Book Description
The key insight of Gaia Theory is that the entire Earth functions as a single living superorganism, regulating its internal environment much as an animal regulates its body temperature. But according to James Lovelock, the theory's originator, that organism is now sick. It is running a fever born of increased atmospheric greenhouse gases. Earth will adjust to these stresses, but the human race faces a severe test. It is already too late, Lovelock says, to prevent the global climate from "flipping" into an entirely new equilibrium that will threaten civilization as we know it. But we can do much to save humanity. In the tradition of Silent Spring, this is a call to action.
Customer Reviews:
Lovelock the champion of nuclear energy.......2007-10-14
Lovelock is 100% committed to nuclear energy. In Revenge of the Gaia he makes his case for the move to nuclear fission and eventually fusion to power our growing world. His views are interesting indeed; nuclear is the answer and other renewable sources such as wind, solar, and geothermal are impractical and not economical. Further, from his point of view, countries like Germany have done much to harm their own landscape and the balance of Gaia by deploying massive wind farms. They have also done a disservice to their economy by disguising market forces and moving to renewable energy because the monetary cost is higher. He doesn't take into account the non-monetary costs mainly the externalities associated with the burning of fossil fuels and nuclear energy. This was my first Lovelock book and it will be my last. I respect his work and views but found them to be short sighted and some seem outright bizarre at best. We should replace our fossil power plants with nuclear plants and dispose of the waste in tropical forests? This is how we can guard the forests from destruction? The fact that animals will be affected by the radiation is only a minor problem. It will only shorten their lives a little. Aside from the fact that we shouldn't be dumping our nuclear waste on other counties, his proposal means moving this nuclear material to unstable countries, which creates additional security concerns. He completely discounts the use of hydrogen as a fuel for transport. Believes that we never should have banned the use of DDT. He makes light of the Chernobyl disaster stating that there were only 75 fatalities. This seems to be a vast understatement, in fact, the WHO estimated there may have been 4000 extra thyroid cancer deaths in children from this disaster. Regardless of your views on the extent of the disaster it still was just that, a total disaster that exposed hundreds of thousands to radiation. Further, if nuclear is the only answer for the United States and the UK it naturally must be the answer for the rest of the world. If this is the case we are destined to have the further proliferation of nuclear technology that will lead to more nuclear weapons. We do need action to slow climate change. We do need clean energy technologies but not necessarily nuclear. The book only provides one side of the story. It does not go into detail on the externalities of nuclear power. It also has many half-truths, outdated theories, and clear omissions to benefit his position. He dismisses the benefits of organic gardening and would also like to deal with population growth with a transition from farming to synthesized food.
Urgent action is needed to reduce greenhouse gases but I do not believe nuclear is the only option. Lovelock clearly believes nuclear is this only option and he discounts all other options. Reading this book will give you one side of the story. It includes many half-baked ideas that are somewhat ridiculous and trivial. It also does not address the important issues. What is cheap energy? He attacked Germany for taking a leadership position and going green, against market forces. Germany's move to renewable energy should be a shinning example to the world. Yes, renewable energy may cost more from a monetary perspective but if you figure in the externalities of fossil and nuclear energy there is a clear reason to invest in these technologies. Also if energy cost more it wouldn't necessarily be negative in the short run. It could be a method of demand side management. Individuals and firms might conserve more and build smart. The rapid growth in demand for technology to harness renewable energy would create new jobs; prices would go down as more firms entered the business of producing the technology. The more we invest in this technology the lower our prices will be. Eventually we will find a silver bullet. We must invest further in renewable energy. Lovelock's arguments are weak and would bring us down a path of self- destruction just like fossil fuels are currently doing. Nuclear is not the only option and we should be weary of those who preach that it is. The move from fossil fuels to nuclear would allow the same small handful of energy players to maintain their control of the energy industry rather than encouraging small producers and entrepreneurs from getting into the business.
Wrong even in basic.......2007-10-07
I'll be sincere.I tried to read this trash-book , here in Brazil.I'm an agronomist and I like to read books.
This book is a trash.Why?Because it has too many frauds, half-trues,etc.
Someone perhaps will claim that this book defends nuclear power.Even in this topic, this trash-book is a failure.This book claims that nuclear fusion reactors are near and will be very good.None is correct.After sixty years and tens of billions of US dollars wasted, no fusion reactor is working today.Fusion reactors will also produce nuclear trash.
As world's enemies, this book puts(as ever among ecology books) among poor and colored people as the menace.
Under green disguise, eugenics is back.Its new name is ecology.
Science education.......2007-08-22
In every life time we come across a few books that are really important. I class this as one of them.
This book provides the man in the street with the information he needs to make balanced decisions about what is really going on with the climate and how well meaning green efforts are counter-productive.
The arguments in the book are counter-intuitive and as a result exposes the folly of most of the political and media commentary espoused on this very important issue.
Complex ideas are simply presented in a very accessible manner, this is not a stuffy science book full of incomprehensible statistics, rather its science education at its best.
Teach it in schools, Teach it to journalists, teach it to the man in the street.
No Simple Answers.......2007-08-19
Lovelock sees himself as a member of a new profession of planetary physicians. Continuing the analogy, the earth is running a fever, and in danger of acquiring a morbidity lasting as long as 100,000 years.
This fear is based on evidence from the Earth's history 55 million years ago when a geological accident released more than a terraton (a million times a million) of gaseous carbon compounds into the air, raising the temperature in tropical regions about 5 degrees C and 8 degrees elsewhere, and taking over 100,000 years to return to normality. Lovelock further claims we have already put more than half this quantity of carbon gases into the air and the sun is hotter than it was in the earlier instance.
Positive feedback in the Earth's environment makes our situation particularly sensitive. Warming from existing CO2 melts glaciers, which in turn reduces existing reflectivity of the sun - warming the Earth more; at the same time warmer seas reduce the oceans' ability to hold existing dissolved CO2, etc. (Melted ice caps would increase ocean levels 120 meters.)
Alternatives are few, and difficult. Powering all transportation through biofuels would require acreage 4-6X that now used for food, and would still generate considerable CO2. Burning natural gas produces half the CO2 now created otherwise; however, 2% leaks (natural gas is mostly methane - much more climate-affecting than CO2, though fortunately shorter lived) throughout the process would negate this benefit. Peat bog fires create 40% of the world's total carbon emissions, per Lovelock (it seems something could/should be done in this area). Wind energy is only available about 25% of the time, and tidal energy would only supply about 6% of England's requirements. Sunlight is not even totally reliable in the SW, and storage and transmission costs would seriously hurt its viability outside that immediate area.
Recommendations: 1)Nuclear energy. 2)Population reduction, assisted by productive uses of women's' talents.
One topic was not addressed - Lovelock states that the U.S. has been reluctant to pursue global warming improvements. I suspect he is correct; however, no explanation for this was offered.
An invaluable guide to the future.......2007-07-01
In this dour assessment, Lovelock has taken his original brilliant insight of Earth as a living organism and extrapolated it into the pessimism of an environmental disaster in the making.
Until Lovelock, no one thought of all life on this planet as creating a unique living being in its own right. In retrospect, it's obvious; this is the nature of true genius. In a very scientific manner, backed by the finest research and impeccable data, Lovelock reached an understanding of the Earth that matches the basics of Native American philosophy.
This book is a timely prediction that life on earth will collapse within the next century due to human activity. His reasoning is accurate, brilliant and based on a fundamental flaw; he fails to recognize that humans continue to change. The agricultural revolution that began 10,000 years ago made profound changes; the evolution of teosinte into corn is one of a myriad of amazing progress.
Now the Industrial Revolution is changing human habitation from 95 percent rural to 95 percent urban; worldwide, 50 percent of people now live in cities, and this will be 70 percent within 50 years. It's the most profound population shift since hunter/gatherers became farmers; and, it's likely to have an ever greater impact on the natural world.
Humans have evolved from gathering food to producing food to producing things to producing intangible ideas. An intengible idea has economic value, but it is not something you can drop on your foot. It's a product of brainpower, not natural resources. Two centuries ago, the wealth of nations was their natural resources; today, the natural resources of the US are 3 percent of its wealth while the intengible ideas are 82 percent.
Lovelock ignores this ability of humans and wildlife to change. In Phoenix, the rich live in walled, guarded and video-camera'd enclaves such as Biltmore Estates; coyotes are also learning to live there and are making Shih Tzus, Sharpeis and other toys into their own fast food snacks. Coyotes once were limited to the Rocky Mountains; now, they're found in Central Park in New York and everywhere else they choose to adapt.
Life changes. People are flocking into cities which became "the dark satanic mills" of Dickens' times. Now possible to build zero-carbon cities, as planned in Abu Dhabi. Humans change. Granted, change is often costly. Without forethought, millions may die. Without change, the toll will be even greater. But, change will occur. It always has, it is now, it always will be so.
This book sets out the scenario of a potential disaster, based on the knowledge of a brilliant and innovative scientist. Neither Lovelock or any other individual will come up with all the answers; but, in reading it, every thoughtful person will be prompted to come up with their own solutions large, small and meaningful.
Lovelock presents a beautiful concept of the world, a philosophy that reaches the levels of Native American wisdom. The difference is not becoming stuck in the status quo, as with Native American religions; but, in adapting to a radically different future. This book recognizes the danger of the status quo; change (evolution) means everyone must adapt to the future. Those who don't will become extinct.
Those who do will be thankful there were books such as this to serve as guides and inspirations along the way.
Book Description
Former Vice President Al Gore's New York Times #1 bestselling book is a daring call to action, exposing the shocking reality of how humankind has aided in the destruction of our planet and the future we face if we do not take action to stop global warming. Now, Viking has adapted this book for the most important audience of all: today's youth, who have no choice but to confront this climate crisis head-on.
Dramatic full-color photos, illustrations, and graphs combine with Gore's effective and clear writing to explain global warming in very real terms: what it is, what causes it, and what will happen if we continue to ignore it. An Inconvenient Truth will change the way young people understand global warming and hopefully inspire them to help change the course of history.
Customer Reviews:
This one's for you, kids!.......2007-10-08
The book is broken down into fifteen chapters, culminating in a very optimistic "Crisis = Opportunity," and throughout the text Gore is trying to motivate and encourage the next generation to take up the cause of saving the planet. Gore's optimism makes the reader feel that every chance to turn off an unused light or refill your water bottle is going to make a difference. Peppered with historical facts and dates, and infused with quotes from Mark Twain to Carl Sagan, this effort at educating young adults about the effects of lifestyle choices will make an impact on future generations. I think it is important to empower young people with choice - and the ability to affect change. This would make for excellent required reading.
Nonsense.......2007-10-04
Al Gore has a miserable academic record. For all those still swooning from his "masterful" presentation, I suggest that anyone who flunks divinity school (all 'F''s) is hardly a guy whose opinion I would want on a topic as incredibly complicated as climate theory. Earth's climate is an infinitely complex nonlinear system that some human beings (in their pomposity) suggest that we can "model" and "solve" for the future. ANYONE who has worked with greatly linearized Navier-Stokes equations, that is, coupled integro-differential equations knows the folly and nonsense behind this blatantly political tripe. Al is just an ignorant mouthpiece for the political scientists of the UN IPCC. All of you that buy this nonsense need to go get an education and leave science out of this clearly politically motivated rant for attention by a guy disappointed that he lost the Presidential race. The science in this book is single sided nonsense.
Science, or hysteria ? .......2007-09-28
One core of Gore's position is that the oceans will rise by up to 20 feet, swamping coastal areas like Miami and New York.
This data is wildly off. Even the UN IPCC report states that oceans might rise by up to 17 inches (i.e., less than two feet). Where did Gore get his data ?
Gore has shown pieces of Antarctica breaking off and falling into the ocean. This looks dramatic, until you realize that this part of Antarctica has always done that, (grown and then broken apart), and represents the 3 % of that continent, which is not 1-mile + thick ice that is actually gaining in mass. 97 % of Antarctica is actually gaining mass. Gore chooses the 3 % of the continent that is not stable and then basically says "We did this with our SUVs and materialistic lifestyle".
The reality is that global warming is NOT the main issue of our times. Things like Africans dying of AIDs and malaria is, and can be dealt with far more efficiently, than throwing $ 5 trillion into the Kyoto Treaty, which would result in the global climate changing by about 0.3 degrees in 50 years (i.e. having almost no effect).
If you want a picture of the real state of the world, read the books by Prof. Bjorn Lomborg. Gore is a politician. Lomborg is a researcher.
Gore has admitted that he wants our generation to have a "mission". This issue, global warming, fits that. But that doesn't mean I have to go along. I personally think that global warming is a "rich man's issue". It is the kind of thing that people in Santa Monica and Martha's Vineyard and Boston care about, because they think that their beach villa might be swamped. The reality is, while we think about this, Africans are dying of AIDs. And we can help them today, by spending some money on it.
Is global warming an issue: yes. Is it the main issue of our time ? No. Of course, we should do what we can to help the planet and reduce our CO2 output. Lomborg suggests cost-effective ways to do that.
But claiming that New York City will be swamped when the ocean rises "20 feet" is just ridiculous. Trust me, land prices in 25 years along the coasts will have risen even higher than today (if Gore were right, we would see land prices plummet, because who wants to buy land that is under water) ?
By the way, I read someone that Gore's personal "carbon footprint" is something like 20 times higher than the average American. Liberals live under the motto: "do as I say, not as I do".
Have they made Gore a saint yet?.......2007-08-29
I have seen the DVD and obviously was impressed. I got the book because I wanted to be able to get more details on the information Al Gore presents on the DVD, and the book provides that abundantly.
This one lone man courageously and determinedly crusades on and on, in the past with little encouragement, to research global warming and the warn the world, at least those who will listen. Where are the scientists that (probably because of money under the table, so the speak) denied global warming for so long? Hard to do so now. Now the corporate-motivated trick is to deny that at least part of global warming is man-made, this in the face of mounting evidence.
If you have children, or grandchildren, my advice: Don't hide your head in the sand. You owe it to them to become informed.
Get this book or the DVD. Very well written, very well made.
A must read!.......2007-08-21
My first impression upon reading this book was utter amazement and fear. In fact, "An Inconvenient Truth" is billed as the scariest book you'll ever see. Could it be that life on Earth as we know it will end within the next 50 years? It did not take me long to feel that this may be the most important documentary of all time (and the scariest one)!
In this book, Al Gore draws attention to the crisis of global warming. Gore blames CO2 for the temperature hikes we are experiencing worldwide. This documentary is basically a filmed version of the lectures that Gore has presented over 1,000 times to audiences all over the world.
Gore left me no room for doubt regarding the reality of global warming as Earth's ultimate environmental crisis and eventual doom. I was fascinated and convinced by his thorough presentation. And I am not alone to feel this way. Here is what other reviewers on amazon.com have said about this book:
A. A must see; a must think.
B. The most important film I have ever seen.
C. Very important; watch & watch again.
D. What in the world are we waiting for?
E. Required Viewing.
F. Save this planet by individual action.
G. Eye-opening!
H. Al Gore is the smartest man on this doomed planet!
I. Great inspiring movie. Please see it and let's change the way we live.
J. The truth is very disturbing, but you need to see it.
K. Don't Blow it! Good planets are hard to find.
L. Spread the Truth.
M. A must see for every resident of planet earth.
N. Stunning! Seeing this film is one of the most important things you can do all year.
O. Only 50 years from now... If you LOVE your CHILDREN, do you part to help NOW!
Al Gore's message is quite clear: Our planet is dying due to the fact that the world is steadily getting warmer. The question is what does this mean for all of humanity and what can we do about it? This film argues the case that the effects of global warming will continue, and indeed steadily get worse.
As I was reading the reviews on amazon.com, I found more and more people disagreeing with Al Gore. Some accused him of political manipulation. He is instilling fear in us in order for us to vote for him on the next presidential race. In other words, unless we vote for him, global warming is going to get worse and the icecaps are going to melt and we are all going to die by drowning!
Some mistrust Gore. Some have exclaimed, "Isn't this the guy who said he invented the internet!?" Others believe that he is selling snake oil and that there is no truth in his claims. After all, they say, he is not a scientist. Shouldn't this documentary have been presented by a scientist? Furthermore, why did Gore not do something about Global Warming when he was vice-president and in a better position to do so?
Many scientists in fact argue that his facts are not sound and that there is no correlation between CO2 and global warming.
So which is it? Is Al Gore right and doomsday is within 50 years from now, or is this just an exaggeration and unsound science?
Now I am not a scientist and am very new to this subject. With that said, here is the other side of the coin:
(1) Gore says that Earth is heating up because of man-made pollutants, which are raising the level of CO2 in the air. This CO2 traps the radiated heat from the Earth, thus warming up our planet. However, not only is Earth heating up, but all of the other planets in the solar system as well. If this is so, then our man made CO2 emissions aren't the major reason for the heating of the planet. If you visit the NASA website, you'll see that the Martian ice caps are melting too! So what could be the reason for this global warming? The primary source of heat on Earth, or anywhere in our solar system, is the Sun. If it wasn't for the sun, Earth would be a ball of ice. Our Sun goes through cycles. The Earth warms or cools with increased or decreased solar activity in the sun. This is not hard to visualize since a slight change in the Sun's angle turns summer to winter or winter to summer, a difference of several degrees! Our sun could therefore be the main reason behind our global warming.
(2) The earth has had many cooling and warming cycles for thousands of years, long before man could possibly contribute to it. The planet has seen far more severe climate changes than what we might experience and such changes have neither destroyed the planet nor the life upon it.
(3) One volcanic eruption (such as Mt. Pinatubo's volcanic eruption in the 90's) causes far more pollution and Co2 gases than our industries. During the Gulf War in 1991, when Saddam Hussein set fire to the Kuwaiti oil fields, more pollutants had been released in the air in one go than in any other time in history.
(4) We exhale CO2! Does this mean in order to have less CO2 in the air we must have less people on our planet? We are presently 6 billion people on Earth, and this number is rapidly increasing.
(5) Sea level has been rising at a rate of 1.8 mm per year for the past millenniums. Many scientists believe that the worst case scenario is a 2 feet rise in sea level within the next 100 years! Gore believes that we will be seeing a sea level rise of 20 feet in the next 50 years.
In a nutshell, no one really knows enough about the global climate to really say what definitively will happen within the next 50 years. In fact, no one really knows what the weather will be in the next few days (`This will be a sunny weekend,' exclaims the weatherman, only to have a rainy weekend).
The best we can do is to listen to all sides of an issue and then come to an educated opinion of our own. We should not let others do the thinking for us. This doesn't mean we can keep polluting the air we breathe. Everyone should do their part in trying to keep the environment clean.
I certainly enjoyed reading this book. At least it got me thinking!
Book Description
A journalist reveals the disturbing realities of life in the Saudi kingdom. S audi Arabia: Land of oil, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, and a crucial American ally. As the only Western journalist to have extensively worked in the Saudi Kingdom, John R. Bradleyis uniquely able to expose the turmoil that is shaking the House of Saud to its foundations. From the heart of the secretive Islamic kingdom's urban centers to its most remote mountainous terrain, from the homes of royalty to the slums of its poorest inhabitants, he provides intimate details and reveals underlying regional, religious, and tribal rivalries. Bradley highlights tensions generated by social change, focuses on the educational system, the increasing restlessness of Saudi youth faced with limited opportunities for cultural and political expression, and the predicament of Saudi women seeking opportunities but facing constraints. What are the implications for the Sauds and the West? This book offers a startling look at the present predicament and a troubling view of the future.
Customer Reviews:
Insightful Portrayal Of The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia.......2007-06-05
Bradley is a journalist who lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for more than 2 years. This book describes what he observed, obviously from a Western perspective, while living there. Some of what he discusses has been covered in other books. For example, the strict segregation of men and women, the brutal public executions and the extreme corruption and hypocrisy of the Saudi royal family. He also mentions the poor education and professional training received by most Saudi citizens which requires the country to be dependent on foreign workers. Many of these workers are people from poor countries such as India, Pakistan and the Philippines who do the "dirty jobs" that, supposedly, Saudis don't want to do themselves. But I find this questionable since Bradley also describes the high rate of unemployment among Saudi citizens and the fact that many of them live in poverty while the Saudi royals bask in the enormous wealth generated by the oil business.
Bradley also talks about the good qualities of the typical Saudi person, such as kindness, hospitality and generosity. There are certain Western right-wingers and Christian zealots who have an anti-Muslim agenda and are clearly biased in their writings. But Bradley doesn't strike me as that sort of person. I think he is simply trying to explain his experiences in Saudi Arabia with as much honesty and truth as possible. Of course, he is seeing the country from the point of view of a non-Muslim Westerner. But that doesn't mean he is necessarily wrong in what he is saying.
However, what really takes this book to the "5 stars" level for me is that he elaborates on the regionally based political and cultural differences in the kingdom. He talks about the Hijaz area, including Jeddah, as having a long history as an international center of trade which makes it somewhat more liberal and sophisticated than the rest of the country. The southern region is called Asir and includes people who, in many ways, have more in common with the neighboring country of Yemen than with their fellow Saudis. Finally, there is the Eastern province which is largely made up of Shiite Muslims who, like the people from Hijaz and Asir, often finds themselves at odds with the Wahhabi dominated central region which includes the royal family and the Wahhabi religious establishment that controls the country politically. In other words, Saudi Arabia is a complex and diverse society with people from a variety of religious and cultural perspectives who are seeking to challenge the hold on power by the Wahhabis and the royal family. This is not the picture provided to the broader American public, who tend to recognize that the royals are corrupt but still see them as the lesser of two evils when compared to the Osama allied extremists. Obviously, the situation there is more complicated than most people think.
I actually came away feeling at least a little more optimistic about the future, or at least the potential, of the country. But, of course, Saudi Arabia still faces a tremendous amount of problems and what happens there will continue to be of vital importance to the rest of us, especially considering that the Saudis have 1/4 of the world's known supply of petroleum.
A little bias detected.......2007-06-03
This was the fourth book that I read about Saudi Arabia and although I thought the descriptives were very good in that Bradley goes into some depth that other authors may consider too trivial (i.e. Najran and Flower Men), the author clearly takes hold of the arab militancy with a one track mind. This was the first post-911 book I read about the Kingdom and I was curious to find out what has changed, and all I found was a loud-echo of anti-Wahhabism and the outcry of abused Asian workers. I understand very well that K.S.A. has many issues in that area, but I also know many families who treat their workers well. I'm always leary of books that incite anger in me as I read, and this certainly made me angry and defensive toward the Kingdom when I have already met so many wonderful Saudis who give me an entirely different perspective. A fuel on the American bias fire, but worth reading if but for the descriptives of Shiite history in the Kingdom.
Try Again.......2007-05-23
really needs to try again here I was in the kingdom the same time as this man and have read his account, but cannot agree, one thing to put straight here is that the mention of a Keith Birmingham as an engineer is incorrect he was a welder for Saudi Arabian Airlines at the engine overhaul centre in Jeddah. Perhaps had John really spent time out and about in the rest of Saudi and met the those who you can say are not the city folk could probably had a very good book but this account is far from complete
Tipical Orientalist.......2007-05-17
I GREW UP IN A MIDDLE CLASS SAUDI FAMILY AND READ THE WHOLE BOOK.
John R. Bradley goes to Saudi Arabia for 2 ½ years, befriends upper class kids and some liberal journalists then thinks he figured out the whole country. These are some things you should know before you read the book:
-When a teenage boy has a satellite in his room he is rich even in Saudi Arabia. Same thing goes for students who hire a Briton to teach them English and for kids with fluent English.
-Average Saudis will not talk to foreigners especially not westerners.
-The book was written in June 2005 and Saudi Arabia is rapidly changing (for better or worse)
-This was before the new king came to power.
-The people he speaks of are not representative sample of the Saudi society(mostly pro-American liberal)
-Any other orientalist could not have done a better job of an inside view of Saudi Arabia through a westerner's eyes.
Insightful look at an understudied country.......2007-04-05
This is an informative book for those wishing to gain a better understanding of the political and social situation in contemporary Saudi Arabia. The author was apparently one of the few Western journalists in the country in the early 2000s and he was able to obtain a visa that allowed him to travel around the country and speak with people without facing many of the restrictions that apply to most Westerners in the country. The author discusses a number of subjects. I thought that the two most interesting chapters were the ones dealing with Saudi youth and gender relations, respectively. He also writes about the rise of crime, attacks against Western expatriates, and, of course, the royal family, among other subjects. The author traveled outside of Riyadh, the capital, to many different regions. One of the main themes of the book is that the tensions between various regions within the country, many of which are inhabited by distinct tribal and ethnic groups, pose perhaps the greatest threat to the country's unity. Perhaps the one thing that I found frustrating was that, at times, it seemed like the text was devoid of Saudi voices. While the author obviously made a great many friends and professional contacts in the country, I kind of wish that he would have presented more of their viewpoints. He often seems too eager to convey his own impressions and opinions of Saudi Arabia rather than let the country's citizens speak for themselves. Luckily, this isn't as problematic as it could have been, because his opinions are generally very insightful and well-argued. Overall, as someone with very little knowledge of Saudi Arabia (and the Middle East in general), I found this book to be a highly informative analysis of some of the major tensions and problems facing this country that has been so often discussed and misunderstood in the Western media.
Book Description
Since 1980, the number of people in U.S. prisons has increased more than 450%. Despite a crime rate that has been falling steadily for decades, California has led the way in this explosion, with what a state analyst called "the biggest prison building project in the history of the world." Golden Gulag provides the first detailed explanation for that buildup by looking at how political and economic forces, ranging from global to local, conjoined to produce the prison boom.
In an informed and impassioned account, Ruth Wilson Gilmore examines this issue through statewide, rural, and urban perspectives to explain how the expansion developed from surpluses of finance capital, labor, land, and state capacity. Detailing crises that hit California's economy with particular ferocity, she argues that defeats of radical struggles, weakening of labor, and shifting patterns of capital investment have been key conditions for prison growth. The results--a vast and expensive prison system, a huge number off incarcerated young people of color, and the increase in punitive justice such as the "three strikes" law--pose profound and troubling questions for the future of California, the United States, and the world. Golden Gulag provides a rich context for this complex dilemma, and at the same time challenges many cherished assumptions about who benefits and who suffers from the state's commitment to prison expansion.
Customer Reviews:
Lots of Good Stuff.......2007-05-13
As a researcher in criminology and recidivism, this book proved to be very helpful!
bought for another.......2007-02-19
i purchased for a friend who is an inmate
he has praised the book to me
A disappointment.......2007-02-04
This book could have used an editor. I struggled through 200 of the 250 pages (before the notes at the end) before giving up. I was hoping to read an inside account of how the prison unions gained power to promote the building of more prisons, or perhaps an in-depth review of how politicians manipulated the public to be tough on crime. Instead, I find a hard to follow mish-mash of various vaguely related topics (farm worker struggles in the central valley, problems in Latin America, etc.). Although never outright stated, it seems her main conclusion is that California built all these prisons, and then toughened the laws to fill them, because the state wanted to develop land in rural areas. Huh? Could it be that that instead no one else wanted prisons near them, and rural locations were the only place they would be accepted, partly because locals were more interested in the prison jobs? And if this is the conclusion, one would think there would be some analysis disproving that it wasn't politicians getting tough on crime first, and overcrowding then driving the building of prisons in rural areas, rather than the other way around.
The other problem is that the writing appears like someone trying to sound important, rather than trying to explain something. The sentence structure was difficult to follow, with too many adjectives, etc. Here is an example from page 54: "The pivotal verb 'to reproduce' signifies the broad array of political, economic, cultural, and biological capacities a society uses to renew itself daily, seasonally, generationally." Also, the constant quotes in the middle of the text, apparently to give the air of authority missing in the text itself, was distracting. Why not use footnotes? An example from page 43: "The location of defense and other high-technology jobs (Soja 1989; Oliver et al. 1993) exacerbated the state's residential and income segregation (Walters 1992; Mike Davis 1990; Bullard et al. 1994).
There are a few good points buried in this book. For example, the point that California politicians got tough on crime at a time when crime had already started to decline for two years. Or the fact that the definition of crime determines how many criminals there are - an increasing crime rate doesn't necessarily mean an increase in crime, it can simply reflect a change in the definition of what is a crime (possession of smaller amounts of drugs, etc.). Or that the determinate sentencing we now have was partly a result of prisoners suing to be treated equally under the parole rules, with a very unintended consequence. I wish the book had focused on aspects like these, and had been written in easier to follow language.
An excellent book...a must read!.......2006-12-30
Ruthie Gilmore's examination of California's prison-industrial complex paints a sobering portrait of the effects of the state's post-industrial decline in the past quarter century. Supplemented by numerous charts, maps, and statistics, Gilmore argues that the massive prison-building project that began in the early 1980s was rooted in earlier developments, namely the failure of the "welfare-warfare state" to absorb the numerous surpluses created by political and economic restructuring. Combining theory and historical-sociological analysis, this highly readable book is at once depressing and optimistic; it lays out the facts and guidelines for pursuing meaningful, antiracist struggles against the systemic dehumanization of immigrants, low-wage workers, and youths of color that continues to characterize U.S. political culture.
Book Description
Fear is pervasive in the United States. Numerous opinion polls indicate that American citizens remain fearful despite clear evidence that most citizens are healthier, safer, and happier than ever before. Why? Dr. Altheide, whose interpretive studies of the mass media are well known, provides an answer based on a variant of frame analysis of news reports and popular culture.
Availing himself of electronic information bases, Altheide employs a method, which he calls "tracking discourse," to map how the nature and extent of use of the word "fear" has changed since the 1980s; how the topics associated with fear, the topics of the media discourse, have also changed over the same period (e.g., the emphasis "moves" over time across AIDS, crime, immigrants, race, sexuality, schools, and children); and how certain news sources prevail over others, thus protectively insulating themselves from criticism of the premises of their discourse frames.
The creative use of fear by news media and social control organizations has produced a "discourse of fear"—the awareness and expectation that danger and risk are lurking everywhere. Case studies illustrate how certain organizations and social institutions benefit from the exploitation of such fear construction. One social impact is a manipulated public empathy: We now have more "victims" than at any time in our prior history. Another, more troubling result is the role we have ceded to law enforcement and punishment: We turn ever more readily to the state and formal control to protect us from what we fear. This book, which attempts through the marshalling of significant data to interrupt that vicious circle of fear discourse, will be of interest to sociologists, communications scholars, and criminologists.
Customer Reviews:
A timely work.......2007-03-13
It is so very pleasing to see the depth of scholarship invested in this work. David has skillfully avoided doing the same thing he criticises, and given us an amazingly detailed, thought-provoking and timely rejoinder to the current crisis in public information, and by corollary public policy development.
Heavy Going.......2006-09-02
It's an interesting subject, but the book appears to have been written by a professional sociologist for other professional sociologists.
Average customer rating:
- Play Therapy with Children in Crisis, Second Edition: Individual, Group, and Family Treatment
- good overview for beginners
- good overview for new professionals
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ASIN: 1572304855 |
Book Description
This popular casebook and text focuses on the treatment of children who have experienced such stressful situations as parental death or divorce, abuse and neglect, HIV/AIDS in the family, community violence, tragic accidents, and war. Play therapy methods presented include art, storytelling, doll-play, group art activities, and games. Each in-depth case study is accompanied by an up-to-date literature review, a case summary, an assessment and treatment plan, and discussion questions. The second edition also features follow-up reports of six teenagers originally seen in therapy as children.
Customer Reviews:
Play Therapy with Children in Crisis, Second Edition: Individual, Group, and Family Treatment.......2007-03-09
It was cheap and brand new!
good overview for beginners.......2000-07-04
boyd does a nice job of providing solid overviews of major crises that impact the lives of children, such as abuse, illness, divorce. however, the book doesn't provide in-depth coverage of any individual topic. for those just starting out, the book gives a good general idea of assessment, treatment planning, and some specific techniques for use with this population. however, for those with more advanced skills, the book falls short of providing information that will enhance practice. an excellent grad school textbook, or for those who lack experience with this population. the book does provide good tools for use in assessment, and does cover the assessment process in depth. the chapter on childhood bereavement is particularly good.
good overview for new professionals.......2000-06-30
good general overview of how to treat children whove experienced a crisis. the material on assessment is very helpful and detailed. each chapter is writen by an expert in a particular area of childhood crisis. since the book covers so many potential sources of trauma, there isn't really as much in-depth coverage of each topic as i would've liked to see. the book seems to be geared more to entry level professionals than to those experienced in dealing with childhood crisis and trauma.
Amazon.com
Bakari Kitwana, a former editor at The Source, identifies blacks born between 1965 and 1984 as belonging to the "hip-hop generation" a term he uses interchangeably with black youth culture ("Generation X" applies mainly to whites, he says). He calls hip-hop "arguably the single most significant achievement of our generation," yet blames it for causing much damage to black youth by perpetuating negative stereotypes and providing poor role models. But this book is about much more than just rap music; it takes a broad look at the state of post-civil-rights black America and the crises that have come about in the past three decades, including high rates of homicide, suicide, and imprisonment and a rise in single-parent homes, police brutality, unemployment, and blacks' use of popular culture (through pop music and movies) to celebrate "anti-intellectualism, ignorance, irresponsible parenthood, and criminal lifestyles." Serious problems indeed, but Kitwana acknowledges that members of this generation have more opportunities than their parents had, and he believes there is still time to make positive and lasting changes.
He looks closely at this generation's worldview, politics, activism, and its high profile in the entertainment world, which has made it "central in American culture, transcending geographic, social, and economic boundaries." Emphasizing that "rap music's ability to influence social change should not be taken lightly," he calls for a more responsible and constructive use of this unprecedented power. Kitwana is concerned about the legacy of his generation, and he wants his book to "jump-start the dialogue necessary to change our current course." The Hip Hop Generation deserves to be read both for its aim and its execution. --Shawn Carkonen
Book Description
The Hip Hop Generation is an eloquent testament for black youth culture at the turn of the century. The only in-depth study of the first generation to grow up in post-segregation America, it combines culture and politics into a pivotal work in American studies. Bakari Kitwana, one of black America's sharpest young critics, offers a sobering look at this generation's disproportionate social and political troubles, and celebrates the activism and politics that may herald the beginning of a new phase of African-American empowerment.
Customer Reviews:
I highly recommend this book.......2007-02-24
I highly recommend this book in order to understand the post civil-rights black african american situation. Because of the interesting topic and writing style this book was a pretty quick read. Kitwana clarified so many issues: the unemployment crisis, the prison industry, mandatory minimum jail sentences, the drug war as a means to target black men, the gender war between black men and black women, making hip hop into a political agenda, the power of rap music, etc. It is a MUST READ for those who were born into this generation (born between 1965 and 1984) or who do not understand what is going on right now especially in regards to black men (it's written from a black male perspective).
I believe that society is in an awkward transitioning phase between the old pre-civil rights U.S.A. and the new post-civil rights U.S.A. I think once the baby boomers have passed away things will catch up. The hip hop generation (the black counterpart to the mainstream's Generation X) will eventually lead the black community so that issues relevant to the younger generation will finally be addressed... But will it be too little, too late?
The existing one that implements his opinion.......2006-02-21
I like the crisis in african american culture and the hip hop generation because it allows me to know what is going on in the world. Reading that book taught me how to give back to my community if I ever had fortune and fame. It talks about how people should stick together like flies to feces rather than be against each other. It talks about how the military should give money to the community rather than spend money to send people to Iraq and have their lives taken. It talks about how the military should fight for democracy. Those are some of the things that I've benefited from the book. I think the book is interesting. I would recommend the book to anyone who is into stuff like the crisis that african american have.
Add to "What You Should Read" List.......2005-09-28
This is one of the best books for the Hip Hop generation out in circulation. His nononsense views are understandable and shed light on many current issues in society. I think everyone, parent, teacher, community leader, and political assosciate should read this book.
Everything you need to know about US.......2005-08-23
This one is good for the parents of teens and especially for the white parents to know whats up with there children and why they want to be like us. This is the only hip hop book you will ever need. This book was on hit!
A strong foundation for continued change.......2005-02-06
I appreciated Kitwana's presentation of the current issues facing today's hip hop generation. Interesting and insightfuul was the comparisions of the generation and that of the Civil Rights/Black Power generation. This book stands strong is providing a foundation on which to further examine these issues and to use the strong influential power within this generation to finally begin to resolve them.
Book Description
Once America's "arsenal of democracy," Detroit over the last fifty years has become the symbol of the American urban crisis. In this reappraisal of racial and economic inequality in modern America, Thomas Sugrue explains how Detroit and many other once prosperous industrial cities have become the sites of persistent racialized poverty. He challenges the conventional wisdom that urban decline is the product of the social programs and racial fissures of the 1960s. Probing beneath the veneer of 1950s prosperity and social consensus, Sugrue traces the rise of a new ghetto, solidified by changes in the urban economy and labor market and by racial and class segregation.
In this provocative revision of postwar American history, Sugrue finds cities already fiercely divided by race and devastated by the exodus of industries. He focuses on urban neighborhoods, where white working-class homeowners mobilized to prevent integration as blacks tried to move out of the crumbling and overcrowded inner city. Weaving together the history of workplaces, unions, civil rights groups, political organizations, and real estate agencies, Sugrue finds the roots of today's urban poverty in a hidden history of racial violence, discrimination, and deindustrialization that reshaped the American urban landscape after World War II.
In a new preface, Sugrue discusses the ongoing legacies of the postwar transformation of urban America and engages recent scholars who have joined in the reassessment of postwar urban, political, social, and African American history.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent history of urban decline.......2007-07-18
This was required reading for a graduate course in American history.
Thomas J. Sugrue attempts to prove that resistance to the civil rights movement had much deeper roots than the white backlash of the 1960s and 1970s. The author contends that resistance to the civil rights actually emerged as opposition to the New Deal coalition. Urban, anti-liberal, northern whites, as well as corporate leaders, unionists and politicians limited the possibilities of reform. Sugure maintains that northern urban white workers initially were the "backbone" of the New Deal coalition. And they found a common cause as the New Deal unified varied constituents in America. Yet, Sugure argues that underneath the seeming unity of the new coalition, were unresolved questions of racial identities. These unresolved issues began to fester, and were then exacerbated by liberal policies, specifically, public housing. And it is here that Sugure places the ''white rebellion" against the New Deal and liberalism, in the urban north.
From the 1940s until the 1960s, Detroit's racial geography changed dramatically. Sugure refers to Detroit as a "magnet' for African Americans after World War II, due to the lure of the defense and
automobile industries. When increasing numbers of African Americans began to search for housing in the predominantly white sections of the Detroit, racial tensions began to increase. Post World War II was described at "dark ages of Detroit." Riots and white flight occurred, coupled with a decline in the Detroit's post war economy. As layoffs mounted, and a national housing shortage, white homeowners feared foreclosure on their homes, as the economic ability to own home became increasingly precarious.
Sugure claims that race and housing became inseparable in the minds of white Detroiters. Basically, he contends that white homeowners feared that the influx of blacks would ruin their fragile economic security. Familiar racial fears and myths emerged; blacks were associated with crime and vice. White Detroiters even cited Jim Crow as a model for "successful race relations." In response to the "black invasion" and their increased economic stability, working class whites began to form neighborhood associations. Essentially, these associations were political organizations aimed at stymieing black constituents from moving into white neighborhoods. Sugure contends that these associations espoused the notions of values, protection, achievement and tradition, and were aimed at paternalistically protecting the neighborhood from vice-ridden blacks. They also served to foster a sense of "whiteness" among members (silent majority etc). These organizations corresponded with public officials and real estate agents (who played to both black and whites) to block African Americans from certain neighborhoods in various ways, including violence and intimidation.
By examining this, I believe the author uncovered a very prominent theme in American history and politics. What should be the level of government assistance in a capitalistic society? In this specific case, should the government have supplied urban housing for its poorer constituents, or should it have upheld the rights of privacy and association of its more affluent constituents? The affluent white constituents criticized the government when it tried to "force people" (blacks) down their throats," they cried for their freedoms of privacy and association, yet they called on that same "tyrannical" government to aid them in blocking the settlement of African Americans in their neighborhoods. Sugrue hits on this contradiction but does not pursue it. Which constituents should the government help and when should it help them? When is the government infringing on the rights on its citizens, and when is it fighting to uphold their rights? A fine line is drawn and illustrated by the struggle in post war Detroit.
I think the author is extremely misleading when he discusses the "black invasion" of Detroit. He presents blacks as a stifling, crime-ridden, vice infested monolith. I understand the aim of the article was to examine the position of the urban white class, but nonetheless, the quotes the author uses to describe migrating blacks is extremely derogatory, and in some cases, the author makes the white backlash almost seem justified. The black race is not a monolithic entity, no race is. I believe Sugrue should have at least written a few sentences dispelling the notion of the "black invasion" as a monolithic entity.
In summation, Sugure challenges the historian to probe deeper when trying to locate the backlash to the civil rights movement and liberalism. Instead of just viewing it narrowly as southern whites, Sugure contends that resistance developed among a very unlikely group, a group which initially formed the "backbone" of the New Deal coalition. Yet, as the housing shortage pressed, old racial tensions flared up and urban, working class whites banned together to resist liberalism and the "black invasion" in the 1940s and 1950s, a generation prior to the civil rights movement.
Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history, civil rights history.
Bad thesis but a story that still needs to be looked at.......2006-12-17
Sugrue takes a look at one of the crisis to hit not only Detroit but the rest of the country in his book on race and inequality. While there have been a lot of disturbing factors that have occurred during urban renewal Sugrue takes his text a little far. His flagrant bashing of urban planning gets old after the first two chapters and the book tends to drag on. This is an important issue that bears further studying but hopefully it will be done in a more academic way. This book does have all the information you need to start studying the subject and is a good way to begin looking at urban renewal.
How a Frightening Economic Powerhouse Became Just Plain Frightening.......2006-08-29
In 2005, Detroit looks more like a city awaiting reconstruction after a series of aerial bomber raids than the dynamo of manufacturing it was at the close of the Second World War. The combinations of white flight, race riots, massive deindustrialization by the automotive industry and the industries attached to it coupled with chronic unemployment and discrimination and racism in nearly every facet of life did a great a deal to make Detroit the wasteland it is today.
Thomas J. Sugrue's short study of Detroit, from the late 1930's through the 1970's is an attempt to understand the structure of Detroit's decline in racial, political, economic, and sometimes spatial terms. Through analysis of all these factors, Sugrue creates a cogent explanation of why so many formerly industrial cities of the United States are increasingly poorer, blacker, and more hopeless about their future with every passing year.
Sugrue sees the problems of Detroit stemming from a multiplicity of conscious and unconscious decisions made on the part of local and national government officials, corporate boards, union leadership, neighborhood associations, and self-interested individuals in day to day life. This is nothing new in the study of post-war urban and industrial decline. What is new, and rather eye opening, is that Sugrue traces the beginnings of Detroit's economic woes to be nearly co-terminus with the war and not after the disastrous riot of 1967. This analysis is incredibly important for understanding how a massive black underclass with only minimal connections to the job market came into existence, and expanded, in the 1950's.
By a combination of discrimination and bad luck, a large number of black workers missed out on the relatively high paying automotive jobs that allowed huge numbers of white blue collar workers to aspire to home ownership and middle class respectability. For a small number of black workers who were able to find auto jobs immediately before or during the war some measure of job security and the upward mobility. This was not the situation of most black workers though. Without the benefits of seniority, most often confined to jobs that were made redundant by automation or plant movements and closure, black workers were most likely to be the victims of the vagaries of Detroit's labor market. The vast body of black workers most often found themselves getting the hot end of the economic poker.
Sugrue's analysis of race and the meaning of postwar liberalism is the most succinct and cogent portion of the work. One of the great conundrums post-war Detroit politics with overwhelming presence of the militant and fighting union UAW-CIO could not prevent housing segregation from becoming so thoroughly entrenched. In recounting the wartime and post war fights over public housing, Sugrue points to the dual identities that white male union members had as rank and filers and bread winning home owners tenuously holding onto newly won middle class status and their own whiteness.
The part of Roman Catholic identity is something Sugrue finds to be very important to the territorial fights that occurred in residential Detroit, as well as the grass roots neighborhood organizing which occurred in white neighborhoods--both factors he identifies as being woefully under analyzed. Through Sugrue's descriptions of neighborhood attempts to stop racial turn over, or the pernicious practice of "block busting" by opportunistic real estate agents, the reader is privy to seeing grass roots mass mobilization which would have most likely have formally adopted segregation if there had been legal means to do so. The housing battles of the forties and fifties were a grim precursor of white working class abandonment of the city proper and savage and complicated forms of inequalities that plague the rust belt today.
One of the most interesting portions of Sugrue's work is his analysis of how the automotive industry, in line with a great many other industries the country over, left the cities in the Northeast, Middle Atlantic and Midwest portions of the country--cities whose advantages laid in their location vis-à-vis lakes, rivers, or railway hubs. In line with Cold War planning which expected major metropolitan areas to be first strike targets by the Soviets, and because of the massive highway system built during the Eisenhower administration, it became possible for industry to disperse over greater distances than ever before. Facing the prospect of negotiating with militant unions in urban areas with powerful allies in public offices at every, much of the auto industry was more than happy to relocate to areas where unions were either weak or simply not organized--after 1947 the Taft-Hartley act made this much simpler as even Southern states with strong union presence enacted "right to work" legislation.
Mixing national security rationales with a great deal of pecuniary interest, Sugrue recounts how huge sections of the automotive industry simply left Detroit without the slightest concern for what their departure would mean for the future of the city. Sugure shows how the UAW and other Detroit area unions were possibly lost a golden opportunity to redefine corporate responsibility when they did not oppose shareholder and corporate prerogatives about the free movement of property anywhere they pleased. Although any union would have had a difficult time attempting to halt the movement of corporate property from one area of the country, no international union gave their support to stopping what the militant members of Detroit's UAW Local 600 called the "Runaway Shop," and we call deindustrialization. Some restrictions on the free flow of corporate property may have insured that Detroit's colossal unemployment of the late twentieth century would not be so colossal and seemingly intractable.
The Origin of the Urban Crisis is possibly the most solid book on why so many areas of the United States sit in utter ruin today. The analysis of Detroit he gives can be extended de-industrialized cities in every region of the country with their largely black and poor inner cities and their outlying more prosperous suburbs.
a grad student.......2005-11-30
Sugrue's thesis in this book is that endemic racism (along with economic decline) is responsible for Detroit being largely Black, poor and greatly in decline. He's a revisionist historian who wants to refute older narratives that Detroit is corrupt (because all the city governments after 1967 have been run by Democrats and Blacks). Instead he attempts to refute that by showing the deeply ingrained racism in the community.
Sugrue's attempt at political polemics is bad history. He fails to mention the obvious: Detroit is over-taxed and run by incompetent, corrupt politicians. It's public unions have caused government workers to be some of the highest paid in the country with little to show for it. This is thanks to former-Mayor Young who instituted an arbitration law. To pay for this, the city's taxes are exorbitant which pushes businesses further out. Because of this, Detroit never found other businesses to take the place of the declining auto-industry which has inflated pay for its jobs in the first place.
Of the past three mayors, two have been highly corrupt. Archer who was mayor in the '90s, after a distinguished career in the state Supreme Court, tried to reform the city but was kicked out of office. Young and the current mayor, Kilpatrick, are very corrupt. Just do a google news search of "Kwame Kilpatrick" and "corrupt" and you'll see the various scandals that have plagued him. Other than stealing city funds for himself and his family he turned down a $200,000,000 private gift to the city for charter schools because the teacher's unions were against it. Young, mayor in the '70s and '80s, made room for a GM plant by confiscating private land through eminent domain. Few could understand why he buldozed tax producing land when he could have given over acres of abandoned property, except that the residents of that neighborhood voted overwhelmingly against him.
Yes, white people with means fled Detroit for the suburbs. But Sugrue glosses over that fact that middle class Black residents left as soon as the could too. Southfield, a surburb township, is overwhelming Black and middle class, populated by those who couldn't stand the crime and corruption of Detroit.
Far from being an example of a typical post-industrial American City, Detroit is the exception. It should be held up as a prime example of how not to run a city. That being said, unless you've been assigned this book, don't read it. Sugrue gives excuses and vague general reasons (aka racism) for Detroit's decline when the real problems are staring him in the face
Well researched, well written.......2004-01-03
The Detroit metropolitan area today is arguably the most racially segregated region in the United States, with a primarily African-American, largely abandoned and dilapidated urban center surrounded by layers of primarily white, affluent suburbs. This book is essential reading for anyone who lives in southeast Michigan as well as other cities that have similar histories of industrialization, urban decline and concentrated poverty such as Cleveland, Gary, Philadelphia, and South Chicago.
Thomas Sugrue provides a thoughtful, well-researched, and fascinating analysis of systematic racial inequality in Detroit during the post World War II automotive industry boom of the 1940s through deindustrialization and "white flight", and ending with the catastrophic race riots of 1967. Sugrue avoids the current, common oversimplifications of blaming Detroit's urban crisis on the '67 riots or Mayor Colman Young by weaving together a complex story of human behaviors, fears, and incentive structures backed by data, references, and personal accounts: "By the time Young was inaugurated, the forces of economic decay and racial animosity were far too powerful for a single elected official to stem."
Sugrue's analysis provides insight to understand major groups of stakeholders and their interactions: Workers flocked from the southern states to Detroit seeking relatively high-paying automotive jobs. In the free market, resulting housing shortages allowed landlords to divide properties into tiny apartments and charge premium prices, protecting their investments by being selective in their choice of "low risk" white tenants. Bankers also preferred "low risk" clients, resulting in unequal access to funds. White home owners, wanting to protect their families and financial investment, resisted neighborhood integration to avoid declining property values and perceived dangers. Real estate agents capitalized on fears of mixed neighborhoods by buying property from fleeing whites at junk prices and selling immediately to blacks at premium prices. Labor unions protected seniority, which unequally benefited whites, and tended to compromise on racial issues in order to gain bargaining ground. Store owners avoided hiring black workers, wishing to avoid offending or frightening mostly white, mostly female, customers. Suburban tax incentives and new technology made large, flat assembly plants more efficient than the old multi-story plants. This drove automakers away from Detroit, where the rail and riverside real estate was largely developed, and contributed to unemployment and race and class polarization.
Racial inequality in Detroit stems from complex social systems of incentives and categorical isolation caused by systematic inequality in access to employment, housing, networking and other resources. Recognizing the complexity of this social system helps the reader understand how individuals who fail to actively oppose racism actually support it, and why official "race-blind" policies fail to stop the polarization caused by chain-reactions of systematic, historic, self-reinforcing racial inequalities and the ruthless self-interest of capitalist culture.
Amazon.com
The image of salmon battling upstream through whitewater cataracts to spawn in their birthplace is integral to any happy vision of the Pacific Northwest. Sadly, because they face more insidious obstacles than swift currents, few people today actually witness this remarkable spectacle. Armed with exhaustive research and an ability to synthesize his findings into a concise, readable indictment of the status quo, Jim Lichatowich, a fisheries scientist for 30 years, traces the sudden decline of Northwest salmon populations following the onset of Euro-American settlement. He points a finger at the usual suspects: logging, mining, damming, grazing, irrigation, commercial fishing, and development. Moreover, he cites the political establishment for a failure of nerve. Since the shift from a Native American "gift" economy based on sustainability to a profit economy based on self-interest and short-term financial gain, the historically resilient salmon have met one adversary after another, with little or no help from the legal apparatus charged with their protection. In fact, federal and state governments have responded to the deepening crisis mainly by building fish hatcheries up and down the West Coast. Contrary to the beliefs of entrenched bureaucrats and sport fishermen, says Lichatowich, hatcheries have merely diluted the gene pools of wild stocks while allowing resource extractors to continue their multifarious operations and politicians to shirk their responsibilities. In 1960, for instance, after decades of declining runs, the Washington Department of Fisheries reported, incredibly (and characteristically), that new advanced management techniques would soon result in "salmon without a river"--more welcome news to those who would continue to exploit these iconic fish and their habitat. At the dawn of the 21st century hundreds of hatcheries still operate, yet Northwest salmon populations have decreased 95 percent.
Lichatowich is a learned and persuasive advocate for wild salmon. He's also eloquent, as in this description of his first visit to the Columbia River's Grand Coulee dam:
As I sat there wondering and swatting mosquitoes, the face of the dam lit up. It was the start of the nightly laser show.... Appropriately, the lasers sent a series of large green dollar signs floating through the darkness. Then a series of laser salmon swam across the face of the dam. Here were the ideal salmon, I thought, the fish that fit perfectly into our worldview. We have complete control over them--press a button and they appear; press another and they change from green to red; press another and they swim over the dam. Salmon and dams are compatible--as long as you are not particular about the kind of salmon.
So what to do? Lichatowich opines that we need a new "worldview," one that places natural resources within a context of respect and sustainability. He looks to state and federal governments to enforce the protections already granted by laws like the Endangered Species Act. And he sees evidence that public perceptions may be changing on such issues as habitat conservation and biodiversity; breaching four dams on the lower Snake River to aid fish passage would have been unthinkable even in the early 1990s. Whether this new worldview can save salmon in time is another question. --Langdon Cook
Book Description
"Fundamentally, the salmon's decline has been the consequence of a vision based on flawed assumptions and unchallenged myths.... We assumed we could control the biological productivity of salmon and 'improve' upon natural processes that we didn't even try to understand. We assumed we could have salmon without rivers." --from the introduction
From a mountain top where an eagle carries a salmon carcass to feed its young to the distant oceanic waters of the California current and the Alaskan Gyre, salmon have penetrated the Northwest to an extent unmatched by any other animal. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the natural productivity of salmon in Oregon, Washington, California, and Idaho has declined by eighty percent. The decline of Pacific salmon to the brink of extinction is a clear sign of serious problems in the region.
In Salmon Without Rivers, fisheries biologist Jim Lichatowich offers an eye-opening look at the roots and evolution of the salmon crisis in the Pacific Northwest. He describes the multitude of factors over the past century and a half that have led to the salmon's decline, and examines in depth the abject failure of restoration efforts that have focused almost exclusively on hatcheries to return salmon stocks to healthy levels without addressing the underlying causes of the decline. The book:
- describes the evolutionary history of the salmon along with the geologic history of the Pacific Northwest over the past 40 million years
- considers the indigenous cultures of the region, and the emergence of salmon-based economies that survived for thousands of years
- examines the rapid transformation of the region following the arrival of Europeans
- presents the history of efforts to protect and restore the salmon
- offers a critical assessment of why restoration efforts have failed
Throughout, Lichatowich argues that the dominant worldview of our society -- a worldview that denies connections between humans and the natural world -- has created the conflict and controversy that characterize the recent history of salmon; unless that worldview is challenged and changed, there is little hope for recovery. Salmon Without Rivers exposes the myths that have guided recent human-salmon interactions. It clearly explains the difficult choices facing the citizens of the region, and provides unique insight into one of the most tragic chapters in our nation's environmental history.
Customer Reviews:
Peter Morrison.......2005-09-11
This is a must read book for anyone interested in salmon, rivers and the ecology and history of the Pacific Northwest. Excellent information and a good read.
Great read.......2005-08-02
This is an excellent book that documents the history of salmon, how native Americans viewed them and how modern Americans view them. It focuses on why the pacific northwest is facing a salmon crisis, and our failed attempts to replace what we have lost. Great read for anyone who is concerned about environmental issues.
Pacific Northwest Salmon History Book.......2003-12-02
Salmon Without Rivers is a great book of historical facts. It includes many issues like; original salmon locations/populations, "Economy over Environment" issues, and the ineffectiveness of large decision making commissions/agencies. However, with all his good background information the book does not propose any solutions nor investigates today's coastal human communities as they relate to the salmon and/or habitat.
A captivating, human, informed book.......2001-01-16
As a freelance author writing a piece about salmon for a California-based magazine, this book was indispensible and eye-opening. It is unfailingly sensitive and intelligent about salmon, discussing the fish as fellow creatures in the "natural economy" in which we all live, rather than as mere commodities in the "industrial economy" that has transformed the West in the last 150 years. It is fascinating about the geology that shaped the salmon's environment, the evolutionary history of the fish, the relationship between Native Americans and salmon in the Northwest, and it provides a detailed history of the many factors that have led to the salmon's decline, including habitat destruction, misbegotten hatchery programs, overfishing, dams, mining, grazing, irrigation. If you like to read books about ecology, the creatures of the earth, fish, or the Northwest--you can't go wrong. This is a wonderful book.
Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth
Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change
The Weather Makers : How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth
The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth (Commonwealth Fund Book Program (Series).)
An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It
