"America's downtowns, if the daily papers and local chambers of commerce are to be believed, are tottering on the brink of destruction once again....Isenberg holds out a ray of hope in Downtown America. Her endlessly fascinating book argues that Main Street has always been an idealized dreamscape, a kind of Shangri-La of perfect civic bliss that never did quite measure up to its own image." - Karal Ann Marling, Chicago Tribune "Isenberg exploits conference reports, maps, real estate appraisals, marketing studies, and federal guidelines to show the social and cultural effects of deliberate actions in reshaping nonrural America....[Her] ample use of illustrations is exemplary, as is her inclusion of representative cities throughout the North and South. Her optimistic perspective on downtowns as democratic meeting places of diverse elements of the population makes one want to find out even more about the revitalizers of urban spaces." - Library Journal