The work of the Danish architect and urbanist Jan Gehl has received still greater attention in recent years. With People Cities: The Life and Legacy of Jan Gehl, an introduction to his life, work and legacy is now available. The book is written by the architects and planners Annie Matan and Peter Newman, who have both personally worked together with Gehl, and through a multitude of interviews, photos and visual graphics it provides an insightful and informative evaluation of a career that has stretched from the mid-1960s until today. While outlining the main components in Gehl's work, the book does not go into depth with different aspects of his theories and methods. Thus, for those interested in getting seriously acquainted with Gehl's ideas, his primary writings should still constitute the main area of focus.

The book consists of seven chapters, each attending to different aspects of Gehl's thinking and career. In addition to presenting the aim and structure of the book, the first chapter, ‘The human dimension’, introduces Gehl's position as an urbanist by providing a brief overview of the antithesis of his work – urban modernism – in this case exemplified by the Australian city Perth. The second chapter, ‘Making people visible’, is dedicated to Gehl's early life and career. It provides an overview of some of his earliest studies including the fieldwork he conducted together with his spouse and close companion, psychologist Ingrid Gehl, in Italian cities in 1965. By observing how the local population used the piazzas of the city in their daily lives – how they walked, talked, sat and stood – the Gehls started to develop a method for studying the intricate links between urban spatiality and social life. The third chapter, ‘Spreading the word’, begins with an examination of the transnational orientation that guided Gehl's early work. This is personified by important figures such as Jane Jacobs, Gordon Cullen and William Holly White. The chapter then proceeds by following how Gehl's own ideas from Life between Buildings were exported to places such as Canada, Scotland and Australia during the remainder of the 1970s. This focus on the significance of transnational connections, which is emphasized consistently throughout the book, definitely constitutes one of its primary strengths. In the fourth chapter, ‘Copenhagen as laboratory’, the authors zoom in on Copenhagen and examine how Gehl's career as a lecturer and researcher unfolded within the context of this city, especially focusing on the time from the 1980s onwards.

Whereas the first four chapters are organized diachronically, following Gehl's career path over time, the subsequent two chapters examine his profound influence as an urbanist through two key aspects of his work: his authorship and practical work in various cities. Chapter 5, ‘Changing mindsets’, provides a brief introduction to six of his most influential writings. In addition to outlining their main points, the chapter follows the transnational trajectory and afterlife of both these writings in general and Life between Buildings in particular. Chapter 6, ‘Changing cities’, shows how Gehl's practical work as an urbanist has influenced the spatial design of seven major cities around the globe, including Melbourne, Sydney, London, Amman, New York and Moscow. This chapter successfully narrates the international impact of Gehl through the voices of prominent politicians and planners from the respective cities each telling their own ‘Jan Gehl story’. In the concluding chapter, ‘Going forward’, the authors summarize the major influence of Gehl's work by emphasizing the need to place his theories as an unavoidable point of reference for the ways in which we shape our cities in the future.

Seen from the perspective of an urban historian, however, it is difficult not to be distracted by the book's normative assessment of urban modernism. The authors tend to reproduce a narrative – one which has dominated the work of many architectural historians – that portrays urban modernism as a dehumanizing and dangerous ideology, and, in this context, Jan Gehl as the clear-sighted liberator providing a way out of the dogmatic predicament. Hence, one could have wished for a more nuanced portrayal of this complex phenomenon that perhaps could have put a stronger emphasis on the historical and structural conditions underpinning the emergence of urban modernism as well as Gehl's own post-modern position. Nevertheless, People Cities constitutes an insightful, thoughtful and feasible introduction to the life and legacy of an architect and urbanist whose influence has only increased internationally in recent years. Thus, it should not only be read because it proves the significance of Jan Gehl's work in a contemporary perspective, but also because it demonstrates his prominent role as a historical actor in the transnational rejection of modernism from the 1970s onwards.