Book Description
Radical Islam has long desired to seize Jerusalem and cut it off to Christian and Jewish believers. In his revealing new book, The Fight for Jerusalem, bestselling author and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold explains why the battle for Jerusalem is intensifying today. Gold shows why only Israel can preserve its holy places for Christians, Jews, and even Muslims, and why uncovering Jerusalem's past-and the truth of biblical history-can be the key to saving its future.
Customer Reviews:
More In This Vein Needed.......2007-07-12
Mr. Gold has had an intriguing history of exposing through historical precedents and context the most interesting institutions. This book is no exception with Jerusalem, the city in the Middle East that can perhaps be said to represent the modicum of freedom and Western values that exists there, and why it's imperative that it be held and protected against any antithetical forces surrounding it, either there or abroad.
Dore Gold does the reader and novice (or even university-educated) reader a great and grandiose service by documenting not just how long the Jews have been living in modern Israel, but showing us just how long they've been under attack, kept as slaves, as Dhimmis, whipped commodities of Europe's countries, and generally how it all started. The Bar-Kochba revolution against the just-turned Roman imperialists is a great account, told with brevity, but demonstrating what the Jews have been through just to hold on to their tiny piece of land, and how many empires have swept through it.
A previous writer said that there's blame on both sides to the conflict, and that giving away land to the anarchistic Palestinian terror groups is being open minded. I would pose the question that Dore Gold answers for us: If Jerusalem and its surrounding environs were given over eventually to Arabic, Islamic forces, there would be no tolerance of religion whatsoever for any soul in the land. Already, the last Christians are fleeing any part of Israel that is controlled by Palestinian faction groups, whose version of Islam doesn't even allow for Fatah's to promulgate.
There are previous accusations that Gold's sources are flimsy. Since when are speeches of those involved, podcasts of the same, and books irrelevant and not conducive to research? What's omitted from some critics' reviews is the presentation of vast amounts of historical and recent archeological surfacing that has vindicated those who taught us about the unified Davidic Kingdom and the tribes of Israel before his time. If you don't read more than the first 2 chapters, you're already richly rewarded by gaining a historical eye covering about 1400 years of Israelite history.
I think one of the most important misnomers that have stuck with us is that the land of ancient Canaan/Israel was only named Palestine by the Romans once they began establishing exploratory garrisons. They aptly named it after "Philistines" who had residence there still after so many quasi-empiric swaths through Israel.
Dore Gold might be a nationalist-rightist when it comes to Israel, but how do we coin the conservative label when Gold's main theme for the conflict is encouraging us to look at what happens every time Israel DOES cede land that THEY held onto by being the victor of a grossly-agressive war by the major Arabic countries. Look at Hamas in Gaza, exterminating all their Fatah "brothers," showing us that the muhajadeen applies to their own kind as well.
Gore's book is a real justice and service that lends some researched wisdom as to what's been happening in Israel, and how other Arabic nations are overwhelmingly complicit in the plight of the Palestinians. What else can we expect from a people who declare all of Palestine theirs by right, have rejected statehood 3 times, and have it in their charter (Hamas, Fatah) and educational materials (The PA) to disregard Jews as human and an unregognizing of Israel's right to live and survive? As we've seen, we can't expect much, only chaos, wasted Western money that helped almost no Palestinian when it's in their hands, and a drive to throwback tribalism that knows no bounds as to the glories of fighting Jews and infidels. This is a great history book that should be on everyone's shelves, even if you wish to "hear no evil,see no evil," which I like to call "disagreeing" with it.
Again, if there is to be any alternative to religous and secular tolerance in the Middle East, it has proven only to be in Israel, and the state's poliltical and religious flag, Jerusalem, cannot be given over or divided if it is to remain that way. Dore Gold has made that painstakingly clear, and it gives us great hope to see the victories of Israel against forces that would see it otherwise--which is most of the world.
excellent analysis of issues about Jerusalem.......2007-06-27
Dore Gold writes with typical clarity concerning the issues concerning Jerusalem, including the battles going back through the ages. If you want to get a readable, informative history, then get this book.
Propaganda passing for scholarly research.......2007-06-05
Dore Gold is one of the hardline political opeatives who worked for Ariel Sharon and found Sharon's moderating politics towards the end of his political careeer not to his liking. Gold's view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is quite close to the ultra-nationalist politics of Likud. For him, any compromise with the Palestinians enourages more terror. Hamas are no better than the Taliban. If Israel gives them an inch of Jerusalem they will take a mile and turn Jerusalem into the capital of the new world-wide Muslim caliphate.
Despite miles of footntoes, Gold relies for evidence on surprisingly flimsy reeds: podcasts, websites, sermons and books are the proof he uses to claim that there is a worldwide Muslim conspiracy to take over Jerusalem and the rest of the western world.
If you're a neocon or a hardline supporter of the Israeli right, you'll love this book. It will confirm all yr worst fears of Arabs. But if you try to keep an open mind about this conflict and find both fault and favor with both sides, then steer clear. This is a propaganda tract that passes itself off as a thoroughly researched scholarly tome.
The fight for Jerusalem and the clash of civilizations .......2007-05-16
This book is divided into three sections. In the first the religious dimension of Jerusalem is considered. The meaning of Jerusalem for Ancient Israel, for Christianity , and for Classical Islam are accurately and fairly outlined. In the second part of the book which considers the diplomatic struggle over Jerusalem, there is chapter devoted to the Birth of 'Modern Israel', one to 'Jerusalem, the Palestinian Arabs and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan', and one to the 'Arab- Israel Peace Process.' The third and most important section of the book is devoted to Radical Islam and Jerusalem. There is a chapter on 'Destruction of the Holy Sites', one on 'Jerusalem as Apocalyptic Trigger for Radical Islam, one 'The West and the Freedom of Jerusalem'.
In this third section of the book Gold gives a short history of the development of Radical Islam. He tells of the Islamic destruction of the religious sites of other faiths, from the largest Buddhist statues in the world in Afghanistan to sites in the heart of the Arab world. He shows how Western diplomatic concessions have not led to moderation but rather an intensification of fanaticism by radical Islamists. He tells the story of the Muslim destruction of important archaeological remains in Jerusalem. He shows how radical Islam's obsession with Jerusalem is another manifestation of the clash of civilizations between radical Islam and other religious faiths and civilizations.
The demonstrating of Islamic disrespect and destruction for the Holy Places of others is at the heart of his argument that Jerusalem must remain undivided under Israeli rule. Additional evidence for this claim is given by the Palestinian reaction to Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and the Shiite Hizbollah's reaction to Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. Both of these withdrawals did not lead to moderation and peace, but rather to more violence against Israel. Gold shows how the Islamist Palestinians have when given civilian control over a city or area persecuted and led to the exile of its Christians .The most blatant example is Bethlehem which has not simply lost its Christian majority but seen the greatest share of its Christian population leave the City. Gold says that had Israel in September 2000 relinquished control over the Old City of Jerusalem to the Palestinians the result would have been the destruction of a a good share of it. Gold also considers the possibility of internationalization of the Holy City , and provides convincing evidence that the U.N. could not handle this job effectively any more than it handled the job in Rwanda or Bosnia. Gold also points to the inherent prejudice of the U.N. against Israel, and says it could never be a fair and efficient manager of the Holy Sites.
This book makes a very strong case for Israel's maintaining exclusive control of the city.
But the arguments it presents focus more on the negatives of Islamic control than the positives of Israeli control. I would have liked to see more expansive treatment of how Israel has enhanced the city since taking over the Old City in 1967.
Nonetheless this is a must read for those for whom Jerusalem, and its future, is dear.
A fascinating book worth reading or hearing the audio version.......2007-04-26
If anyone complains about bias in this book, it hardly seems warranted seeing that all journalists and writers summarize events from their own standpoint or passion, as it were. Why would Dr. Gold be any different, if indeed he is? Besides, it is a known fact that about 95% of world opinion is sympathetic to the more militant Palistinian/Islamic view which attempts to wrest Jerusalem away from Israel, if not erase Israel off the map altogether. If certain powers that be don't outrightly say that they promote erasing Israel off the map, the intent to favor the Arab/Palistinian view is heavily weighed in upon constantly in newspapers and media both in the U.S., in Europe, and in the Middle East.
Dr. Gold's book gives the reader a thorough account of the history concerning Jerusalem and the Jewish people, the Muslims and the Christian interests and involvement with this ancient city. As he delves into the history from David and Solomon's time, clear up to 1948 when Israel became a state, I was fascinated and better understood just what had transpired with regard to Jerusalem for the last 3000 years or so. The unfolding of the convoluted events with regard to the Arabs, the Israelis, militant Islam, Europe and the U.S. is detailed all the way up to the present time (late 2006).
I have to commend Dr. Gold for his boldness in so thoroughly making his case concerning Jerusalem weighing in with excellent documentation to back up his perspective - you will know as you read that he is not just out there flinging around some populist opinion to stoke up the masses.
I am almost finished listening to the audio (in MP3 format), as I drive or do daily chores around the house. I have ordered the hardbound version of the book just as of today. Nadia May narrates the audio beautifully in her British accent and excellent diction.
I would highly recommend anyone to read this book or hear the audio for a thorough review of the complex Middle East situation. Whatever your viewpoint on the Middle East, you will find this to be a very informative book.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
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History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
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ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
"Top-ranked annual books on sustainable development."—GlobeScan survey of sustainability experts
In State of the World 2007, the Worldwatch Institute's award-winning research team focuses on the urbanization of our planet to provide policymakers, strategic planners, researchers, students, and concerned citizens with comprehensive analysis of the global environmental problems we face, together with descriptions of practical, innovative solutions. This report will show what is needed to foster sustainable cities on a planet where urban areas are home to half the human population and a far larger share of natural resource use.
Written in clear and concise language, with easy-to-read charts and tables, State of the World 2007 presents a view of our changing world that we, and our leaders, cannot afford to ignore.
Customer Reviews:
The truth can be convenient.......2007-02-08
Especially when the issues are surveyed in Worldwatch's annual review.
A comprehensive and constructive look at the global urban environment.......2007-02-07
This year's "State of the World" by Worldwatch Institute focuses on the global urban environment: water and sanitation, transportation, agriculture and farming, energy, natural hazard risks, pulic health, economics, and environmental justice. Each chapter lays out trends and statistics demonstrating some of the hazards the world might be facing with the current trends towards urbanization.
However, the book has a largely positive and constructive tone, with extensive use of examples and case studies of locales using innovative methods for protecting the environment and even attempting to reducing pollutants that might be global in their impacts. Case studies span the world - from Los Angeles to Timbuktu. The "city" provides a structure for problem-solving.
The book overall is comprehensive, with excellent writing and editing - some chapters are replete with data while others are written in a sweeping "big picture" context with long-term recommendations for future directions. This is a great resource for researchers, policy-makers, students, and anyone interested in understanding the risks and opportunities for the urban landscape.
Amazon.com
Mike Davis peers into a looking glass to divine the future of Los Angeles, and what he sees is not encouraging: a city--or better, a concatenation of competing city states--torn by racial enmity, economic disparity, and social anomie. Looking backward, Davis suggests that Los Angeles has always been contested ground. In the 1840s, he writes, a combination of drought and industrial stock raising led to the destruction of small-scale Spanish farming in the region. In the 1910s, Los Angeles was the scene of a bitter conflict between management and industrial workers, so bitter that the publisher of the Los Angeles Times retreated to a heavily fortified home he called "The Bivouac." And in 1992, much of the city fell before flames and riot in a scenario Davis describes as thus: "Gangs are multiplying at a terrifying rate, cops are becoming more arrogant and trigger-happy, and a whole generation is being shunted toward some impossible Armageddon." Davis's voice-in-a-whirlwind approach to the past, present, and future of Los Angeles is alarming and arresting, and his book is essential reading for anyone interested in contemporary affairs. --Gregory MacNamee
Book Description
The hidden story of L.A. Mike davis shows us where the city's money comes form and who controls it while also exposing the brutal ongoing struggle between L.A.'s haves and have-nots.
Customer Reviews:
The Cassandra of Post-Liberal America at his best.......2006-10-24
This book is an outstanding synthesis of architectural and urban studies, political and intellectual history, and good-old marxist polemics. The major lesson to draw from this book is that LIBERALISM IN AMERICA IS OVER. This is exemplified most profoundly in the chapter entitled "The Hammer and The Rock," where Davis makes the case that the LAPD's wars on drugs, gangs, and other things a racist might associate with inner-city youth amount to a neo-colonial occupation of poor (mostly colored) LA. This chapter is also widely credited with anticipating the 1992 uprisings.
As to the complaints others have lodged against Davis fact-checking and his general tone: these charges are at best specious and at worst libel. First of all, the book is impeccably documented and annotated, having been originally published by a reputable academic publisher (Verso). Second, his general point of political orientation and critique is unapologetically leftist. Not leftist as most American's (mis)understand the term --- i.e. hopelessly naive, pacificist, "tolerant," and so on --- but leftist in the venerable tradition of Marx and Engels, where it is assumed that there is ultimately no war but class war and never too much to know about the problems with ruling class methods of exploitation under capitalism. This means that Davis compensates for the paucity of justice in the world by injecting his rhetoric with equal helpings of sarcasm, irony, and, above all, humanity.
If you prefer books that find the Aristotelian "happy medium" between competing perspectives, this is not a book for you. If, on the other hand, you want to read a prophetic work of history that exemplifies what the application of good scholarship can be, this is your book.
The Dystopian Utopia.......2006-10-07
This is a sociopolitical analysis of the dark side of the supposed Los Angeles promised land. It's often quite interesting in itself, though it meanders into academic obtuseness, sanctimonious sour grapes, and a lack of validity to the rest of the world. Mike Davis is a fine muckraker as he uncovers the unique and often bizarre cultural-economic-sociological-political structures of L.A. This applies especially to the sickening power of the real estate and development industries, and the forced and hyperbolic local obsession with maintaining upper-middle class lifestyles at the expense of the most horrific and downtrodden ghettos imaginable. This book nearly achieves victory with chapters 4 and 5 - two powerful manifestos, respectively, on the class separation quietly implemented by architects and planners, and the violent oppression of the lower classes by a hubristic law enforcement complex.
Unfortunately, the book fails as a whole due to the typical weaknesses of academic writing. The separate chapters probably originated as distinct research projects that are only categorically associated with the main thesis, and the reader may wonder why each passing subject belongs in the book. This applies most to the chapter on the L.A. Catholic Archdiocese, which is of especially dubious usefulness. Meanwhile, Davis is a classic detached academic who thinks he's writing a book for the masses, but can't stop trying to impress a few other professors. Thus we have the standard long-winded and obtuse professorial writing style, complete with continuous namedropping of other obscure intellectuals, vast postmodernist statements about vague connections between disparate social phenomena, and turning the names of social thinkers into adjectives (with the recurring suffix "-ian") to describe passing concepts. Davis also can't stop making up his own terms for one-time use in impressing academia, like "squirearchy," "cryogenized," or "monolithicity." And just try to digest the following statement from a discussion about the history of the L.A. jazz scene - "...seeking through introspection and experiment to fashion a hegemonic alternative to the deracination..." Perhaps Davis has managed to impress his colleagues with all this useless gobbledygook, but he has failed with the interested reader. And any audience will be ultimately disappointed with how Davis merely complains about all of L.A.'s problems without offering any (even high-level) solutions, while also forgetting to explore how any of this analysis can be applied to other cities or environments with similar problems. [~doomsdayer520~]
Factually lacking.......2005-10-31
Mike Davis, in an interview, admitted that he does not let the facts stand in the way of his arguments. City of Quartz demonstrates this tendency to the fullest. In a previous work, Davis pulled a passage out of a work of fiction and cited it as fact. He shows similar inventiveness in this work, citing studies that were never conducted, inventing interviews, and displaying a creativity with statistics that would be admirable if it weren't for the frightening fact that many who have read this work found it "incisive."
Those who applaud this work do so because it supports their politics. Those who attack it do so because it does not. I tried to remain neutral while reading, but when I read the book I found the inaccuracies to completely outweigh any points made by Davis. His purposeful and methodical deception does more harm than good to his cause.
For more information on this work, see an article at:
(...)
I would steer clear of Mike Davis and his blatant distortions of the truth.
Not a book to be quickly written off.......2005-04-28
I'd just like to offer a voice of temperance after reading a number of the reviews here. The boogeyman mentions of Davis' "Marxist" leanings are worthy of the McCarthy hearings. The mock citations of the type "All the other books I read in the field are much better" are proof of the reviewers' pretentiousness rather than a comment on the value of Davis' book. And, the ad hominem attacks against Davis are unfortunate and probably fueled by the envy of the young and non-published towards Davis as a productive scholar who doesn't seem like he's going away anytime soon. All of which is to say, forget the negative reviews and give City of Quartz a read. It was an insightful, even shocking, book when I read it years ago and continues to make for a solid supplement to a lived experience and a wide-range of contrasting readings on L.A. (as well as a good antidote against the boosterism and dreamy-eyed tripe that often goes around about our city).
Antiquated representation of LA.......2004-12-30
This book presents a very antiquated and negatively biased view of LA. I am left doubtful if many of the scenarios in the book were as "bad" as the author leads the reader to believe.
It is naive on the part of the author to separate the actual problems of LA from other large American cities, and present them as mutually exclusive to LA.
This book panders to a seemingly worldwide hatred of LA, and a kind of love affair with the notion of a eventual LA apocalypse.
What a disappointment that the author investigates no deeper than what the popular opinion of Los Angeles is, and panders to this misconception.
Book Description
Despite a modest revival in city living, Americans are spreading out more than ever -- into "exurbs" and "boomburbs" miles from anywhere, in big houses in big subdivisions. We cling to the notion of safer neighborhoods and better schools, but what we get, argues Anthony Flint, is long commutes, crushing gas prices and higher taxes -- and a landscape of strip malls and office parks badly in need of a makeover.
This Land tells the untold story of development in America -- how the landscape is shaped by a furious clash of political, economic and cultural forces. It is the story of burgeoning anti-sprawl movement, a 1960s-style revolution of New Urbanism, smart growth, and green building. And it is the story of landowners fighting back on the basis of property rights, with free-market libertarians, homebuilders, road pavers, financial institutions, and even the lawn-care industry right alongside them.
The subdivisions and extra-wide roadways are encroaching into the wetlands of Florida, ranchlands in Texas, and the desert outside Phoenix and Las Vegas. But with up to 120 million more people in the country by 2050, will the spread-out pattern cave in on itself? Could Americans embrace a new approach to development if it made sense for them?
A veteran journalist who covered planning, development, and housing for the Boston Globe for sixteen years and a visiting scholar in 2005 at the Harvard Design School, Flint reveals some surprising truths about the future and how we live in This Land.
Customer Reviews:
Flint wants citizens & planners to plan for 60-72 million immigrants. Flint says you're an extremist/radical if you oppose.......2007-01-25
I'm against sprawl. But I and the majority of U.S. citizens can't and should NOT accept Flint's outrageous portrayal (see pp 125-6) of those citizens who have examined and are deeply concerned with U.S. population projections for the next 50 years--120 million more, with a staggering 60% of those immigrant--as on the 'radical fringe' and as 'tree-huggers who agree with Pat Buchanan and Michael Savage.' This is idiotic McCarthy-like baiting at its finest. And dullest.
Flint appears to be clueless as to what democratic planning consists of. Perhaps he needs to research what U.S. citizens think 'building smart' for 72 million immigrants truly means. There SHOULD be a democratic debate about immigration and planning, and the sooner more Americans--and planners-- enter it, the better. But not for this author. Flint's biographical essay contains not a single reference to the impacts of illegal immigration (an estimated 12 million people)on municipal, regional and environmental planning practice. Is this acceptable to the majority of Americans? To planners? Instead we find Flint capitulating with this ridiculous reminder on how to 'deal' with the incoming masses (p 248):
"Remember those 100 million new people expected in the country by 2050? They're the reason we're going to need more compact places."
Just like that.
My other critique of this book (released in 2006) is the absence of ANY real discussion of the impacts of global warming on urban and regional development, planned or unplanned, smart or stupid. Flint covers planning issues for homeland security instead. But with popular coverage of planetary warming now a daily norm on the TV and in the media, you'd think writers steeped in planning issues would make the connection. Flint misses the boat in a rising sea...again. A LSU geoscience professor informs us on national news last night that coastal regions will be facing some serious threats in 40 years from melting ice caps. This book mentions nothing on the challenges of global warming for the planning profession, or for readers who happen to occupy the populated coastal areas of the country who'll see their populations soar from both legal and illegal population growth. Not to mention planning impacts of drought, flooding, urban heat islands, energy supplies for cities gong through hyper-growth, etc. Without population and global warming considerations (addressed in POPULATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE (2005) by O'Neill, and also see "Human Mobility in a Globalizing World: Urban Development Trends and Policy Implications" by Wm Clark and available online at the CA Center for Population Research), how smart can Flint's brand of American 'smart growth' really be?
I have grave doubts that the biologist E. O. Wilson, who has watched the planet get chewed to hell in his lifetime, would've given this book such high praises had he actually READ the book.
Addendum:
For a thoughtless and perhaps unethical critique of my book review by a Boston planner (academic?), click on 'Comments (2)' below. In summary and with my embellishments, this Flint supporter appears to be implying
1) The illegal immigration issue has nothing significant to do with land use planning (again: 60-72 million plus according to Flint added to the US population, and certainly the greater proportion arriving in violation of Federal immigration law). Focus uncritically on planning for the millions who are here legally and can afford to own planned developments. Aging baby boomers will need "young" people (who cares about their status) to do the menial work and pay into SS. The non-unionized undocumented will help build and maintain the compact habitats only aging boomers can afford. Like the sprawl they are constructing right now. How else will we keep some of our lawless and immoral regional economies humming w/out lots of young, undocumented, eager, and poverty stricken individuals? Who cares if this intensifies America's two-tier society?
2) You're xenophobic if you call attention to this demographic and planning challenge for the projected 60-72 million immigrants (note: her finger-pointing mirrors perfectly Flint's accusations of 'radicalism' mentioned in my book review. If you're not for unlimited population increase you're 'on the fringe'). Planners should not be concerned with what the majority of American citizens have to say about future land use in their own country.
3)Any voiced concerns with current failures of urban and regional planners to address the planning impacts of 12 million undocumented (in less than 12 years) or consider future planning demands for 60-72 million individuals are irrelevant; it's not what land use planners do. Remember: you're a xenophobe like millions of other Americans for even thinking that. Planners don't think this way. Just focus and push for legislation and regs that result in 'smart growth'.
4) Global warming is for env. science books, not land use planners who already know that stuff. Drought, urban runoff, regional flooding, building for a warmer climate, urban heat islands, energy and watershed water supplies for cities and regions, and the rise of sea level in urbanized coastal regions have NOTHING to do with American land use.
5) Flint's de facto and uncritical support for 60-72 million more individuals of unknown status entering this country in the next 50 years is not the point of the book. Good planning is simply a social challenge. We need enlightened planning laws. So to hell with immigration laws.
6)Repeat daily the 'smart growth' mantra.
Flint provides a lucid account of the complex battle over sprawl in America.......2006-09-09
'This Land' by Anthony Flint is written by a journalist in a journalistic style. The core of this book is devoted to the battle of ideologies over land use in America: the smart growth movement advocating for control on suburban growth, the new urbanists insisting on the need to rethink our zoning laws currently favoring inefficient sprawl, and property right advocates and lobbyists fighting to gain full control over what can be developed on their property. This story spanning over essentially half a century is told using a myriad of anecdotes and examples from all across America. One such story relates how land owners request compensations for lost revenues (equated to governmental takings) resulting from the restrictions on development outside urban growth boundaries. Flint remains critical and objective, avoiding an overt endorsement of anyone in particular. Many of the themes discussed in books such as `Suburban Nation' or `The Geography of Nowhere' are covered, but with a journalistic tone and restraint.
Beyond merely covering the familiar arguments, he suggests, somewhat surprisingly, that smart growth is itself a `conservative idea'. Our current growth practices are not truly a reflection of the free market; they are highly subsidized by way of highway investments and the costly expansion of public services by local governments (e.g. roads, sewers, schools, fire and police departments). Instead of building on brown sites and urban infills, cities expand on greenfields further and further away stretching tax dollars up to a point of imminent bankruptcy.
This book's strength is in providing a non-partisan account of the political and economical battles over land use in America. Its weakness may be an overabundance of short anecdotal stories found in the middle part of the book. Some suggestions are made in the very last chapter as to what can be done to improve our public space and reduce the wastefulness of our current growth practices. Those seeking a severe and incisive criticism of modern urbanism may be better served by reading `Suburban Nation'. However, this book presents the multitude of conflicting positions that other authors are essentially arguing for or against.
Very balanced and insightful.......2006-09-07
I find Anthony Flint very balanced and insightful in this book. I like the fact that this book's author, in addition to explaining how and why sprawl came about in the first place, the drawbacks of sprawl, and the solutions to it, also explains the reasons why there is so much resistance to the alternatives to sprawl, and the solutions to that resistance.
America the Beautiful.......2006-08-22
Anthony Flint does a great job of enlightening us about the history of sprawl in America and how we got to where we are today. It sure surprised me. He also offers solutions to the problems of sprawl, so the book provides hope. This Land is well written and easy to understand.
A wide-ranging survey of defenders and contenders of sprawl.......2006-08-20
THIS LAND: THE BATTLE OVER SPRAWL AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICA charts the evolution of development in America: a process which holds political, social and economic clashes and influences throughout the process. From the roots of the anti-sprawl movement in the 1960s to issues of property and personal rights, developer rights, finances and more, THIS LAND comes from a journalist who covered planning and housing for the Boston Globe for sixteen years. His background lends to a wide-ranging survey of defenders and contenders of sprawl.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Book Description
This gripping portrait of the rapidly evolving socioeconomic life of Ladakh - the Western Himalayan land known as "Little Tibet" - offers crucial lessons in sustainable development as its people attempt to balance growth and technology with cultural values. This account moves from the author's first visit in idyllic, nonindustrial Ladakh in 1974 to the present, showing the profound changes as the region was opened to foreign tourists, Western artifacts and technologies, and pressures for economic growth. These changes brought generational conflict, unemployment, inflation, environmental damage, and threats to the traditional way of life.
Appalled at the negative changes, the author helped establish the Ladakh Project (later renamed the International Society for Ecology and Culture) to seek sustainable solutions to preserve cultural values and environmental health, while facilitating the Ladakhis' hunger for modernization. This model undertaking effectively combines educational programs for all social levels with the design, demonstration, and promotion of appropriate technologies such as solar heating and small-scale hydro power.
This examination of how modernization changes the way people live and think challenges us to redefine our concepts of "development" and "progress." More than anything else, Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh stresses the need for the global community to find ways to carry traditional wisdom into the future.
Customer Reviews:
ANOTHER WAY.......2002-12-16
After reading this book, I suddenly realized the root problem of Western Civilization: We have no culture. Where there was once culture, we now have an expanding economic order threatening all life on the planet. Through its mechanism of growth and expansion, the global economy is conquering and converting life's diversity into an ecological and social monoculture of cash crops, Levis, soda pop and movie theatres. Perhaps moonscape would be a better word. Of course, it doesn't have to be this way. Our fast-paced, increasingly technological, capital-intensive, fossil fuel-centered, centralized, highly specialized, travel and commercial-oriented, often stressful society is by no means the end-all-be-all of human history. Murder, child abuse, drug abuse, theft, poverty, hunger, and every other problem that plagues the West are not products of human nature. The pathology of civilization is not natural or inevitable, and the Ladakhi are proof of this. Read this book and rediscover ancient, profound, life-affirmating alternatives to the modern humdrum. Discover another way of living, thinking and feeling. Important, necessary, engaging and masterfully written - this book was a treasure to read. Indeed, it was an awaking.
A MUST READ
Inspiring.......2002-10-10
This book has changed the way I looked at the issues of development, modernisation & morals. An amazing read, beautifully written and with great insights.
I have just returned from a trip to Ladakh and I could really relate to what Ms.Norberg talks about in the book.
Just a couple of side issues. It'd be good to know what exactly went wrong in Ladakh. Here are a people who for 2000 years had lived successfully by the rules of Buddhism. How & why did Buddhism fail these people in the face of global/western economic & cultural imperialism? Does the blame lie with Buddhism- it being too 'compassionate' and allowing a religion? Does the blame lie with the Ladakhis who probably were not as sincere Buddhists as they are made out to be?
After all if they really were such devout Buddhists, how come they fell to the greed that capitalism breeds?
Anyway, these are issues which could have been addressed in the book. Regardless, the book is excellent! A must read.
Wonderful and Depressing.......2001-03-15
Rarely have I felt more dispair about the direction of what we know as civilization as I felt halfway through this book. The Ladakh people are described as happy, healthy, and self-reliant. Suddenly, the "real world" happens to them, and they come to see themselves as poor, when before they had no need of money.
The authors do a nice job of weaving a story of hope at the end but I have concern for the future of these people. It helps me understand the decision the government of Bhutan has made to isolate themselves from western-style civilization.
Riches to Rags.......2000-10-25
The first half of *Ancient Futures* will delight and amaze you; the second half will break your heart.
In the 1970s, the Ladakhis of Little Tibet were a happy people. They had a sustainable traditional economy based on trade and cooperation - not money. One person's gain was not another person's loss. There was plenty of leisure, no hunger or poverty, very little sickness or disease, everyone was valued, there was no pollution and nothing was wasted. They got along fine with their Muslim neighbors and they kept their population stable through marriage customs based on land use. Almost every family had a celibate monk or nun. Buddhist monasteries and people had a mutually beneficial economic, social and spiritual relationship. Ladakhis are a naturally contemplative people with a great deal of spiritual awareness. "Schon chan" (one who angers easily) is about the only insult in the Ladakhi lnaguage. "Lack of pride is a virtue, for pride, born of ego, has nothing to do with self-respect among these Buddhist people." The author says that it took her two years of living among them to realize that the people were genuinely and joyfully HAPPY. Then the world beat a path to their door and all that changed - in fewer than two decades.
It's like a little piece of cultural time-lapse photography. What took western culture more than four centuries to do to the Native-Americans took only twenty years here. Ladakh has become a cautionary tale and a monument to western greed and stupidity.
Now there is poverty and unemployment, stress-related disease, women are devalued, the people are ashamed of their "backward" culture, there is little leisure but a great deal of pollution and waste as well as dispute between Muslims and Buddhists and the population had increased markedly. ("Interestingly, a number of Ladakhis have linked the rise of birth rates to the advent of modern democracy. "Power is a question of votes" is a current slogan, meaning that, in the modern sector, the larger your group, the greater your access to power. Competition for jobs and political representation within the new centralized structures is increasingly dividing Ladakhis.")
Chiildren are trained to become specialists in a technological rather than an ecological society. They no longer have time to learn the superb survival techniques of their families. Western culture is creating artificial scarsity and inducing competition.
Now I understand the mechanism better. A culture that has a heavily subsidized infrastructure invades a traditional self-sustaining culture and creates artificial "needs." So they go to the city to earn money which they never needed before, leaving their farms and women, who are immediately devalued because they're not wage earners. The people are no longer planting, irrigating, spinning wool, gathering seeds, harvesting, playing music and singing and telling stories, having seasonal parties, marriage parties or funeral watches - together.
Time has become a commodity. It has become uneconomical to grow one's own food, make one's own clothes and build one's own house. You have to pay your neighbors for the work that the whole community used to do for free.
The men are in the cities earning money and the women are producing tourist commodities with the wool they used to spin for their own use and the food they used to grow for their own families. Now they grow cash crops for strangers so they can make enough money to buy polyester clothes and walkmans and jeans for their kids and food grown hundreds of miles away and fuel trucked in from afar.
The Yak and the Dzo, uniquely suited for high altitudes of Ladakh gave rich milk but not as much as western cattle. So what did the conquering culture do? They imported cattle that can't make it at such altitudes, so more land has to be relegated to planting crops to feed the cattle, thereby upsetting the balance. And they call this progress.
Why can't we just leave people alone - especially when they're doing FINE without us?
"When one-third of the world's population consumes two-thirds of the world's resources," says Norberg-Hodge, "and then in effect turns around and tells the others to do as they do, it is little short of a hoax. Development is all too often a euphemism for exploitation, a new colonialism."
All this would be a dismal tragedy comparable to Columbus's complete genocide of the Tainos if not for a "counter development" movement generated in part by this author. Since the Ladakhis can't go back, they can at least go forward. Instead of importing expensive fossil fuels (previously they had used yak dung and kept warm) they can have solar houses and greenhouses, which have worked very well and given them one benefit that they have previously not had. That's something. Information is another plus. The people are being made aware that westerners pay more for whole grains, organic vegetables, pure water, natural fibers, and natural building materials - things these people have had for a thousand years without money. This is something so-called third-world people are generally not told about.
Once in a while a book comes along that changes one's perspective forever. *Ancient Futures* is such a book. I haven't been the same since.
One of the reviewers on this site said he ended up buy copies for his friends. So have I. This book is a must-read for every person who is concerned about the preservation of our planet and our species.
pamhan99@aol.com
Intimate view of one society gives insights on our own.......2000-05-02
How does life in a non-industrial society compare to life in our own? In which society are people happier? If life in non-industrial societies compares favorably to life in our own, then why are the barrios of the third world filling up with migrants from remote villages? This book provides surprising insights into these questions. It also provokes reflections on our own society and its influence on the rest of the world. After reading a used copy I picked up for free, I bought seven copies of this book for friends and family!
Book Description
A fully updated edition of Mike Davis's visionary work.
No metropolis has been more loved or more hated. To its official boosters, "Los Angeles brings it all together." To detractors, LA is a sunlit mortuary where "you can rot without feeling it." To Mike Davis, the author of this fiercely elegant and wide-ranging work of social history, Los Angeles is both utopia and dystopia, a place where the last Joshua trees are being plowed under to make room for model communities in the desert, where the rich have hired their own police to fend off street gangs, as well as armed Beirut militias. In City of Quartz, Davis reconstructs LA's shadow history and dissects its ethereal economy. He tells us who has the power and how they hold on to it. He gives us a city of Dickensian extremes, Pynchonesque conspiracies, and a desperation straight out of Nathaniel West—a city in which we may glimpse our own future mirrored with terrifying clarity.
In this new edition, Davis provides a dazzling update on the city's current status.
Customer Reviews:
city of quartz , new edition.......2007-09-19
City of Quartz, the original version, is an excellent book on the history of Los Angeles until 1989, well readable, informative and incisive, a must-read even if some people take offense at views which are neither mainstream nor conservative.
When you finish the book you are very curious as to how that author would write about the years since 1989.
That book still needs to be written.
But in an extensive foreword to this new edition many aspects of the most recent history of the most fascinating metropolis on the planet are touched, the Watts riots and whatnot; obviously there is much more and whoever follows what Davis writes in journals about Katrina-torn New Orleans and other hot topics, google his books !, can't wait until a new, extensively updated "City of Quartz" will be out.
Should be shelved in Poli-Sci or Opinion but not History.......2007-05-22
I got this book thinking it was about the social history and architecture of Los Angeles.
Although City Of Quartz does touch upon various events in LA history, it does so only to use those events as a springboard for the author's political writings. Reading it, I got the impression that ANY American city would have brought forth the same opinions.
To sum up: "Wealthy people, Corporations, the Police, and Conservatives are BAD GUYS and are ALWAYS in the wrong. Poor people, Unions, Criminals and Liberals are GOOD GUYS and are ALWAYS in the right. And don't you people realize that the cost of one stealth bomber could pay for 10000 public housing units!?"
The author is certainly entitled to his opinions, but with such a cut-and-dried world view the book quickly becomes boringly predictable. Page after page of "The rich are oppressing the poor, the Whites are oppressing Minorities, the Police are oppressing criminals..." stated as facts - no need for debate - no discussion as to WHY the author feels this way - just a long laundry list of political grievences, and in the end - very little about L.A. history.
If you're interested in Mr. Davis's opinions, this book might be worth a read. But if you're looking for a history book about Los Angeles, look elsewhere.
a great piece of history.......2007-03-26
I knew very little about L.A. This book is actually a history book. I just loved it and it answered many questions I had.
Radical history of Los Angeles.......2007-02-26
Davis is well-known in radical circles as a popular writer on various issues relating to labor movements and the like. This is essentially a history of the city of Los Angeles and its surroundings from a radical perspective. It's quite well-done and very informative (at least to an ignoramus like me), but Davis goes overboard now and then in seeing a conspiracy to repress the poor behind everything. He also has the tendency to call historical incidences of repression a "holocaust" (he actually uses this word multiple times for different things), which I don't like being used in this manner. Aside from that though, it's a welcome different approach from the usual hagiographic or hip postmodern analyses of conglomeration cities like LA. There's not much more I can say about it, as whether you like his left-wing critical vignettes or not will be mostly a matter of taste - judge it for yourself.
Average customer rating:
- One of the Best Studies about Public Art
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Art, Space and the City: Public Art and Urban Futures
Malcolm Miles
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ASIN: 0415139422 |
Book Description
Because public art suffers from falling between the realms of art and urban planning, it has been neglected in debates both on contemporary art and the future of cities. Art, Space and the City focuses on two roles for art: as decoration within revisioned urban design and as a social process of criticism.
Malcolm Miles applies a range of critical perspectives which have emerged from art criticism, urban design, urban sociology, geography and critical theory--to examine the practice of art for urban public spaces, and asks the artworld how it might contribute to the urban future. Drawing on a wealth of images and examples, including New York, Seattle, London and Tokyo, the author questions the effectiveness of public art in achieving more convivial urban environments, while retaining the idea that imagining the urban future is as much part of a democratic society as using public space.
Exploring the diversity of the roles of professionals and users in the construction of the city, the gendering of space and the ways in which space and citizen are represented, Miles explains how these issues are as relevant to architecture, urban design and planning as they are to public art. After three decades of public art as an often marginalized area within the practice of art, this is the only book to take stock of what it has become and what the future holds for it in the urban setting.
Customer Reviews:
One of the Best Studies about Public Art.......2003-03-27
This book is one of the best studies carried through on the problematic of the public art in the internacional context. The author displays of a form notable the new conceptions of public art, collated with the classic conceptions that afect the monument. He analyzes some of the interventions more interesting of the public space, and explains the intentions of each creator. Richard Serra, Rachel Whiteread, Tone Otterness, Antony Gormley, Isamu Noguchi, Mierle Ukeles, Wodiczko, is some of the examples that the author appeals to show to the diversity of the proposals contemporaries. For beyond the artists, the author collates diverses teses defended by Rosalin Deutshe, Suzanne Lacy, Sara Selwood, Harriet F. Senie, among others. If it is interested in deepening its knowledge in the field of the public art, cannot leave to possess a unit of this book in your private library.
Book Description
If, like many Americans, you believe the ongoing tragedy of Hurricane Katrina was a once-in-a-lifetime fluke, you need to read this book. In the coming years and decades, the safety of your region, your town, your home may depend on the warnings you'll encounter on these pages. That's because the exact same conditions that created the Katrina catastrophe and destroyed New Orleans are being replicated right now along virtually every inch of U.S. coastline.
In The Ravaging Tide, Mike Tidwell, a renowned advocate for the environment and an award-winning journalist, issues a call to arms and confronts us with some unsettling facts. Consider:
- In the next seventy-five years, much of the Florida peninsula could lie under ocean water.
- So could much of Lower Manhattan, including all of the hallowed ground zero area.
- Major hurricanes like Katrina, scientists say, are becoming much more frequent and more powerful.
- Glacier National Park in Montana will have to change its name, as it is rapidly losing all of its thirty-five remaining glaciers.
- The snows atop Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa, so memorably evoked in the Hemingway story, have already disappeared.
The fault, Tidwell argues, lies mostly with the U.S. government and the energy choices it has encouraged Americans to make over the decades. Those policies are now actively bringing rising seas and gigantic hurricanes -- the lethal forces that killed the Big Easy -- crashing into every coastal city in the country and indeed the world. The Bush administration's own reports and studies (some of which it has tried to suppress) explicitly predict more intense storms and up to three feet of sea-level rise by 2100 due to planetary warming. The danger is clear: Whether the land sinks three feet per century (as in New Orleans over the past 100 years) or sea levels rise three feet per century (as in the rest of the world over the next 100 years), the resulting calamity is the same.
Although Mike Tidwell sounds the clarion in The Ravaging Tide, this is ultimately an optimistic book, one that offers a clear path to a healthier and safer world for us and our descendants. He writes of trend-setting U.S. states like New York and California that are actively cutting greenhouse gases. And he heeds his own words: In one delightful personal chapter, he takes us on a tour of his suburban Washington, D.C., home and demonstrates how he and many of his neighbors have weaned themselves from the fossil-fuel lifestyle. Even when the government is slow to change, there are steps we as families can take to, yes, change the world.
Customer Reviews:
Climate Change is Real .......2007-02-21
The flooding of New Orleans resulted from a combination of effects: subsiding land, sea level increase, destruction of protecting wetlands, and of course a violent storm. Tidwell's thesis is that sea level will continue to rise and tropical storms and hurricanes will increase in intensity, all as a result of climate change. The entire East Coast of the United States will be as vulnerable as was New Orleans. Most of Miami and the rest of Florida average just a few feet above sea level. While New York City is mostly on higher ground, the author observes that the infrastructure, the subways system for example, is well below ground.
As world temperatures rise, melting or collapsing glaciers will add water to the ocean. Higher world temperatures will also mean that the water already in the ocean will expand and cause an additional rise in the sea level. Thus, land that is today at or slightly above sea level will become land that is below sea level. Certainly, whether or not storms grow more intense (this is still being debated in the scientific community), global warming will increase the level of the ocean. All of our coastal cities may go the way of New Orleans.
Recently, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report in which it stated that the Earth is warming and that most of the warming is a result of human activity. This is also the overwhelming view of the scientific community. My first encounter with the effects of global warming was a hike in the 1980s to the foot of the Paradise Glacier on Mt. Ranier to visit the ice caves. I was disappointed to find that the famous caves were mostly gone. The caves had disappeared because the glacier itself was retreating. We now know that glaciers all over the world are melting. A recent headline caught my eye; "Iceberg off New Zealand becomes tourist mecca," AP, November 21, 2006. The residents of New Zealand could look out their windows to see pieces of Antarctica floating by.
It is not clear what it will take to get our US government to take steps to limit the emission of greenhouse gases. We have already lost one major city. Will we have to see a few more go before we take action? Tidwell does a good job of presenting the need for individual and governmental action.
I also recommend "With Speed and Violence" by Fred Pearce. a book about recent scientific investigations and their implications for global warming.
A Great, must-read book.......2006-12-30
I loved this book so much that I've read the first chapter aloud to three appreciative people on the phone, and I'm also planning to buy a copy for every Maryland state legislator. (Let me know if you do the same in your state.)
Mike Tidwell writes beautifully. Even though I've seen An Inconvenient Truth, and heard Bill McKibbon speak, I learned plenty from The Ravaging Tide that I hadn't already heard before. Tidwell shares history, science, policy, despair (when we don't act on clean energy policy), and promise (when we do).
Yes, it may be odd, but I was walking (not driving!) down sidewalks while reading this book. I couldn't put it down, until the very last page.
Mike Tidwell is a former journalist and travel writer for the Washington Post and the National Geographic Traveler.
Not the Best Book on the Subject.......2006-12-09
When I ordered this book, I had great hopes for its contents. I was looking for a good "summer project" book that dealt with global warming and alternative energy. It was to be used by a high school environmental class.
What I wound up with was a book that dealt with both subjects, as well as with the Hurricane Katrina disaster, but it was so poorly written and biased that I would not be able to use it in a classroom setting. The writing in the book was extremely redundant; repeating the same information over and over again. I think the book could have been written without the redundancy in about half the number of pages. And, that change would have made the book much more readable and enjoyable.
In addition, the author clearly has an agenda and, while he may think he is presenting his case objectively, he falls far short. It is easy to agree, for the most part, with much of the science presented. It is his premise that falls short. I am a dedicated environmentalist, and found many of his solutions to be totally unworkable.
He describes his work with his own home to reduce his carbon footprint. One method he used was to heat his home with a corn burning stove. It sounds good, but how many Americans, who drive three blocks to a store, will put up with hauling 5 gallon buckets of corn to their stoves on a regular basis. Not many I would propose, unless they have a lot of free time. Some of his other suggestions, as well, are equally unworkable on a large scale.
Finally, I have a problem with his bashing Bush constantly. I am no fan of Bush, but he is not the sole reason that the US has done little to nothing about its carbon footprint and global warming. Bush is a part of the problem, but lets put the blame where it needs to go. Clinton did little during his term and the same can be said for the elder Bush. Also, the Congress has been woefully inept at dealing with the issue.
There are a number of books about this subject that are well written and objective. This is neither. I would suggest you save your money and buy one of the more comprehensive books available.
Hard to Believe.......2006-11-27
Sorry ... this book is neither a parable nor a polemic - it's just another eco-manipulator at work. Tidwell says that Katrina destroyed New Orleans. Of course it did not. It was the levee failures, not the surge tide, that doomed the city. This point is apparently far too subtle for Tidwell to understand, and yet it is crucial. Perhaps we need to change the world to prevent future surge tides, but we definitely need to improve the levees - and the disasterously corrupt local political atmosphere that allowed the city to drown - if we want to save New Orleans.
And of course, this is one of the many examples of Tidwell's raging hypocracy. He never asks the basic question, why save New Orleans at all? If Tidwell is right, it makes no sense to repopulate it. If the city has subsided to the point where it basically replaces the marshes it once drained in a move that accelerated the Katrina disaster, why not simply let nature take its course and allow the flooded land to become the new buffer? We are not lessening any human tragedy by helping people move right back onto the "landing strip" (Tidwell, demonstrating his utter lack of imagination, uses this metaphor a dozen times in the book) for the next Katrina.
And by the way, where was the 2006 Katrina? Tidwell virtually guarantees a cycle of doom, with each year bringing more and more devastation caused by global warming. And yet, why wasn't New Orleans swamped in 2006? Why weren't Miami and Savanah and New York destroyed too? What's that? You can't use climate changes to predict the weather? But that's virtually the entire basis for Tidwell's book.
That and, as noted above, his shameless hypocracy. Another small example (there are too many to count) - throughout the book, he cites reports by insurance companies that say the cost and impact of bad weather are increasing because of global warming. But then, when he wants to have a corn granery built in his town to make his life easier, he discovers that insurance companies won't cover the risk without a huge premium. This decision - shared, Tidwell tells us, by every company he contacted - threatens his green goodness.
What would a hypocrite do? Of course - when the insurance companies agrees with Tidwell's premise, they are right - in fact, they are unimpeachable proof of his agrument. But when they don't do what he wants, the very same paragons of truth suddenly become idiots.
If you want to know how Tidwell ultimately prevailed (by having his fellow-citizens assume the cost of the risk that he, in his eco-purity, could not possibly be expected to pay), you will have to slog through the book on your own.
Good luck. But that's not all you will live through, in all liklihood.
In just the last 30 years, we have survived so much that the eco-manipulators have claimed would kill us - global cooling, nuclear power, nuclear winter, nuclear war, nuclear waste, the loss of the ozone layer, DDT, swine flu, avian flu, the Ebola virus, "hot spot" viruses, "Frankenstein" foods, and mercury in tuna, in tooth fillings and in vaccines, to name just a few - that either global warming will be the BIG ONE, as we were assured very positively that all the others were as well, or we'll use our inventiveness and imagination to find a solution that doesn't kill us ... as Tidwell and his kind move onto the next disaster waiting to be uncovered and sold to a gullible public.
Alarming Yet Hopeful.......2006-09-20
This is a highly emotional work. Mike Tidwell predicted the disasters of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita several years before they happened, and he is justifiably angry that his warnings were not heeded. In The Ravaging Tide Tidwell expands on his earlier work to explain why human activities such as building levees actually increased the destruction at New Orleans, and to warn that other coastal areas now face the same sort of threat.
At times Tidwell waxes somewhat repetitive, making the same point over and over again, but this stems from the overwhelming frustration he feels over public and government inaction. He also relies heavily on secondary sources such as Jared Diamond's Collapse (to which he refers repeatedly) so that those of us who have read that work feel Tidwell's own work is little more than a condensed version of other books.
Tidwell is strongest when he concentrates on explaining how so much of what we face from climate change can be alleviated or even avoided through common sense measures, such as using more energy efficient appliances or requiring energy using companies to upgrade to already existing and far more environment friendly technology. He is also at his most eloquent when condemning the fecklessness of the Bush Administration on energy policy and climate change.
Tidwell's work, like those of Jared Diamond, Tim Flannery, Eugene Linden, and Elizabeth Kolbert, should be read by everyone concerned for the future of our world.
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Book Description
This pioneering, multi-disciplinary analysis looks ahead to the direction which the study of urban society is likely to take. Leading researchers from sociology, geography, anthropology, and cultural studies examine the research issues that emerged during the 1990s, particularly from political economy and 'cultural turn' perspectives. Their exploration reveals both how urban studies have fragmented, and how a new middle ground for future debate and research has arisen.The volume brings together theoretical discussion of urban studies with analysis of urban processes at both regional and local levels around the globe. It enables readers to assess the degree to which differing perspectives have produced dynamic diversity as well as areas of mutual interest, creating exciting possibilities for urban studies locally and globally.
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