Edge City: Life on the New Frontier

Book Description

First there was downtown. Then there were suburbs. Then there were malls. Then Americans launched the most sweeping change in 100 years in how they live, work, and play. The Edge City.

Customer Reviews:

I actually shook my fist at this book while reading it. More than once........2005-10-20

Edge City is obnoxious partially because it is full of lies, distortions, and contradictions, and partially because it espouses an irresponsible model of growth and settlement. I say "irresponsble" because while Garreau claims to be merely descriptive, he's actually prescriptive: he not only argues that ECs are inevitable, but insists that they're vital and wonderful and soup for the human soul. I admit, however, that what what initially raised and finally sustained my rancor is that it's another case of someone simply ignoring the research that has come before them, research of which they are clearly aware, and not bothering to show how their new theory sits with respect to that previous knowledge, or why their new explanations are superior to previous ones.

Garreau makes at least 4 references to Jane Jacobs and her seminal Life and Death of Great American Cities early on in his book - mostly throwaway references, one slightly critical. There's absolutely no engagement, though her work is highly relevant. In LDGAM, Jacobs argues that the basic tenents of urban zoning and planning, which she labels "City Beautiful", are flawed, and destined to create dead grey areas in cities. She advocates mixed zoning, so that the same neighborhood contains at least retail, offices, and residential units, and so that there's significant cross-use and foot traffic throughout the day and night. She also advocates measures in general that are calculated to make movement easier and more appealing for pedestrians, such as shorter blocks, and irregular streets mixed in with the main arterial thoroughfares. Her book is much richer than all of this; this is just a summary of the most relevant parts.

Garreau's Edge City opens up by lamenting the deadness of downtowns and their lack of cross-use, their tendency for single-zoning, etc. He goes on to suggest that his "Edge Cities" (suburbs that have rapidly sprung up over the past 30 years, and which contain a mix of commercial, retail, and residential areas) are not only a good solution to the "problems of cities", but in fact, the inevitable one as well. This would be fine if he talked explicity about why mixed-use zoning in cities doesn't work; why being able to walk across the street to buy milk, take a 20 minute bus to work, walk 10 minutes to a park, and be in the midst of thousands of easily accessible city amenities is so much worse than living in a suburb where you need a car to get anywhere, where you have a 20-minute drive to shopping of any kind, and a 45-minute drive to work. But he doesn't. He makes hand-wavey remarks that humans seek out open spaces and freedom, that a man over 30 who takes the bus every day is a failure, that man seeks to be close to nature, and that urban planners are effete intellectuals who have no idea how real people live. Etc. Again, any one of those propositions would be fine, but there's no data to back it up. The book as a whole is little more than a complicated mess of contradictory claims.

For example, in one chapter, Garreau describes Edge Cities as affordable, but in another he admits that as Edge Cities age, they become increasingly expensive, and "middle-income" people are reduced to paying through the nose to live in what Garreau himself describes as the suburban equivalent of tenement houses. When praising the loveliness and freedom of Edge Cities, Garreau more or less only concentrates on the richest citizens - his interviewees were business owners, vice-presidents, and lawyers, all pulling down upper-middle class salaries at the very least. One upscale couple remarks, "It's really our money that makes us free." (How droll!) Indeed, Edge Cities are great if you're a CEO or can afford a giant house on a 3-acre lot, and at least one car per driver to meet basic transit needs. (And social services are a lot better when you're in a neighborhood where everyone makes several hundred thousand a year: at last, you don't have to subsidize local poor people!) At least, Edge Cities are great while they're new. Garreau describes in several places old suburbs that crumbled and died after they got a little less shiny and new, and their corporate sponsors decided to pick up and build a different plot of virgin land.

In sum, the Edge City phenomenon Garreau describes and joyfully embraces as inevitable is no more and no less than a greedy, unsustainable land grab that will force us to build a lot of unecessary infrastructure (roads, sewers) to places that will just be abandoned in another 50 years.

Automotively Optimistic.......2005-03-31

Explores the new environments arising at the junctions of interstate highways on the edges of major American metropolises. These developments supplemented suburbia first with retail and then with office buildings to become during the 1980s new centers of intensity rivaling or surpassing the old downtowns.

Through a succession of chapters, each nominally dedicated to a single metropolitan area, Mr. Garreau examines the edge city in its relation to some key issues in American society (transportation, race, quasi-governmental institutions, etc.) and then proceeds to investigate the edge city's compatibility with the traditional concepts of civilization, community, soul, and finally "hallowed ground."

An engaging and informative discussion of the forces shaping the new communities under construction throughout America. I recommend Edge City strongly to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of why we build the way we do.

My recent re-reading of Edge City was prompted by my first reading of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, by Jane Jacobs. First published in 1961, Ms. Jacobs' work is now a classic that I wish I had read years earlier.

In a chapter entitled "Erosion of cities or attrition of automobiles," Ms. Jacobs expresses extreme pessimism regarding the place of the automobile in a livable urban environment. She counsels deliberate "attrition" of automobiles as the only protection against "erosion" of the city by continual further accommodations to them. Her well reasoned analysis of the conflict between car and city left me convinced of the wisdom of her recommendations.

But I remembered vaguely that Mr. Garreau had by contrast seemed entirely optimistic about the quality of life in edge cities built from the ground up to accommodate automotive traffic. So I read Edge City again.

My memory was not mistaken. Mr. Garreau seems optimistic about nearly every aspect of the edge city, cars included, about which he declares: "The system of individual transportation we Americans have devised, of course, is the finest method of moving the most people and freight in the most directions at the most times ever devised by the mind of man. At its center is the automobile and the hard-surfaced, all-weather road (p. 108)."

Ms. Jacobs, on the other hand, emphasizes the inefficiencies of automobiles. They are generally under-occupied when in use. They require vast areas of land for roads and parking lots that go unused for much of the time. Negative feedback is a chief characteristic of systems built to accommodate them: they always use up all of the roads and parking, requiring enlargement of both, spreading the buildings even farther apart, with the result of inducing even more travel by car.

Oddly enough, Mr. Garreau admits all of these drawbacks in his book (Death and Life of Great American Cities is in his bibliography.). Nevertheless, he remains optimistic.

One explanation for this difference in attitude before the same facts rests on a difference between the two authors regarding the definition of the term "density." Both praise what Mr. Garreau calls "urbanity"-the variety and uniqueness of life in our most attractive urban environments. Both also agree that "density" is necessary to urbanity.

The problem is that Ms. Jacobs is a walker while Mr. Garreau is a driver. She wants to experience continuous urbanity (hence also density) over the paths she walks, starting from her own front door. Mr. Garreau is content to experience urbanity at a locus of density to which he drives over asphalt parking lots. Ms. Jacobs wants her urbanity along a city sidewalk, whereas Mr. Garreau will take his in a suburban mall. The automobile is destroyer of the former and enabler of the latter.

For Mr. Garreau, density may be discontinuous, presenting loci of dense human activity separated by lots full of the cars that bring the humans together. For Ms. Jacobs, density is continuous, uninterrupted by the freeways and parking lots that are indeed forbidding to pedestrians.

Another explanation for the difference in attitude is that Ms. Jacobs sees the car as one of many influences destroying the urbanity of the established older "center" city. Inversely, Mr. Garreau sees the automobile as the prerequisite for the construction of a new "edge" city that will in his view gradually develop the same urbanity-with the HELP of the automobile: "But the best bet is probably the one we are engaged in right now: building Edge City. It is a world that does not deny the automobile, but at the same time increases density, putting everything a person desires as close as possible to his house while reducing the number of different places he has to park in order to go about his affairs (p. 129)."

Personally, I am a walker, but I see his point, and I liked the book.

I should mention before closing that there are some interesting appendixes: (1) list of edge cities to be found in each major metropolitan area in the United States; (2) dictionary of important jargon used by developers of edge cities; and (3) list of the "laws" (primarily quantitative) determining the layout of edge city development ("Americans won't walk more than 600 feet," for example). There is also an extensive bibliography, partially annotated.

What It Is............2005-02-01

It is interesting to read this book again with the benefit of some history since it was first written. The Edge City has evolved and continues to evolve, but there is little doubt at this point that Garreau's basic premise was correct. We are on the edge because this is where it makes sense for so many of us to live. Just as the traditional city worked in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century, Edge City works today, and not just in the United States, but globally. I've seen Edge City in Toronto, Malmo Sweden and other places the author references and what strikes me is how similiar it is to Edge City in my own backyard, that is, The Woodlands, Texas.

Garreau is correct that Edge City is in transition. The Houston Galleria has gone from Edge City to traditional city in any sense of the definition. As housing is added and density increased, the area adapts. Always a destination, it is now home for increasing numbers of Houstonians. Mass transit is not far off. The Edge City is going mainstream, at least in the Galleria, and the end product is very attractive. The same can be said for The Woodlands. Yes, it is Disney-esque, but it is also funky in it's own way, and the end product will continue to evolve. The new pedestrian friendly village is already a hit, and water taxis and pathways make carless movement between major attractions a viable alternative to traditional suburban transit.

This is an excellent read, in no small part because Garreau resists the urge to lecture and condescend. He seems fascinated by the product and willing to admit that Edge City is what it is, and it might be a viable alternative even for those among us who view sprawl as wasteful and immoral. If you're interested in understanding the evolution of modern society, both good and bad, in terms of the places more and more of us are calling home....then this is a worthwhile read.

Exceptionally well done.......2004-09-13

This book explores what has become of the suburbs. Garreau's argues that certain suburbs have developed into a new kind of city, a city without a traditional downtown. He believes that such "edge cities", are the cities of the future. Garreau's criteria for an "edge city" are:
--5 million square feet or more of office space
--600,000 square feet or more of retail space
--more jobs than bedrooms
--perceived as one place by the population
--developed within the last 30 years

With these criteria in mind, Garreau sets off across the US to study our major edge cities. He explores edge cities in New Jersey, Texas, Southern California, and the areas around Boston, Detroit, Atlanta, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. In each area that he visits, Garreau takes up an edge city theme. For instance, in Detroit he discusses cars and the role they play in edge cities, and in Atlanta he discusses questions of race and class in edge cities.

At the end of the book is a list of US cities that qualified for edge city status in 1992. This is followed by a glossary of words used by edge city developers and a set of "laws" about how edge cities work. These "laws" are statistical observations about human behavior relevant for city planning, such as "the furthest distance an American will willing walk before getting into a car is 600 feet." Finally, there is an annotated list of suggested readings, endnotes, and an index.

Garreau is neither for nor against edge cities. He tries instead to understand how they work, and why they have popped up so rapidly across the country. He strives to be descriptive rather than prescriptive, coming across more like Jane Jacobs than Lewis Mumford, who argued so stridently for regional planning. Garreau points out that edge cities are being built by developers who are in the business to make money. In other words, they build what they believe will sell, and given the fact that the developments sell so well, a lot of Americans are making the conscious decision that they want to live in edge city developments. Through interviews with developers, employers, and residents, Garreau explores the factors that make edge cities so popular.

He writes "Maybe it worked like this. The force that drove the creation of Edge City was our search deep inside ourselves for a new balance of individualism and freedom. We wanted to build a world in which we could live in one place, work in another, and play in a third, in unlimited combination, as a way to nurture our human potential. This demanded transportation that would allow us to go where we wanted, when we wanted. That enshrined the individual transportation system, the automobile, in our lives. And that led us to build our market meeting places in the fashion of today's malls." Cars are key elements in this phenomenon. They make it possible for people to separate their workplaces from the residences, and they define the distances which are considered commutable. They make it possible for people to live spread out enough from each other that everyone can have a front yard, yet at the same time, for the development to be dense enough to support large employers and sophisticated shopping options.

Garreau doesn't devote much space to the problems created by such heavy dependence on personal autos. Would Americans ever be willing to trade in their cars for more sustainable transit options, such as bicycles? Unless the price of gas rises drastically, we probably won't find out. But it seems that it wouldn't be that hard to develop edge cities where people could get around by bicycle or foot. In Scandinavia, for instance, new developments are connected by bicycle/pedestrian walkways that are completely separate from motorways and have their own underpass system so that interactions with motorized traffic are kept to a minimum. Everyone from the youngest tot to the oldest senior citizen uses these paths. If bike travel were made easy and safe here, perhaps it might become more popular, easing the congestion on the roads. It might also help with our obesity epidemic.

One topic that Garreau seems to overlook is the question of the support workers for edge cities. In Garreau's edge city descriptions, the edge city residential properties are attractive and upscale, suitable for well-paid white color employees. The money these people have supports the edge city malls, shopping centers, and restaurants. But such highly skilled people aren't likely to actually work at the malls, where the jobs are minimum wage. All those shops and restaurants require ranks of minimum wage workers, and people earning the minimum wage can't afford to live in Edge City where the housing costs are so high. Instead, they live in run-down inner cities or outlying towns and commute long distances to their jobs at the malls. They may not reside in edge cities, but they still comprise a major component of the overall operations and their needs and habits should also be considered.

I lived in an edge city west of Boston for four years. I lived in a box, I worked in a box, and when I got home at night I was dead tired from the commute. The distances between shops and homes were so large that a car was absolutely required to get around. It was virtually impossible to meet others, and cultural activities were extremely limited. For the most part, the only public space in town was at the malls. The town spirit seemed to be missing along with the town center. The first chance we had to leave town, we bolted and have never looked back. If Garreau is right, and edge cities are the wave of the future because that's where Americans are choosing to live, I'm afraid for the future of America. Hopefully, as edge cities begin to mature, they will become more livable places.

On the Edge.......2004-04-19

This was the first book on cities and planning I ever read, and I was captivated through most of it. Filled with fascinating views on how real estate and commerce work together, this book ties together views of different metropoles as they develop their "Edge Cities," grown-up suburbs that are more than bedroom communities. These Edge Cities have overwhelmed the central city that gave birth to them, as suburbanites find them easier to commute to (at first), and certainly cleaner than the "real city." Gridlock and sprawl are the result as the Edge Cities go up everywhere.

And I still remember my eagerness in reading this terrific book, city after city, looking forward to the San Francisco chapter... and my crushing disappointment when Garreau discussed not Silicon Valley, the quintessential Edge City, but... Concord. Concord? How did he miss Silicon Valley, at the intersection of 85 and 280, or 101 and 880, or... (Garreau feels freeway junctions lead to Edge Cities)

Okay, other than my personal disappointment that he missed the real story, that the suburban metroplex is none other than San Jose/Santa Clara/Cupertino/Sunnyvale/Mountain View/Palo Alto/Redwood City this is still a great book. The endpapers show the contrast between Tyson's Corners postwar and in the nineties, and what a contrast it is.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book on a relatively misunderstood animal!.......2001-05-30

I really enjoyed this book and the information provided on these beautiful animals. Very educational and the photographs are outstanding. It helped me to identify the gray foxes which live around my house.

Excellent book.......2000-10-22

i must say this book gives very good info. I would recommend anyone who is intrested in foxes they have info from the swift fox to red foxes etc...

The Leading Edge: Aerodynamic Design of Ultra-Streamlined Land Vehicles (Engineering and Performance)

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The Best mix of aero theory and real-world examples.

The Leading Edge: Aerodynamic Design of Ultra-Streamlined Land Vehicles (Engineering and Performance)
Goro Tamai
Manufacturer: Bentley Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0837608600

Book Description

The Leading Edge is the first book to summarize the aerodynamic design and construction issues of solar cars and ultralight land vehicles. Author Goro Tamai draws on his own experience in designing solar cars at MIT to produce a book for the ground-up streamlined land-vehicle designer or constructor, as well as for the solar/electric/ultralight vehicle enthusiast. As with any engineering problem, the "best" body shape for solar cars, HPVs, or Electrathoners is not the body of absolute lowest drag. The vehicle system, including the driver, chassis, and energy/drive system must work in concert to produce the maximum output. The Leading Edge will help designers quantify the trade-offs, and make logical decisions.

- Vehicles covered include solar cars, human-powered vehicles (HPV), solar bikes, electrathon racers, ground-up hybrid or pure electric vehicles, and fuel-economy record cars

- Numerous examples using specific race cars and teams, and how designers solved problems

- Full definition of terms, with equations and examples provided for determining key aerodynamic parameters

- All design and construction issues, from body shape, to wheels, to canopy integration, to solar panel sizing

- How to do in-the-field testing and diagnosis of aerodynamic performance

- Special overview section reviews the history of ultra-streamlined land vehicle development

"An excellent review of the problem of low-drag ground vehicle aerodynamics, filled with references and design examples. It allows the reader to understand the issues involved and quickly come up with a preliminary design, leaving time for the oft-neglected detail work and testing." Jacek Gromadzki, aerodynamicist, 1997 University of Waterloo Solar Car Team

"The Leading Edge is an extensive treatise on the aerodynamics of streamlined land vehicles...It is a valuable contribution towards advancing the technology in this important field." Mark Drela, Professor, MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

"I wish I had access to this book when I was designing human-powered vehicles. While I've read a lot of the same references, this book pulls them all together and I might have done things a little differently." Douglas Milliken, co-author of Race Car Vehicle Dynamics (SAE, 1995)

Customer Reviews:

The Best mix of aero theory and real-world examples........1999-08-22

Mr. Tamai has combined understandable theory with real-world operational examples of ultra-light land vehicle aerodynamics. Anyone even thinking about working in this field MUST have this book.

As a person who has worked on such vehicles for about a decade, I can say that there is a vast void in ground-vehicle aero literature; and what is available is pretty incomprehensible to a civilian.

As a person who is trying to figure out how all the formulas and charts relate to something I'm actually trying to design and build, I can say that Mr. Tamai references the theory to concrete examples in a way that is unparalleled in this field.

The biggest compliment I can pay to Mr. Tamai is to say that his book is a key tool for the shop. Builders respect his credentials, which include being a top-notch scholar as well as a winning solar-car racer, driver, and builder for many years.

Our team copy is this minute in the hands of an expert composites person who is building a potential world-speed-record racing dirtboat/land-yacht/sand-sailer.

Amazon, I hope you sell a lot of these books! Mr. Tamai deserves to make some actual money from his brilliant work.

Book Description

"My home is the vast, open landscape of south-central Idaho, at once a sanctuary, a source of strength, and a heartache," writes Diane Josephy Peavey in the introduction to Bitterbrush Country. Her words echo the paradox that many westerners feel about life in the West, the most eagerly developed landscape in America. But in place of nostalgia, polemic, or exposé as a response to this voraciousness, Peavey describes from ground level what it's like to be a rancher and an environmentalist, to love a place still shaped by generational communities and rolling hills. In a mosaic of essays, Peavey shares both her visceral joys in the land and her fears about losing a rural western way of life. From delighting in the arrival of blooming bitterbrush and cooking "gormay" on a sheep run, to mourning the loss of neighbors unable to hold on to family farms and ranches, Peavey tells a deeply personal story of her chosen home.

Customer Reviews:

Patronizing Drivel.......2006-02-18

To anyone who grew up in rural areas, this is superfluous pabulum. I bet Peavey is in fact a big city girl that never got over the "quaintness" of rural life. I find her writing phony. Peavey writes like she is the only one enlightened enough to be able to appreciate the space and quiet of the West. We really do know what a privilege it is to live here, we just don't find it necessary to think up excessive adjectives for every rock, tree, or sunrise. I read one essay, scanned a few more, and promptly returned the book back to the library thankful that I did not buy it. The cover on the book is nice though, so I gave it a star for that.

Excellent, excellent, excellent.......2005-04-21

I highly recommend this book to all - those that love the life of a Western ranch and those that are just curious. You will be entertained and enlightened by these essays. You will laugh and develop a deeper sense of compassion. Diane is a wonderful writer and brings her stories to life with powerful word pictures. You won't regret soaking up this book!

Go West, Young Woman.......2001-10-23

Although I've read many books by and about women in the West, this is a refreshing new twist on the oft-told memoir in which the author marries a sheep and cattle rancher and grows to love the wide open and arid spaces of Southern Idaho, as well as the interesting characters she meets along the process. What's new about it? Peavey is the daughter of noted western historian Alvin Josephy, and spent every summer of her childhood at the family ranch in Joseph, Oregon. the book is a collection of her commentaries on Boise's National Public Radio station, and shows that she has inherited her father's wonderful felicity with the English language, as well as his sensitivity to issues in the contemporary West. This book belongs on one's bookshelf along with those by Terry Tempest Williams, Gretel Erlich, Kim Barnes, and Terri Hein. This is the perfect gift for those who grew up on a farm or ranch, or have just visited one!

The Portland Edge: Challenges And Successes In Growing Communities

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The successes and challenges in Portland communities

The Portland Edge: Challenges And Successes In Growing Communities

Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1559636955

Book Description

Portland, Oregon, is often cited as one of the most livable cities in the United States and a model for "smart growth." At the same time, critics deride it as a victim of heavy-handed planning and point to its skyrocketing housing costs as a clear sign of good intentions gone awry. Which side is right? Does Portland deserve the accolades it has received, or has hype overshadowed the real story?

In The Portland Edge, leading urban scholars who have lived in and studied the region present a balanced look at Portland today, explaining current conditions in the context of the people and institutions that have been instrumental in shaping it. Contributors provide empirical data as well as critical insights and analyses, clarifying the ways in which policy and planning have made a difference in the Portland metropolitan region.

Because of its iconic status and innovative approach to growth, Portland is an important case study for anyone concerned with land use and community development in the twenty-first century. The Portland Edge offers useful background and a vital overview of region, allowing others to draw lessons from its experience.

Customer Reviews:

The successes and challenges in Portland communities.......2006-11-20

I am a professor of City and Regional Planning and I found this book a much-needed addition to the urban-planning literature. The book is written at a level appropriate for a wide range of audiences including planning students, policy makers, politicians, urban planners, and community activists. The comprehensiveness of the work provides a much-needed explanation for students yearning for a broader understanding of how an ensemble of urban elements can help American cities accommodate growth while sustaining a sense of community for their dwellers.

What is unique about Portland's current land-use system? If planning is so popular, how does one explain the recent backlash? Where would be the balance between regulatory rules and other possibilities? These are examples of questions asked by The Portland Edge (edited by Connie Ozawa), written by a team of academics at Portland State University's School of Urban Studies and Planning. The thirteen chapters of the edited book are organized in four sections. The first section presents the demographic, economic, and civic character of the Portland region by presenting data on key dimensions of economy, equity, and environment. The second section traces Portland's growth-management policies and details the institutional structures by describing a range of the roles of regional and city bodies, such as Metro (the elected regional planning authority), the Portland Development Commission, citizen-involvement mechanisms, and neighborhood associations. The third section unveils Portland's social structures that allow people to create collective visions of community and offers examples of how the underrepresented groups and the citizen advocates work to voice themselves. The last section lays out several issues of the most interest, such as the liveliness of downtown and neighborhoods, housing affordability, implementation of state transportation and environment policies at the local jurisdiction level, and Portland's responses to the homeless.

Those interested in examining the ways in which urban policy and planning have made a difference in the Portland region will find that the book offers a valuable overview of the region, a helpful background of the stressors on the current urban political and social system, and an effective explanation of current conditions in the context of the people and social institutions that have been influential in shaping today's Portland. The book offers the reader a comprehensive range of matters: each chapter picks a different angle of the inquiry--for example, the struggle between the well represented and the underrepresented, the competition between the central city and the suburbs, the rivalry between highways and transit, and the balance between Portland's natural landscapes and the interests of today's property owners. The bulk of the book presents a balanced view of Portland today through operationalizing the concept of quality of life. The book contributes in integrating environmental, social, and economic issues in a systematic evaluation framework that allows other communities to carry out critical and empirical inquiry to examine civic identity and urban environment in their communities. The book does a good job of what it intends to accomplish: to detail successes and challenges in Portland communities.

Edge of Infinity: The Scarred Planes (Scarred Lands)

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Edge of Infinity: The Scarred Planes (Scarred Lands)
Werner Hager , James Maliszewski , John Snead , Ian Watson , and Patrick Younts
Manufacturer: Sword & Sorcery Studio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 158846962X

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A book not to miss

Watching, from the Edge of Extinction
Beverly Peterson Stearns , and Stephen C. Stearns
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0300084692

Book Description

In this mesmerizing series of interviews with dedicated people who work to save endangered species throughout the world, an alarming truth emerges: the obstacles of human politics, greed, corruption, folly, and hypocrisy can present as much danger to a species` survival as biological causes. The dramatic lessons of this book shed new light on the problems of declining species and offer hope that we may yet change their fate.

Customer Reviews:

A book not to miss.......1999-05-22

A book not to miss--if one loves the environment and fears for its future.

Watching from the Edge of Extinction is a rare read for many reasons; not the least of which it is written by a husband and wife, who bring different voices and expertise to the project they undertake. Their book offers solid science, culture, and a disciplined attention to factual detail as well as the great shadings of human personalities as this couple sets out to document ten cases of creatures nearing the end of their species' existences on the earth.

What makes the book so fascinating and ultimately such a challenge is that the authors do away with any tinge of moralism and show us that the effort of trying to save a creature is a complex, costly combination of acts and interactions that often absorbs people and groups for periods as long as a lifetime. The passions, victories and defeats inside each story make the book one that should be read one chapter at a time. The political, scientific and practical realities slowly sink in. These are stories that are existential in every sense. The end is not written and even the meaning or consequences of one's actions are not simple to describe or predict. In environmental actions undertaken to protect a species, there are protagonists on all sides. Even the very best of the "good" guys still finds him or herself sometimes disarmed because of the nearly invisible way animals, birds and insects have developed their niches and patterns. These patterns must be understood in order to consider saving a species. Often the very acts of study--such as nearing nests to take population counts--are events that eventually stress the remaining members of the creature. The stories, which are of triumphs and defeats, are deeply involving because they are true. They are sobering because they offer no simple solutions other than rigor and dedication. Often the people who are working to save a species are heroes whom we have never heard of. They are passionate, modest people who sometimes have devoted their lives basically for the reason that it is a shocking reality to face the death not only of an individual but of a group.

The Stearns finish their book with a more literary chapter on the Gibbon who disappeared from China centuries ago. Yet nearly two thousand years ago its being filled the pages of Chinese poetry and its symbolism was painted century after century. This wealth comes to an end.

Book Description

-- Choice

Recent decades have seen unprecedented growth in the scale and intensity of industrial forestry. Directly and indirectly, it has degraded the wildlife and ecological integrity of these tropical forests, prompting a need to evaluate the impact of current forest management practices and reconsider how best to preserve the integrity of the biosphere.

Synthesizing the body of knowledge of leading scientists and professionals in tropical forest ecology and management, this book's thirty chapters examine in detail the interplay between timber harvesting and wildlife, from hunted and protected habitats to invertebrates and large mammal species.

Collectively, the contributors suggest that better management is pivotal to the maintenance of the tropics' valuable biodiversity, arguing that we must realize that tropical forests harbor the majority (perhaps 70 to 80 percent) of the world's animal species. Further, they suggest modifications to existing practices that can ensure a better future for our valuable resources.

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A Book With Eye Opening Reality
tough read at times
A good read for everyone!

Horn of Darkness: Rhinos on the Edge
Carol Cunningham , and Joel Berger
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195138805

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"Black rhinos," write husband and wife eco-advocate team Carol Cunningham and Joel Berger, "are one of the most critically endangered species in Africa." Where perhaps 100,000 of the shy, lumbering creatures existed at the beginning of the 20th century, there may be only 2,500 today. Tracing the natural history of the rhino, Cunningham and Berger offer a firsthand account of the way these creatures live in the wild. They also look searchingly into the prospects for the rhinos' preservation, which is enjoying mixed success in places like Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Zambia. To stop the slaughter, the authors write, intensive international efforts--and funding--are needed. Horn of Darkness presents a powerful argument for why such efforts should be made, and immediately.

Book Description

The black rhino is nature's tank, feared by all animals. Even lions will break off a hunt to detour around one. And yet the black rhino is on the edge of extinction, its numbers dwindling from 100,000 at the turn of the century, to less than 2,500 today. The reason is that in places like Yemen, China, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, the rhino's horn is more valuable than gold, so valuable that people will risk their lives to harvest it. To deter rhino poachers, African governments have spent millions--on helicopters, paramilitary operations, fences and guard dogs, even relocation to protected areas. Finally, Namibia decided to de-horn its rhino population, in a last ditch effort to stop the slaughter. In 1991, Carol Cunningham and Joel Berger, and their eighteen-month-old daughter Sonja, went to Namibia to weigh the effects of de-horning on rhinos. In Horn of Darkness, they tell the story of three years in the Namib Desert, studying Africa's last sizable population of free-roaming black rhinos. This is the closest most readers will come to experiencing life in the remaining wilds of Africa. Cunningham and Berger, writing nate chapters, capture what it is like to leave the comforts of civilization, to camp for months at a time in a land filled with deadly predators, to study an animal that is reclusive, unpredictable, and highly dangerous. The authors describe staking out water holes in the dead of the night, creeping to within twenty-seven meters of rhinos to photograph them, all the while keeping a lookout for hyenas, elephants, and lions. They recount many heart-pounding escapes--one rhino forces Carol Cunningham up a tree, an unseen lion in hot pursuit of hyenas races right past a frozen Joel Berger--and capture the adrenaline rush of inching closer to a rhino that might flee--or charge--at any moment. They also give readers a clear sense of the careful, patient work involved in studying animals, the frustration of long days without finding rhinos or seeing other people, coping with heat and thirst (the Namib desert is one of the driest on Earth), with dirt and insects, driving hundreds of kilometers in a Land Rover packed to capacity, slowing amassing records on one hundred individual rhinos over the course of several years. And perhaps most important, the authors reveal that the data they collected suggests that the de-horning project might backfire--that in the four years after de-horning began, calf survival was down (the evidence suggests that hyenas might be preying on calves and the horn less mothers couldn't defend their offspring). They also describe the dark side of scientific work, from the petty jealousy of other scientists--outside researchers were often seen as ecological imperialists--to the controversy that erupted after the authors published their findings, as furious officials of the Namibian conservation program denounced their findings and through delays and other tactics effectively withheld a permit to allow the couple to continue their study. Weaving together the historical accounts of other naturalists, a vividly detailed look at life in the wild, and a behind-the-scenes glimpse of scientific work and the dark side of the conservation movement, Horn of Darkness is destined to be a classic work on the natural world.

Customer Reviews:

A Book With Eye Opening Reality.......2004-11-15

Horn of Darkness tells the story of a family of three commencing on a quest to de-horn 10 rhinos. Discovering complications and adapting to the surroundings is just one of the many challenges Joel, Carol and young Sonja have to face. For me (being an 11 year old doing a reserch project) it was perfect for references and surprisingly it had a wonferfully enjoyable story. I thought it covered what I needed to know and at the same time I experienced first hand the wonders of the rhino as well as the realities of poaching problems. Not all adults will enjoy this book as much as I but if you give it a chance and open your mind you will enjoy what it has to offer. I suggest this book for ages 11 (curious 11 year olds)-and up.

tough read at times.......2003-01-07

a good book for the wildlife enthusiast, but kinda boring at times. Not every day in real life can be as exciting as a Hollywood movie so this is accurate representation of what it must be like, but it takes a real passion for the animal kingdom to read it. It has been a couple of years since I read it so it isn't very fresh in my mind, but I did enjoy parts of it very much.

A good read for everyone!.......2000-06-18

Carol Cunningham and Joel Berger, a husband and wife research team, describe their research on black rhinos in Namibia. It is very readable, telling their personal story, documenting their research, explaining African perspectives, and discussing the politics involved with their project. This book reads like a novel while dispensing eye-opening information.

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