Camden Courier Post
“The best study so far about the virtual collapse in the late twentieth century of South Jersey’s largest city.”—New York Times
“A thorough, well-researched, and important book. Through a careful analysis of people and politics, Gillette challenges the accepted narrative of postwar urban decline. The story of Camden is of special consequence to urban historians, historians of late twentieth-century U.S. political economy, and students of contemporary urban policy. Gillette is certainly the person to tell that story.”—Robert Self, Brown University
“With keen insight, Howard Gillette movingly details how de-industrialization, suburbanization, racial isolation, and political exploitation reduced Camden from industrial powerhouse to America’s third poorest city. Through the rich biography of one city, Camden’s fall could be the story of the half-century decline of many industrial cities and their struggles to revive, just more so. Camden After the Fall will become a classic in the field of urban history.”—David Rusk, author of Inside Game/Outside Game: Winning Strategies for Saving Urban America
Between Justice and Beauty: Race, Planning, and the Failure of Urban Policy in Washington, D.C. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, paperback edition, 2006.
“Gillette’s clear focus on government gives thematic coherence to his insightful and engaging history, highlighting matters of physical development such as slum clearance, public housing construction, urban renewal, commercial development, transportation, and the planning of the monumental core.” –Steven J. Diner, Journal of Urban History
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Washington Seen: A Photographic History, 1875-1965. Co-authored with Fredric M. Miller. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
This long overdue volume takes a nuanced look at familiar photographs and also serves to circulate widely for the first time many others, depicting all classes and strata of society. –Washington History
