Changing Places: Rebuilding Community in the Age of Sprawl

America's preservation movement has long fought the destructive force of so- called urban renewal, where highways and shopping malls rise up on the rubble of former thriving downtowns. Now communities are in the fight of their lives against urban sprawl- boundless development that devours the countryside and leaves cities and small towns in ruins-a fight that is as much about preserving our civic space as our landscape. In Changing Places, authors Richard Moe and Carter Wilkie give examples of how America's embattled towns are defing themselves against corporate giants and depressed economies, from community activists restoring pride in their innercities to municipalities breathing life back into historic downtowns. At once cautionary and redemptive, Changing Places has been hailed by David McCullough as "a call to arms that should be read by everyone alarmed by the rampant devastation of our cities, our towns, our history, and our way of life."

Richard Moe, author of The Last Full Measure, is president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Carter Wilkie, a longtime preservationist and former White House speechwriter, was an advisor to Boston's mayor Thomas M. Menino.