History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

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.

Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform

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The direct effect of the city on schooling
Ghetto Schooling Review
A look into inner city schools and reform
Thoughts on Ghetto Schooling
Review of Ghetto Schooling

Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform
Jean Anyon
Manufacturer: Teachers College Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807736627

Amazon.com

Nobody disputes the fact that inner-city schools are going to the dogs. Poor facilities, shell-shocked teachers, and hostile, apathetic students are frequent topics on the evening news, as are the supposed solutions for these problems: school vouchers, school uniforms, teacher testing, and the like. In Ghetto Schooling, author Jean Anyon exposes the futility of such social band-aids on the gaping wound that is ghetto education. Anyon starts with the premise that urban education's problems lie not within the schools themselves but rather in the "economic and political devastation" of the cities. It is the poverty, the racial isolation, and the lack of political clout that dooms inner-city schools to failure, Anyon posits, and she backs up her thesis with solid evidence: her own experiences as a school reformer in Newark, New Jersey.

Ghetto Schooling is filled with interviews, media reports and Anyon's eyewitness account of the sorry state of Newark schools and reformers' Sisyphean task of trying to make changes in the midst of urban decay and governmental indifference. Anyon concludes that it is racial, class, and ethnic discrimination at governmental levels that has led to the neglect of inner cities and, by association, their schools. The problems Anyon discusses and the solutions she proposes are not limited to the Newark city schools; they could be implemented in other urban school districts across the country. For anyone interested in the state of education in America's cities today, Ghetto Schooling is an important, if troubling, read.

Customer Reviews:

The direct effect of the city on schooling.......2005-05-24

Ghetto schooling touches on the failure of inner city schools but especially the failure of the school system in Newark, NJ. She takes a look at the expansive school system from the years 1860- 1997. Her book looks at the failure of school reform but better yet the failure of the city and how it has failed to educate it's minority students through mismangement of money to political partronage that promotes unskilled teachers and adminstrators. She traces the school system as a product of the development of the city. To Jean Anyon, the city has a direct effect on the progress of the school. As she states, "The contours and fortunes of schools in the twentieth centruy have also been intimately linked to the economic transformations of the city--and to federal and state policy as well as to local and national corporate decision making" (156). In stating what she feels is an obvious, Anyon describes the rise and fall of Newark and how fiscal prosperiety directly affected the quality of schooling. She states that through several discriminatory practices by federal and state governments such as redlining, housing segregation, financial disparity between districts and even efforts by corporations to restrict municipal spending and borrowing, education in Newark took a turn for the worst. She also says that the decline in quality of education is aligned with the increase of minorities into the city and the exodus of middle class residents to the suburbs. Anyon does a good job of presenting the historical factors that have influenced education in the city. She also shows how this has occured in other major cities. Another selling pointo f the argurment is that she presents a reform agenda that although expensive does to the root of the "underclass" urban education problem. While in no way belittling the residents of the inner cities she calls for action from these individuals and how their participation in the process strenthens the ties of the community to education. Anyon's book is only the beginning in a long line of cities that are afflicted by the same ailments as Newark, NJ.

Ghetto Schooling Review.......2002-11-18

Since as far back as formal education existed, Newark NJ school district has suffered from numerous problems. In the book Ghetto Schooling - A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform, Jean Anyon deals with the topic of the Newark school district and what has been done and what should be done in the future. The book begins with her experience of being in the Newark School system (Marcy School) as a member of a group trying to restructure eight schools in this school district. Then she follows up with a chronological break down by era of what went on in the Newark district and around the country. The book begins in the present, goes to the past, and finishes up with how we are supposed to learn from our past.
In the present time, we see schools that are ill equipped, dirty, having unqualified staff, and chaos. These children come from poor homes (if they have a home), with chaotic lives, neglect, abuse, histories of poor helth and chronic health problems, emotional stress, anxiety and anger (Anyon, 1997). If the children are coming from home environments like this, it does not seem that it would take much to make them want to come to school. However, quite a few students that were interviewed did not want to be there. Why? They did not respect the teachers. They thought the teachers were only there for the money or could not find a job anywhere else. One student did not like the abuse inflicted upon the students by the teachers. This section of the book is the one that stands out above all else. The reason being, I cannot believe how these students are handled. What these teachers say and do is uncalled for. This stems from the fact that these teachers do not have the proper training to be a teacher. We are not going to stop this vicious cycle if we do not train these teachers. We learn how to parent from our parents, and how to teach from past teachers, unless otherwise trained. If I did not get anything else out of this book, I do know how not to teach.
I am sure the information presented in this book is all true. It is just hard for me to fathom that a school district was ran this way without little interference from the outside. I know if this were the education my children were getting, I would definitely have something to say about it. I would be at every board meeting, every PTO and PTA meeting, be up at the school during class time, and hold these people accountable as well as my child. I have never been to or worked in a school of this nature. I also hope I never will. If I did though, I would pray that I would be a better, more caring, understanding teacher than the ones presented.
I found this book to be a hard read. It included entirely too many statistics. If I had to come up with my favorite part of the book, it would be part 1. It was real and easier to read. My least favorite part was Chapter 7 - Class, Race, Taxes, and State Educational Reform: 1970-1997. It was cumbersome to say the least. It seemed to have more statistics than any other chapter. If I could change one thing about this book it would be to reduce the amount of numbers included and include more real life situations.
Revisiting Marcy School got my attention again. It almost felt like I was there. I am not sure it is a place I would want to be. I know I would not go at this time in my life. I am not equipped to teach these kids. I sub in a small school district in Illinois and experience none of this. I probably would do more harm to these children than good. On the other hand, it sounds like they just need someone to care for them and let them know they are cared for. It broke my heart to hear what the white teacher had to say. She said,
" These kids have major problems! Incest, drugs, the girls to from boyfriend to boyfriend. You look at them and say `what's the matter,' and they cannot tell you. I have a little boy [in first grade] who's wondering where his mother went. No one knows. No wonder things go in one ear and out the other [when you're trying to teach them]."
Another teacher said,
"We think, `they're only going to sweep floors' - why teach them science?"
And another added,
"When you realize who they [the students] are, you laugh, and you can't take it [teaching] seriously."(Anyon, 1997)
These statements made me want to help these boys and girls. Saying they were only going to sweep floors is such a self-fulfilling prophecy. Even if that is what they are going to do, science may help them someday. If these teachers cannot take teaching seriously, who could? These students need more teaching and caring than the average student does.
Jean Anyon appears to have all the qualifications needed to write a book of this nature. As the books states she has her Ph.D., and is an Associate Professor at Rutgers University. She taught elementary grades in inner city schools in Bedford-Stuyvesant, NY; Philadelphia; and Washington D.C. She is Director of the Institute for Research in Urban Education on the Rutgers-Newark Campus. She has published widely on the relation of social class and race to issues of curriculum, equity, classroom practice, and school reform. This is her first book (Anyon, 1997).
If I were asked if I would recommend this book to someone else, I would definitely respond with a hearty NO! If you are interested in research for this subject, you might find some useful information, with some careful reading. This just was not a book I could not put down. Usually I want to read a book from cover to cover in one sitting. This book seemed to be never ending.

A look into inner city schools and reform.......2002-11-14

Anyon gives us a glimpse into the world of inner city schooling and everything that goes with it. This is an eye opening journey for educators that do not teach in the inner city schools. I do feel that she is way off and don't believe that some of her suggestions would actually work to improve the schools. She has not herself worked as an educator in the inner city schools. So how does she know that what she is reccommending will work?
She does make a good point and that new funding is needed in the schools. It is just a matter of where to get those funds. I do believe that educationing our young children is a responsiblity for all of America, therefore everyone should help in the funding process. I do not think that one soul contributor should be used.

Thoughts on Ghetto Schooling.......2002-11-12

Jean Anyon's book, Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform paints a harrowing portrait of the struggles of those who have a role in inner-city schools. It is written in three parts that address the present situation, reflect upon the past, and look to the future, respectively. The book took several years to write due to the level of research involved for the historical content, but the personal account was based on four years of the author's participation in the reform effort in Newark, New Jersey, beginning in 1992. The reform efforts targeted eight schools in the central section of the city. (On a broader note, the historical text of the book points out that the decline of the schools really began in the 1930s.) The book begins by showing the present state of education within the reform district, but then postulates the reasons for this status by looking at the historical foundations of the problems. In the first chapter of part two, Anyon begins the historical breakdown by looking at early situation with educating the children of the many immigrants who came to Newark beginning in the 1860s. Despite early attempts at reform, the seeds had already been planted for the disenfranchisement seen today. The historical context of Anyon's research design shows decade by decade the continual decay of the Newark schools. Reform efforts were suggested, but never truly implemented. After the period of organized crime and municipal scandals had arrived, Anyon notes that:
"Because there was no rescue of the Newark educational system in 1968, it would continue to limp along, and further generations of Newark children-the grandchildren, the grandchildren, the great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of the southern rural immigrants-would
join their parents in the ranks of the uneducated and the undereducated. Many would therefore be unable to participate in the economic and political institutions of U.S. society" (p. 127).

This generational cycle of poverty and hopelessness is at the heart of Anyon's determination that changes can only be effective if they consider the sociocultural status and economic plight of those involved. I found the accounts in the book to be a revelation to say the least. I think people like myself who are born and raised outside urban areas live in blissful ignorance as to the true state of education for the thousands trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair. I like that Anyon takes such an honest approach to her research, realizing that to be effective she must be disclose everything she witnessed. The only change I would like to see is the statistical information presented in some type of graph form so that it would be easier to read and interpret. Otherwise, I found the book to be an invaluable read as a future educator. In fact, it has made me think beyond the world of education and to ponder my place among the human race and the responsibility I must take for needs of my fellow man and the generations to come.

Review of Ghetto Schooling.......2002-11-11

Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Education Reform, is an interesting explanation of the case study done by the author, Jean Anyon. Anyon was a part of the attempted educational reform of the Newark, New Jersey schools in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Although most of her personal contact was with the faculty, staff, administration, parents, and children of the Marcy school, she gives the historical background for the Newark schools system starting in 1860. This history ventures all of the way to the present, which includes her personal experience in the reform process. Although the reform process in which she participated in failed, she did learn a great deal and shared a lot of insight about school reform. Her main point was that reform would not happen until the economic and political systems that surround the schools are transformed, neither would the schools be transformed. (Anyon 13) I found this book to be informative and insightful. Through this reading I have a better understanding of the inner city school setting, and how much help is needed there. Unfortunately, as Anyon point out, money is not the answer. The answer is reform on the larger scale. This book helped me to see this. Additionally, because of my current quest to become a teacher this booked helped me to prepare for some of the obstacles I may face. Although I will probably never teach at a school like those in the Newark district, it is very beneficial to my learning process to see the problem that plague the educational community. I am glad this book was part of my college curriculum.

The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade

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A pretty good textbook with material not found elsewhere

The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade
Masahisa Fujita , Paul Krugman , and Anthony J. Venables
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0262561476

Book Description

Since 1990 there has been a renaissance of theoretical and empirical work on the spatial aspects of the economy--that is, where economic activity occurs and why. Using new tools--in particular, modeling techniques developed to analyze industrial organization, international trade, and economic growth--this "new economic geography" has emerged as one of the most exciting areas of contemporary economics.

The authors show how seemingly disparate models reflect a few basic themes, and in so doing they develop a common "grammar" for discussing a variety of issues. They show how a common approach that emphasizes the three-way interaction among increasing returns, transportation costs, and the movement of productive factors can be applied to a wide range of issues in urban, regional, and international economics. This book is the first to provide a sound and unified explanation of the existence of large economic agglomerations at various spatial scales.

Customer Reviews:

A pretty good textbook with material not found elsewhere.......1999-07-21

If you are considering buying this book, you will probably want to do so. If you are interested in applying regional analysis or the "new" spatial economics that they present, you will have a good starting point. The necessary background is probably be a year of Ph.D. level economic theory. Specific high points are the exposition of the Dixit-Stiglitz model of monopolistic competition and the evolution of urban systems. All new Ph.D. students will have a use for chapter 4, which is an easy-to-read discussion of monopolistic competition. Further, the book is rigorous enough to be used in academic work. I recommend it to anyone interested in regional or urban economics. It is useful to students and practicing economists alike. Its rigor makes it academic, but its ease of exposition makes it useful for those without extraordinary math backgrounds. Compared to similar books, you get a lot of value for the price.

City Politics: The Political Economy of Urban America (5th Edition)

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Great first purchase
City politics
Policies and corruption in the city

City Politics: The Political Economy of Urban America (5th Edition)
Dennis R. Judd , and Todd Swanstrom
Manufacturer: Longman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0321328167

Book Description

Praised for its narrative style, strong research base, and distinctive theme–that urban politics in the U.S. has evolved as a dynamic interaction between governmental power and private purposes–the Fifth Edition of this text focuses more explicitly on tracing the three distinct periods in the nation’s urban development: the industrial era, the era of urban crisis, and the global era.

Customer Reviews:

Great first purchase.......2007-09-22

The description of this product was on target, and the book came in very good condition. Hardly any writing in it, and not water damaged! The textbook was a very reasonable price and I'll be sure to shop on Amazon again for textbooks.

The group I purchased from was quick, had great customer service, and they replied to my email of questions very promptly. I was very satisfied with the product, the shipment, the entire process really.

City politics.......2002-10-14

This is a pretty informative and interesting book. I would reccomend it to someone interested in persuing an education in urban politics.

Policies and corruption in the city.......2000-05-28

This is a good read for anyone who is interrested in the development of the city and the politics within. It opens with the birth of the city and how advances in technology led to the outward expansion of the city. One of the most interresting features is how the book describes the growth of the politcal machine in Chicago. In a later chapter, the authors then compare the fiscal policies of Chicago and New York City and how machine politics may have been the key to Chicago's success. The book also goes into detail about "white flight": the moving of the middle/upper-class sectors away from the city to settle into different types of suburbs. These suburbs then become a self-sustaining entity capable of enacting their own governmental policies which include exclusionary tactics designed to weed out those of lower incomes, certain age brackets, or those of an "unacceptable" racial background. It then goes into detail about the Court's opinion on these exclusionary policies. If you're interrested in how cities and urban politics are created then this book is a great start.

Cities in a World Economy (Sociology for a New Century Series)

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Good for general information on a new economic order

Cities in a World Economy (Sociology for a New Century Series)
Saskia Sassen
Manufacturer: Pine Forge Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1412936802

Book Description

The Third Edition of Cities in a World Economy shows how certain characteristics of our turn-of-the-millennium flows of money, information, and people have led to the emergence of a new social formation: global cities. These developments give new meaning to such fixtures of urban sociology as the centrality of place and the importance of geography in our social world.

Key Features:

Offers a multidisciplinary perspective: This book features a cross-disciplinary approach to Urban Sociology using global examples. With both depth and clarity, this book examines the impact of global processes on the social structure of cities helping students increase their world awareness. In addition, the book strikes the perfect balance between maintaining academic rigor and employing new and innovative concepts.
Includes a new chapter: The new chapter on Global Cities and Global Survival Circuits discusses the highly gendered and unequal nature of the global city and how it forces the underprivileged to live a dangerous and unpredictable life on global survival circuits.
Incorporates the most recent data: This new edition updates nearly every piece of data with the most recent facts and figures available. In addition, this book introduces new concepts for understanding contemporary urban sociology.

Intended Audience:

This is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Urban Sociology. It can also be used in courses such as Urban Studies, World Cities, Regional Studies, Urban Development and Planning, and Regional Development in the departments of Sociology, Urban Studies, and Geography.

Customer Reviews:

Good for general information on a new economic order.......1999-06-21

I've read the book due to an examination about "the new city structure - contemporary geography" and it's quite good, she has a global wiew of the new city-status and its new users, the less and less importance the homless has for the city governament and the new power of the corporation, all in all a good compendium if you need to improve your knoledge about the matter.

Average customer rating:

Another Provocative Masterpiece
Still relevant, could use a new edition
A Comprehensible Explanation of Growth of Cities
Great insights into the origin of agrictulture
Still highly relevant.

The Economy of Cities
Jane Jacobs
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 039470584X
Release Date: 1970-02-12

Customer Reviews:

Another Provocative Masterpiece.......2006-07-05

This book is almost as good as Jacobs' must-read classic, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Whereas Death and Life deals more with how to foster vitality in individual city neighborhoods, this work deals with the broad importance of thriving urban areas. Here Jacobs gives the reader an understanding of how economically healthy and diverse urban areas are essential to creating healthy economies in general - and more than that, to ultimately creating a healthy global economy. Her ideas fly in the face of much conventional wisdom. But I think she proves the essence of her case with pages of compelling, reasoned argument.

Most reformers, many of whom start out with earnest good intentions, end up wreaking havoc and plunging their countries into tyranny because they attack their countries' economic problems from the wrong end. Most reformers in recent history, from Pancho Villa, through Stalin and Mao, down to current day missionaries - set out to "help" struggling economies by first digging into the dirt of the poorest rural areas. They assume that change must start in the agricultural sector. So they reapportion land; they attempt to introduce modern technology to subsistence farmers; they establish schools, clinics, and communal wells in the rural areas. But often, these efforts come to naught. Indeed they frequently backfire and leave area residents worse off than before.

A typical scenario of the type Jacobs cites - a volunteer worker sets up a well in a parched rural area of some Third World country. But soon after the volunteer leaves, a valve in the well breaks. And there is no way for local residents to get a replacement valve. There is no nearby urban industry to supply valves or any other replacement parts for anything. So the well stagnates, becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes and a hazard.

Jacobs illustrates why these good will projects so often fail. There is no surrounding urban industry to back them up, to supply all the quirky, often small but oh-so-necessary parts to rural endeavor. Urban areas are also necessary as markets for rural produce. Without recourse to diverse urban economies, virtually all rural areas will fail to thrive in the long run, no matter how much charitable reform is pumped into them.

Jacobs goes further. She illustrates how the very idea of agriculture, as well as most advances in agricultural technique likely STARTED in denser urban areas. This is the most controversial, frequently contested idea in her book. Most people are geared to dismiss urban areas as being devoid of "nature. But the reverse is actually true. There is often more flora, more planting activity, more wildlife and domestic animal husbandry, more agricultural cross-fertilization of all kinds going on in cities than in rural areas. But because the city is by definition "urban," people don't see it and continue to feel they must escape to rural areas in order to experience nature.

However, even if you are of this frame of mind, and if you therefore trip on Jacobs' early contentions about the primacy of cities - I urge you to keep reading. You may not end up being completely convinced, but you will come away with a new tool kit of ideas that you can apply in a myriad of ways as a citizen of the world.

Any politician who will have to make decisions touching on the national or global economy should definitely read this book. Everyone from well-intentioned celebrity reformers down to individuals who simply send a few dollars a month to Guatemalan waifs should read this book, and learn how they might redirect some of their future contributions into more sustainable projects. Every voter should read this book. It's a well-written, interesting book that gives insights into how an economy can develop and diversify into vitality. It suggests definite solutions. In short, it's a book for everyone.

Still relevant, could use a new edition.......2005-10-27

This book has some great insights but is getting a bit outdated. I thought the section on the origin of agriculture was fascinating stuff, but I'd like to know how Ms. Jacobs' theories square with recent research.

The comparison of Manchester and Birmingham was great. I think Ms. Jacobs is basically correct with her analysis of what it takes to make a vibrant, prosperous city. Her basic recommendations for city layout--small, short blocks, high concentrations of people walking, a mix of buildings of various types and ages--are very good. She is right on point with her criticism of urban renewal programs and freeways.

Ms. Jacobs' analysis of how business development occurs is fun to read and very relevant to today. She makes it very clear that rural towns that try to develop by attracting a local assembly plant or the like for a large company are barking up the wrong tree.

The book has some problems. Ms. Jacobs dismisses problems with resource depletion far too easily as the product of a stagnant economy. She also dismisses population growth, seeing it as a symptom of a growing economy, not a problem. There is of course some truth to this, but in my opinion migration is perfectly adequate to take care of local labor shortages. The side effects of nationwide and worldwide population growth are too severe to be treated lightly as Ms. Jacobs does.

A Comprehensible Explanation of Growth of Cities .......2005-08-24

Jacobs starts with the claim that there would be no agriculture if there were no cities, confronting the general "agriculture first then cities" approach. She then explains how new work is added to the economy. She states that division of labour is needed for economic efficiency, but does not promote further economic activity. Thus, efficiency of operation is in conflict with development of new work. Jacobs suggests that cities grow by gradual diversification of its economy, starting from its initial exports. Local economy grows as the exports grow, and many imports are replaced by local products. More goods, raw materials and services become available to the producers. Although this is a very comprehensible book, it includes a degree of redundancy. Must be in a planner's library, and should be read.

Great insights into the origin of agrictulture.......2004-09-24

I loved this book for two reasons.

First, for the insight into the complex interplay of economic forces in cities really opens your eyes to how governmental policies affecting cities directly impact our standard of living.

Secondly it shows how the beginning of agrictulture may have come about almost by accident, simply by the combination of people's behaviour and the actions of (un)natural selection.

It is a surprisingly short read, when you consider the concepts presented.

Still highly relevant........2004-03-03

This book, written in the 1960's, couldn't be more relevant today, in our age of outsourcing and loss of jobs. In Jacob's thesis, cities must constantly evolve, developing new products, or they will stagnate and decline, as their old exports wither. She makes a good case that efficiency, as reflected in the large scale, focused enterprise, can often be the enemy of innovation. This kind of logic has been incorporated into mainstream thought, in that many large corporations try to foster growth by establishing small entrepreneurial units. Jacobs provides a historical basis for this paradigm, as well as the detailed economics which shows it is not simply a matter of encouraging people to be entrepreneurial. Even more interesting to me, was Jacob's well supported argument that the earliest cities preceded and fostered the development of agriculture, not the other way around. I have read Robin Wright's Non-zero, The Logic of Human Destiny and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, both great books, yet Jacob's thesis was still new to me. The Economy of Cities has a certain amount of unnecessary repetition, but not as much as Jacob's The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which I would also highly recommend despite that problem. Also, and this is not a major point, Jacobs recognizes that exports may contain inputs which have to be imported, but does not seem to see that import substitution may also rely on increasing the import of certain inputs - thereby overemphasizing the importance of import substitution relative to development of new exports (although if we could find a substitute for oil......). Despite having a mathematics and economics background, I did not find Jacob's D,N,A equation particularly enlightening, and advise the reader not to get hung up on it. Jacob's use of history as a series of case studies, and her ability to extract the proper lessons even when they defy conventional thinking, is far more important than any mathematical tools.

Cities in the International Marketplace: The Political Economy of Urban Development in North America and Western Europe

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Cities in the International Marketplace: The Political Economy of Urban Development in North America and Western Europe
H. V. Savitch , and Paul Kantor
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691120145

Book Description

Does globalization menace our cities? Are cities able to exercise democratic rule and strategic choice when international competition increasingly limits the importance of place? Cities in the International Marketplace looks at the political responses of ten cities in North America and Western Europe as they grappled with the forces of global restructuring during the past thirty years. H. V. Savitch and Paul Kantor conclude that cities do have choices in city building and that they behave strategically in the international marketplace.

Rather than treating cities through case studies, this book undertakes rigorous systematic comparison. In doing so it provides an innovative theory that explains how city governments bargain in the capital investment process to assert their influence. The authors examine the role of economic conditions and intergovernmental politics as well as local democratic institutions and cultural values. They also show why cities vary in their approaches to urban development. They portray how cities are constrained by the dynamics of the global economy but are not its prisoners. Further, they explain why some urban communities have more maneuverability than do others in the economic development game. Local governance, culture, and planning can combine with economic fortune and national urban policies to provide resources that expand or contract the scope for choice. This clearly written book analyzes the political economy of development in Detroit, Houston, and New York in the United States; Toronto in Canada; Paris and Marseilles in France; Milan and Naples in Italy; and Glasgow and Liverpool in Great Britain.

Cities, Change, and Conflict: A Political Economy of Urban Life

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Okay
Amazing Insights to Urban Life

Cities, Change, and Conflict: A Political Economy of Urban Life
Nancy Kleniewski
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0495003700

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CITIES, CHANGE, AND CONFLICT - A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF URBAN LIFE discusses the importance of cities for the economic, cultural, and political life of modern societies. The author consistently uses the political economy perspective to introduce students to the basic concepts and research in urban sociology, while also acknowledging the contributions of the human ecology perspective. Through the use of case studies, the presentation remains accessible and down-to-earth, engaging the student in the material.

Customer Reviews:

Okay.......2007-05-14

I had used this book with a course I had taken in college. It is very interesting if you are unfamilair with urban problems. If you are slightly familiar(by living in the city) it is still informative if you have a good teacher.

Amazing Insights to Urban Life.......2005-06-11

Took this book due to requirements of a course but found myself very engrossed to finish the book beyond course requirements. Author presents very diverse issues and perspectives to issues in urban life. There is a lot of appreciation to the cityscape in political and economic terms. It just makes you feel like these are things you see everyday in a city but fail to see why before this book. It's like peering into a painting and finally understanding how the artist created it. This is looking at your neighbourhood and realising the forces that shape the way your city look and feels like. Buy it!

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City of Capital
Bruce G. Carruthers
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691049602

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While many have examined how economic interests motivate political action, Bruce Carruthers explores the reverse relationship by focusing on how political interests shape a market. He sets his inquiry within the context of late Stuart England, when an active stock market emerged and when Whig and Tory parties vied for control of a newly empowered Parliament. Carruthers examines the institutional linkage between politics and the market that consisted of three joint-stock companies--the Bank of England, the East India Company, and the South Sea Company--which all loaned large sums to the government and whose shares dominated trading on the stock market. Through innovative research that connects the voting behavior of individuals in parliamentary elections with their economic behavior in the stock market, Carruthers demonstrates that party conflict figured prominently during the company foundings as Whigs and Tories tried to dominate company directorships. For them, the national debt was as much a political as a fiscal instrument.

In 1712, the Bank was largely controlled by the Whigs, and the South Sea Company by the Tories. The two parties competed, however, for control of the East India Company, and so Whigs tended to trade shares only with Whigs, and Tories with Tories. Probing such connections between politics and markets at both institutional and individual levels, Carruthers ultimately argues that competitive markets are not inherently apolitical spheres guided by economic interest but rather ongoing creations of social actors pursuing multiple goals.

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While many have examined how economic interests motivate political action, Bruce Carruthers explores the reverse relationship in political economy by focusing on how political interests shape a market. The author sets his inquiry within the context of late Stuart England, when an active stock market emerged and when Whig and Tory parties vied for control of a newly empowered Parliament. He examines the institutional linkage between politics and the market that consisted of three joint-stock companies - the Bank of England, the East India Company, and the South Sea Company - which all loaned large sums to the government and whose shares dominated trading on the stock market. Through innovative research that connects the voting behavior of individuals in parliamentary elections with their economic behavior in the stock market, Carruthers demonstrates that party conflict figured prominently during the company foundings as Whigs and Tories tried to dominate company directorships. For them, the national debt was as much a political as a fiscal instrument. In 1712, the Bank was largely controlled by the Whigs, and the South Sea Company by the Tories. The two parties competed, however, for control of the East India Company, and so Whigs tended to trade shares only with Whigs, and Tories with Tories. Probing such connections between politics and markets at both institutional and individual levels, Carruthers ultimately argues that competitive markets are not inherently apolitical spheres guided by economic interest but rather ongoing creations of social actors pursuing multiple goals.

The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City

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Cities want the well-to-do, not the average person.
Gentrify New Orleans
Fairly good overview of gentrification theory
Great ideas spoilt by the style

The New Urban Frontier: Gentrification and the Revanchist City
Neil Smith
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 041513255X

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Why have so many central and inner cities been radically revamped in the last three decades, converting urban decay into new chic? Will the process continue in the twenty-first century or has it ended? The New Urban Frontier challenges the conventional wisdom, which holds gentrification to be the simple outcome of changing middle-class tastes and a growing demand for urban living, and emphasizes instead gentrification as part of a much larger shift in the political economy and culture of the late twentieth century.

Documenting in gritty detail the conflicts that gentrification brings to the new urban 'frontiers', Neil Smith explores the interconnections of urban policy, patterns of investment, eviction, and homelessness. The failure of liberal urban policy and the end of the 1980s' financial boom have made the end-of-the-century city a darker and more dangerous place. Public policy and the private market are conspiring against minorities, working people, the poor, and the homeless as never before. In the emerging revanchist city, gentrification has become part of this policy of revenge.

Customer Reviews:

Cities want the well-to-do, not the average person........2007-01-10

New unreleased census data bears out what the author predicted 10 years ago:
cities are revanchist and want to redevelop with the wealthy in mind. Thus
there is a great emphasis on downtowns with tax subsidized housing for the
above average household. Indeed, the modern city is best described as
the revanchist city.

Gentrify New Orleans.......2005-01-30

Everyone in New Orleans needs to read this book. A tad academic, it is, but his points are valid. Preservationists need to understand that decaying buildings are not historical or the 'fabric' of the community, they are blight. If money does not exist in the community, and if there is not interest from outside within a defind period of time (three years, I propose) then razing the building is acceptable. Vacancy and blight are just as bad an evil as yuppies moving in to bring Starbucks and Walmart (only the new, urban version of their stores) to the old 'hood. It is amoral to force the indiginous inhabitants to live in a blighted area just because it "used to be" a place of substance or have some historical standing. I mean this in the sense of social history as well as with historical events. New Orleans: "bring on the chains" because the city is not getting any better with the local citizenry doing there part, or lack thereof!

Fairly good overview of gentrification theory.......2002-11-28

The most useful part of the book in terms of understanding cities is the chapter on the economic theory of gentrification, that economic incentives force landlords in a declining residential area to under-maintain their building, causing further deterioration of the neighborhood's housing stock until the buildings are so undercapitalized relative to the land value underneath that capital swooshes back in with rich people. (OK so this is kind of complicated for us non-economists but it's an important theory) The role of artists and the rhetoric of "urban pioneers" is very interesting too.

The downside that I kept thinking about in later chapters is that it's a shame that left-wing authors' writing tends to be very academic in tone compared to those of establishment thinkers. The content in this book is interesting if you can get past that. If you just want a good left-wing view of cities, Mike Davis' City of Quartz is much a more crisply-written and compelling read.

Great ideas spoilt by the style.......2001-02-25

I have to be careful when writing about the book that has become the backbone to my undergraduate dissertation. Smith goes where others have not dared by suggesting the real reasons behind change in New York and other western cities. His ideas are sound, but as with so many reactionary books I got the impression that he had decided on the answers before asking the questions. Research has little balance at all, and you begin to worry about its values when the book somehow manages to link revanchism to such wide ranging issues as "the organized murder of street kids in Rio de Janeiro, the Hindu massacres in Bombay, the pre-election slaughter of South Africans in Durban, the mayhem in Baghdad streets after the barbaric US bombing in 1991". However once he gets down from his socialist soapbox, the theories of revanchism can be useful for interperating change in western inner-cities. Not a book you will put down easily, but also one not to taken at face value...

If you are interested in this subject check out M. Davis (1990) City of Quartz, H. Liggett & D. Perry (1995) Spatial Practices, and P. Knox (1992) The Restless Urban Landscape.

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