The Self-Calmed Baby

Average customer rating:

Good concepts

Finally, it all makes sense!

Don't Listen to the Naysayers

the parent calming book

read with caution...

The Self-Calmed Baby
William A. H. Sammons , and T. Berry Brazelton
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Family Health | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
Health & Nutrition | Parenting | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
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Touchpoints: Birth to Three: Your Child's Emotional and Behavioral Development (Touchpoints)

ASIN: 0312924682

Customer Reviews:

Good concepts.......2004-11-23

But we actually took our baby to the doctor after many many nights of crying and us getting no sleep (he's now 8 months old) and the doctor determined he had Acid Reflux - which gets worse when he lays down. Glad I didn't just let him calm himself... because we tried but it took way too long for him to wear himself out. HOWEVER, we don't run to him immediately now - we do let him cry for a little while before coming in and checking on him. (A couple nights ago he got the flu in the middle of the night and had vomit all over his face, so it's important to still check on them and listen for their distinctive cries.) I do know his sleepy cry and his hungry cry now! There is definitely a difference once you start really paying attention!! So, this book was very helpful, even though some medical conditions can be one of the problems.

Finally, it all makes sense!.......2003-09-06

I'm an elementary ed teacher, a certified massage therapist specializing in pregnancy/infant massage, and a day care provider. Our second daughter is just 7 weeks old. Following a traumatic birth and two weeks in NICU, she's been quite a challenge. She has a few developmental delays, cannot suck or swallow, and is fed exclusively via a naso-gastric tube, which causes severe reflux. Everything in her behavior screamed COLIC, and it was obvious she was miserable! Even with all my education and experience, I felt like a failure, unable to help my daughter. Her Occupational Therapist suggested that she was overstimulated and verging on neurological distress. I began researching and trying to find anything and everything I could about newborn sensory input and "Sensory Integration." I checked out "The Self-Calmed Baby" and began reading it, hoping it wouldn't be a "cry it out" book. It is anything but that. In just two days, I have seen dramatic improvement in my daughter's behavior. She's been telling me all along that she's in distress, and I just didn't understand what she was saying. Now that I understand her "language," I can comfort her and most importantly, help her comfort herself. She has cried only about 20 minutes in the past two days, and I actually slept 5 hours at a stretch last night. I won't call it a miracle, but our lives have certainly changed. The only thing I didn't like about the book was his lack of knowledge about the benefits of breastfeeding. Formula is *not* as good as breastmilk, and research backs it up. However, his attitudes about the feeding situation were very balanced - it's a social situation, not just a nutrition situation. The message of the book is that your child has the ability to communicate with you and calm herself - just pay attention and follow through with what your baby is telling you.

Don't Listen to the Naysayers.......2002-02-12

I have two kids. This book was INDESPENSIBLE for both of them, when they were infants. They have grown into healthy, happy 8 and 5 year olds, respectively.

"The Self-Calmed Baby" helped restore some sanity into our lives and our household. I have bought a copy for all my friends who are first-time parents. It is an excellent book, and offers excellent advice.

I don't know what planet the Moms are on who hate this book. I think it's one of the best baby advice books ever written. I wish it wasn't out of print. If you can get a copy used, by all means, get one. It's worth it.

the parent calming book.......2002-02-09

I bought this book out of frustration and exhaustion. Two weeks after my daughter was born, I regretted reading too much about pregnancy and not about babies! At three weeks, I was looking for anything that would make the crying stop! My daughter seemed to be crying 75% of her waking hours! She slept far less than the average infant did, so my ears never seemed to get a break. I didn't understand how such a little creature could make so much noise! I spent much of my "should be sleeping while the baby is sleeping" hours reading several books. This book includes several stories of frustrated parents of very fussy babies. I felt better knowing that I wasn't alone and I could get through all of it. Before I read the book, I kept my baby from sucking her hand because I didn't want her to become a thumb-sucker. I didn't realize it was instinctive.
Overall, reading the book didn't make my baby cry less but did make me more understanding and patient.

read with caution..........2002-01-30

I bought this because when my son was a few weeks old, he wouldn't sleep unless you held or rocked him. I bought this book in August and have not finished reading it. It has a lot of useless information plus the breastfeeding part is bogus. When you finally do get some useful info from it (towards the end of the book), it makes sense. But be warned that if your baby is only less than 2 months old, I think they can't self-calm at all because developmentally they are just too immature. 3 months is a good age to start, plus as a lot of books suggest this is the time they "come to terms with themselves". Read this book with caution. I've taken some ideas from it and adjusted it to my son's personality and my style, but I can't say I totally agree with the author. Remember, although you can read millions of baby books, the best thing to do is to "LISTEN TO YOUR HEART" because if you do, you can't go wrong.

The Self-Calmed Baby: A Revolutionary New Approach to Parenting Your Infant

Average customer rating:

This book set the stage for our wonderful adventure in parenting!
Outdated
Wonderful book, cool theory
Tremendously useful perspective
Might as well be called "How to abuse your child"

The Self-Calmed Baby: A Revolutionary New Approach to Parenting Your Infant
William A. H. Sammons
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Family Health | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0316769738

Customer Reviews:

This book set the stage for our wonderful adventure in parenting!.......2005-10-19

The three books that helped make our parenting more successful and joyful were: Dr. Richard Ferber's, How To Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems; Dr. William Sammons, I Wanna Do It Myself; and his book, The Self-Calmed Baby. Thanks to Ferber and Sammons, both endorsed by Dr. T. Berry Brazleton, each of my three babies was sleeping through the night within the first month of life. And before you say "Well, but I breastfeed, so...," I nursed my babies for one year each. I just made sure they got as much as they could possibly need or want during the daytime, and until late at night. As a result, they were cheerful, well adjusted,... and so were we parents. Sammons' ideas on self-calming, self-entertaining,... are some of the best skills you can teach you children, and they will benefit from them for a lifetime, in ways that you might not foresee as a new parent. My children are now, 8, 11, and 13 years old, and would not be the same without my having read those three books. They are very confident, affectionate, creative, imaginative, independent,...to a greater extent than they likely would have been without the books. If you don't like a piece of advice here or there, tailor it to your child and situation, so long as it's effective. Teaching or allowing a child to be independent doesn't mean there is or should be any less affection, as some seem to interpret 'independence'. Your child will know that you are always there for them, and ready to guide or help them, as well as to share in the joy of their successes, whether it's her first time clicking her tongue on the roof of her mouth at 10 months, or getting the lead in a play at 10 years. Best of luck to All.

Outdated.......2003-04-02

As a first-time mom, I've read many many books trying to understand my newborn, why she was crying and most importantly how to stop the crying! This book brings up some interesting methods in which a baby is able to self-calm (for example, he writes of placing baby on it's side, facing a white or blank wall). I also remember reading some grossly outdated information such as breast-feeding does not provide immunity, etc... This book may have been "the answer" when it was first published (in the mid-80s I believe), but today there are many more current writings which are far more helpful. Some of those titles are "The Happiest Baby on the Block" By Harvey Karp, MD, "The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" By Tracy Hogg, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" By Marc Weissbluth. Those were the most helpful to me in the early months of my baby's life. As for this book, it's outdated.

Wonderful book, cool theory.......2002-03-25

Loved it! Like all parenting books, you take bits and pieces and apply your own instinct for success.

Tremendously useful perspective.......2000-11-17

I'm prompted to write to rebut the other reviews. This book takes the revolutionary view that one of a baby's major tasks is to learn how to deal with stimuli, and that it is important to identify what is bothering your baby and then set up your baby's world so that she has the best chance of trying to calm herself. It explicitly recognizes that babies are different and so what bothers one baby (being swaddled, for example) may not bother another - and gives lots of suggestions about what might be the problem and what might help your baby feel more comfortable with his world. This was a very helpful approach for me to read so that I could keep experimenting with what I was doing, rather than relying on (and getting discouraged by) the same old tired advice.

I completely disagree that this advice goes against a mother's instincts. Every mother wants to help her child. Some mothers may want to try to do this by holding their child all the time. I have no problem with that. What this book says, however, is that some *babies* may not want to be held all the time: in fact, it may be overstimulating to them to be bounced, rocked, sung to, and soothed - so much so that, in a state where they are constantly trying to deal with these stimuli, they never are able to figure out how to settle down. If you have this kind of baby, who somehow persists in being unhappy despite your best efforts, then this book is for you to help you figure out how to help better. If you are offended by the proposition that the baby somehow has tastes of his own that mean that he doesn't happen to like what you are doing for him for moments at a time, then this book is not for you.

It is the most compassionate book I found toward the baby and toward the new parents, in the sense that it tries to provide concrete suggestions to help a baby and relieves a new parent of some of the guilt and nervousness that comes from thinking that a baby's happiness depends only on them. Something of a baby's happiness depends on the baby! Far from being detached from research, this book adopted the premise (which has gained even more currency since its publication) that babies know a lot more than we think and start trying from birth to make sense of their worlds. This book takes the attitude that parents can do a lot to help them along. If you can find a copy of this book, give it a try. Don't be deterred by reviews from people who didn't seem to get the message...make up your own tired mind.

Might as well be called "How to abuse your child".......1999-10-08

Another book written by a man that claims mother's instinct does not exist. Any man who writes a book on childcare and does not back his word up with research (not a reference listed in the book), or ignores a woman's basic biological knowledge of her own child has no business writing a book on childcare. Thank God it's out of print.

Customer Reviews:

George Orwell was a prophet.......2007-07-02

This book is just like reading "1984" or "Animal Farm." It was an emotional experience to read Belenko's story. I think that it should be required reading (required??. . . Mr. Komrad) for all High School kids. It gives you a greater appreciation for what we have . . . as flawed as it is. Belenko is a hero. I felt that the book was well-written, and conveyed Belenko's sense of frustration, very well.

There is no substitute for man's desire for freedom.......2006-05-01

It was incredible seeing Lt. Belenko's comparisons between the life in Soviet Russia and the USA. It made me laugh many times to see his disbelief at what we consider so normal in our way of life. If you know of anyone who takes our freedom's for granted, this would be an excellent book to read.

good book but to dumbed down.......2003-07-18

this was a good book i really enjoyed it but i felt it was to dumbed down i have read public school text books with more in depth study of the soviet system the book was a fun read but it was just the same stuff you always here about the soviet union with some stuff about planes thrown in but the plane stuff was cool, some of the soviet union stuff was to and belenko is very cool lol now i'm indepth

Good book, misleading title.......2001-08-03

The unfortunate thing about this book is that the title will probably attract the wrong audience, and scare away the right audience. This isnýt a book about fighter pilots, fighter piloting, or even flying. It is a book about a political and social system gone very wrong. It is a book about weighing oneýs loyalties against oneýs happiness and well being. It is a book about fearing inaction more than action. It is a book that made me say aloud to many people since I read it, "Iýll never again complain about life in the USA."

This true story is presented in a framed narrative, beginning with Victor's famous defection flight to Japan in a Soviet Mig-25, then flashing back to his life in the Soviet Union of the 1960s and 1970s, then finishing the suspenseful defection/landing sequence, then moving on to Belenko's bittersweet life in the USA.

Avoiding too much talk about fighter piloting, author John Barron wisely veers away from turning this account into a fighter-jock's debrief manual, and instead focuses on the factors that turned Belenko against his motherland. In doing this, he presents a very sobering portrait of life in the Soviet Union ý which stands in stark contrast to the life pilot Victor Belenko found in the USA afterwards.

I was impressed by Belenkoýs voluntary quest to explore the USA alone until he found proof that it couldnýt possibly be this good here. He never found proof. Even after having a cab driver in San Francisco drop him off in the worst part of town, Belenko found satisfaction in a $1.50 meal. It is tidbits like that which speak volumes about what kind of a life this man had in the Soviet Union, and why it led him to risk flying about 500 miles in a fighter jet with a 560 mile range (he started with 14 tons of fuel and landed with 52 gallons ý enough for about 30 seconds of powered flight).

If youýre a aviation and/or warbird enthusiast, youýll enjoy the "de-mythification" of the fabled and hugely over-rated Mig-25. Youýll delight in hearing Belenko talk about why the Mig-25 posed no threat to the USAýs awesome SR-71 supersonic recon jet. And youýll grin when he expressed disbelief that a 747 jumbo jet required only a 3 person crew, or amazement that a US Navy aircraft carrier could launch and land so many jets so flawlessly and fast.

But hopefully, youýll also want to re-read the parts where Barron describes Belenkoýs boyhood quest for more meat in his diet, or how when the CIA first took Belenko to an American suburban grocery store Belenko thought it was all a put-on for his benefit, finding it difficult to believe our country was this well supplied.

I keep the book in my aviation book collection, but it wouldnýt be out of place next to more socially conscious books. Indeed, Iým sometimes inclined to put it on the same shelf as my Farley Mowat books!

A great book about escaping to freedom.......2000-09-21

I couldn't have been more than 12 when I first read Mig Pilot. This is the original Hunt for Red October. But this one's real. Belenko goes into great detail about the Soviet system and how it continually failed him after promising the stars.

From the hard times he faced as a youth, to his rise into the ranks of a fighter pilot and ultimately to his defection with Russia's most prized fighter, Belenko douses the reader with his experience.

He depicts a Soviet Union that is riddled with poverty and run by a government that promises a turn around fueled by the wonders of the communist system. Belenko has the vision to see that nothing is changing and works his way into the ranks of the military in which he is told that pilots live like kings. His hard work does pay off when he finds the means to leave the country that has done him wrong.

He takes the pride of the Soviet Air Force, the Mig 25, and makes a break for the freedom and promise of the United States. Only a small portion of the book deals with the actual escape of Sgt. Belenko. The bulk of the book is the story behind the man and how life in his country compelled him to leave as well as the differences he experienced between the two dominant cold-war powers.

If Mig-Pilot can be found, it should be bought. It's a nice little piece of the past that caused quite a stir with the Russian military and shattered a lot of fears about the new Soviet "superfighter"

Average customer rating:
Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lieutenant Belenko
John Barron
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEYKX0

Average customer rating:

Easy reading, inaccurate advice

An excellent overview of experimentation but needs revisions

Excellent general text for teaching the process of research

The Art of Science: A Practical Guide to Experiments, Observations, and Handling Data
Joseph J. Carr
Manufacturer: Llh Technology Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Research | Education | Science | Subjects | Books
Experiments & Projects | Experiments, Instruments & Measurement | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1878707051

Customer Reviews:

Easy reading, inaccurate advice.......2000-02-09

Positive reviews made me consider this book as a course book. I bought a copy and scrutinized it. The easy language gives nice insights in scientific reasoning and approches to problems. But when it comes to practical advise on instrumentation, statistics, and error estimation too many incorrect formulas or misunderstandings have crept into the examples. Therefore I don't recommend this book for practical work, unless the reader have an experienced and knowledgeable person within reach to consult.

An excellent overview of experimentation but needs revisions.......1999-05-10

This is an outstanding book covering the process of scientific thinking and experimentation in practical terms - ideal for senior high school or freshmen college students. I am using this as a text for a Gr. 12 course in Experimental Physics in 1999.

The only criticism is that it needs some revision - there is reference to LORAN-C instead of GPS in one example, the code examples at the back are written in DOS BASIC and are things that can be done in any modern spreadsheet or on a good calculator. The content though is still very current - the section on digital data aquisition is especially good covering signal aliasing and resolution in clear and concise terms.

Highly recommended for anyone wanting to learn the important things they should have been taught in high school science, but weren't!

Excellent general text for teaching the process of research.......1999-04-28

Mr. Carr has a clear grasp of what is involved in the process of scientific research. He walks readers through the "hows" and "whys" of good science, and has extensive mathematical bases for his suggestions on analyzing data. He includes common pitfalls in thinking and logic that lead to poor science, which is just as useful as comments on the "right" ways to think. Additional references he provides are also useful for more detail in the areas of critical thinking and statistics.

Readable and do-able science is what he offers to high school and university students who need a crash course on basic research. I will be using this book as the main textbook for a pilot course on Scientific Research and Design for high school students in the fall of 1999.

Average customer rating:
The Art of Science: A Practical Guide to Experiments, Observations, & Handling Data
Joseph J. Carr
Manufacturer: Not Avail
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Experiments & Projects | Experiments, Instruments & Measurement | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 187870706X

Amazon.com

A blend of rambling biography and encouraging success story, Gut Feelings will take you right into the nitty-gritty of Carnie Wilson's life and the mysteries of gastric bypass surgery. If you think a similar surgery may be in your future, there is a lot to learn from this book--Wilson presents the gory details unflinchingly, and separate appendices from four specialists address more general questions and answers. Wilson's casual tone and conversational asides will make you feel like you're getting to know a new friend; that is, a new friend with a roller-coaster life and a habit of using curses as adjectives. She's frank and animated, with no real illusions about her strengths and weaknesses, but the repeat discussions of matter-of-fact drug use may distract some readers from the real story. Ultimately, the surgery is an interesting success, and professionals in health-related fields, as well as prospective patients, may find the specifics of one person's experience useful. --Jill Lightner

Book Description

Carnie Wilson's story is a journey from the darkness of a lifelong struggle with emotional rejection, compulsive eating, and morbid obesity into the light of health. Born the daughter of pop music royalty (Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys) and gifted with her own talents that brought her fame and fortune, she came to feel that none of this mattered. She would never be whole and happy until she achieved a healthy weight and body image.

Heavy since age four, Carnie tried countless diet and exercise regimens, but the weight loss never lasted. With her success in the multiplatinum pop group Wilson Phillips, she became the darling of overweight activists, defining a larger-than-life, A no-apologies sense of style for big women. However, behind the bravado were feelings of shame, self-hatred, and desperation. Carnie's weight gradually climbed to more than 300 pounds, threatening her life. Faced with the prospect of disease and early death, she turned to weight-loss surgery, broadcasting the procedure live over the Internet in August of 1999. An estimated 2.During that period, Carnie lost more than 150 pounds, married the man of her dreams, and embraced a new life of health and reenergized possibilities. Carnie's story has inspired millions of morbidly obese people worldwide to investigate weight-loss surgery as a tool to help develop a healthier life. Beyond that, she has become a symbol of hope, working with Spotlight Health to help those who suffer from the stigma, pain, and dread that morbid obesity visits upon its victims.

For anyone who feels lost, out of control, or needs help finding the way to a better tomorrow, Gut Feelings is Carnie Wilson's beacon. The darkness will never be the same.

Customer Reviews:

Over Time The Story Fades.......2007-06-27

She tells her story with the enthusiasm of a championship athlete who, after training for years and overcoming personal obstacles, wins the gold medal. She is candid, if not ribald and common with her generous use of the worst possible lanugage (not necessary to tell this story). However, I was dismayed to find her on last season's television show, name withheld, where celebrities compete to lose the most weight. She may have reached her goal in the short term, but sadly this tormented woman has surrendered to her demons. Over time her story fades.

Great Book ! Detailed yet very personal........2006-08-14

I thought GUT FEELINGS by Carnie Wilson was an excellent book. Carnie talks about her childhood up to her adult life and the struggles she has had with morbid obesity. I liked getting to know her in the first half of the book, and the second half of the book went into her gastric bypass surgery and recovery. Carnie didn't hold back any of the "rough times" during her surgery and recovery and didn't "sugar-coat" the hard work people go through deciding to have gastric bypass surgery and the lifestyle changes that must occur afterwards. I have read alot of books on weight loss surgery, but Carnie's was the only book I found that put a personal story to the medical facts and procedures and that really made a difference. I would recommend this book to anyone who is considering bariatric surgery or who has had surgery. I hope Carnie Wilson writes GUT FEELINGS II soon!

Save your money........2006-07-24

I found the book slow, dull, and repetitive, with no quality information. It is a good read as far as seeing someone else's struggle with morbid obesity, but not for trying to learn anything about the surgery itself. It tells of her struggles, reasoning for being MO, how she compares herself to others, all things that someone with MO is aware of. It was frustrating to read the same feelings and stories over and over; and, what I was most annoyed with was the tasteless and vulgar language throughout the book. Regrettably I bought her other book, "I'm still hungry." I am hoping that offers a look into what it is like years after the surgery, with good quality information, and devoid of the crude language.

My favorite book so far!.......2006-05-17

I purchased this book because I am anticipating WLS. As I started reading the book I do admit that it does get a little bit long in the beggining, but I think Carnie wants us to get a feel of how her life was revolved around food. As I get further and further in the book she reminds me of myself a emotional eater! Carnie is funny and some parts will have you laughing other parts will make you say "that's how I am feeling right now!"

Carnie is fabulous and very open about her life, her struggles with food and her relationship with her dad. If you want a book on a fairytale life this is NOT it, BUT if you want a book on being real and getting in touch with your feelings about being obese then I recommend this book highly! She said my exact statement that it's ok to be happy where you are at BUT if you are uncomfortable in your own skin then it's time for change!

I also ordered her other book I'm still hungry I can't wait to read that.

Enjoy this book!

Disappointed.......2006-03-05

I hope Carnie sticks to music and leaves writing to others. Even as a forced my way to read it, half way through, I just wanted to scream BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.
Going on and on for instance on her first kiss -- learning to French kiss at 5 years old. Pages later when you thought she had moved on to a much pleasant seeming topic -- nope! We were still on that same very young, very fast learner she was portraying.

Hashing & re-hashing about Wendy & Chynna was pointless. Yes, we understand they were thinner and prettier, we got that from the first 50 times you mentioned it.

Bringing up the subject over-and-over again about being a pot smoker and how much she smoked, did little for keeping my attention. Was she trying to convince us that she had a "bad side"? Guess, maybe she needed to fill a few more pages of the book.

I am disappointed in the writing of the book. It just wasn't up to high standards, even concerning it is a "star tale." Was I expecting too much? No, just a better written, better laid out story.

Gut Feelings - From Fear And Despair To Health And Hope

Average customer rating:

Gut Feelings - From Fear And Despair To Health And Hope
Carnie: Kleber, Mick Wilson
Manufacturer: Hay House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000M3OJV6

Book Description

FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS for a one-day driving tour that traces the 1777 British invasion from Chesapeake Bay. The invading forces came on the largest armada ever assembled in America and included more than 15,000 British troops. Their target was the capital of the Thirteen Colonies: Philadelphia.

Amazon.com

A New York newspaper veteran of more than 30 years and a contributor to such magazines as New York, Esquire, and Vanity Fair, Pete Hamill has collected his best articles in this stunning collection illuminating his insights and his grasp of the vital issues of our times. As he puts it in Piecework's subtitle, it's "Writings on Men and Women, Fools and Heroes, Lost Cities, Vanished Friends, Small Pleasures, Large Calamities, and How the Weather Was." And it's much more: evocative visits to Northern Ireland, Mexico and Vietnam; time spent with Sinatra, Jackie Gleason and Madonna; and thoughts on race, drugs, and the mob.

Book Description

A New York newspaper veteran of more than 30 years and a contributor to such magazines as New York, Esquire, and Vanity Fair, Pete Hamill has collected his best articles in this stunning collection illuminating his insights and his grasp of the vital issues of our times. As he puts it in Piecework's subtitle, it's "Writings on Men and Women, Fools and Heroes, Lost Cities, Vanished Friends, Small Pleasures, Large Calamities, and How the Weather Was."And it's much more: evocative visits to Northern Ireland, Mexico and Vietnam; time spent with Sinatra, Jackie Gleason and Madonna; and thoughts on race, drugs, and the mob.

Customer Reviews:

Valuable perspective.......2000-10-22

A recurring theme in "Piecework" is that America has become a place in which people no longer seem to have the basic toughness to accept life's hardships, and must therefore heap the blame upon everyone else.

The situation is made worse, Pete Hamill says, by television, which allows people to have deep emotional experiences without "earning" them. This attitude is summed up most effectively in two essays, "Letter to a Black Friend" and the disturbing "Endgame."

When Hamill isn't shaking his head at our collective mistakes, he is shining the spotlight on individuals -- as he does in solid features on Mike Tyson and Frank Sinatra -- or examining a city gone wrong, the Miami of the 1980s. Here, and throughout you see the keen observation skills, dogged research, and common sense that made Hamill a top-flight reporter first, an insightful columnist second.

Whether or not you share Pete Hamill's old-fashioned, hard-nosed worldview, you won't be able to deny that he expresses it brilliantly here.

Words in the hand of a master craftsman.......1999-09-10

Some beautiful writing--the kind of material you go back to over and over again just to see how he does it. The piece titled "Endgame" is worth the price of the book. It describes the craziness and the downward spiral of this splintered country of ours better than anything I've ever read.

Throw out your j-school textbook!.......1998-11-10

Here it is folks: How To Write 101. All you ever needed to know about writing columns is between these two covers, in my opinion.

Average customer rating:

Discovering Our Importance TO Nature

One of those rare books...

A persuasive concept presented in a passable fashion

A new conflict out of an old one

Gardeners of Eden: Rediscovering Our Importance to Nature
Dan Dagget
Manufacturer: Thatcher Charitable Trust
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Nature Writing | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Beyond the Rangeland Conflict : Toward a West That Works

Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making

Cities in the Wilderness: A New Vision of Land Use in America

The Future of the Wild: Radical Conservation for a Crowded World

Farming with the Wild

ASIN: 096662291X

Customer Reviews:

Discovering Our Importance TO Nature.......2007-03-16

Dagget's first book, "Beyond the Rangeland Conflict, Toward a West That Works," was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His latest work, "Gardeners of Eden: Rediscovering Our Importance To Nature" ($24.95 in large-size paperback from The Thatcher Charitable Trust and EcoResults!) expands on his alternative view to the "leave it alone" philosophy that has governed much thinking about the environment in the last few decades. According to a press release, EcoResults!, of which Dagget is CEO, is "a nonprofit foundation that finds funding for land managers seeking to turn their operations into a means to restore and sustain environmental values."

Just what that means is the subject of "Gardeners of Eden," a lively and personal exploration of how a new kind of environmentalism is being born among those who see themselves, and their skills, as part of the ecosystem, part of nature.

The huge mistake we modern humans have made, Dagget insists, is in thinking that "the only way we can really heal the land is to protect it from impacts created by humans: to 'leave it alone.' This widely held assumption is why, when we talk of healing the land, we invariably talk of protecting it, of preserving it. ... That's why articles that deal with land issues treat the word 'protecting' as having the same meaning as 'healing' or 'restoring.' It is why those articles never explain how protecting the land will heal it."

The assumption that healthy land is land humans leave alone is based, he writes, on another assumption: "that all environmental problems are caused by humans. ... We don't think of butterflies or deer or wolves as creating environmental problems."

But, says Dagget, there is a group of what he fondly calls "Lost Tribe gardeners" whose actions have benefited the land, have made it "outperform the Leave-It-Alone approach." To these people, such as Tony and Jerrie Tipton, who solved an "eco disaster" in the Nevada desert, the word "protection" is another name for "abandonment."

A Nevada mining operation had left a 300-foot pile of crushed rock "polluted with cyanide and covered with salt." The Tiptons "dragged a length of railroad rail over the part of the pile they intended to treat, breaking up the salt crust. ... Then they scattered the seed, spread the hay and straw, and released the cattle. The cows ate most of the hay and a little of the straw, and what they didn't eat, they trampled into the rocks along with the seeds and the microbe-rich organic fertilizer they provided from their guts." Years later native plants are still growing there, in an area with less an inch of rain.

Early in Dagget's career he demonstrated for Earth First! and in 1992 was named to a list of top grass-roots activists by the Sierra Club. But since then Dagget has come to realize that an environmentalism that insisted on defining healthy land as that least touched by human hands -- even if those land tracts were devoid of life -- simply made no sense. His book cites many examples of human intervention helping ecosystems thrive by their being used to grow food or raise cattle.

Careful management is needed, but that's the point of gardening.

Copyright 2007 Chico Enterprise-Record. Used by permission.

One of those rare books..........2006-05-21

There a few books that conjure a simultaneously bizarre reaction within a soul: like a biblical epiphany, Dagget stirs new paradigms that made me so excited that I could barely put down the book to complete my daily tasks. Yet, I could not turn the page to the next chapter because the elegant revelations of our place in nature evoked so much thought and "wow", that muddying the gift of a previous chapter with another would do it no justice.

Tom Bean's photography is enlightening and beautiful; a great match for a great book. Environmentalists take heed--if you think we don't belong here, you'll find that you are more alien than those who put their soul's work into the land.

This book is in my life's top ten list!

Rev. D.M. North Dakota

A persuasive concept presented in a passable fashion.......2006-04-05

Dan Daggot has done an excellent synthesis of a number of "projects" to support the book's theme. The theme is that human interaction can be very beneficial to natural systems, as opposed to the common view that humans always degrade any environment they affect.

The sited examples of positive environmental change created by human influence range from vast changes to smaller reclaimation projects. Creation of bison plains in North America and the diverse rainforest landscape of parts of Amazonia are examples of very large area improvements. Fire and food harvesting techniques are tools sited as methods used by pre-Columbian natives that improved the environment. An example of smaller modern project is the reclaimation of mine spoils by the (counterintuitive) use of cattle grazing. The cattle make changes to the inhospitable spoils that allow native vegetation to return.

There is a distracting tone about some of the book where the author uses jargon or strange languague. For instance, he uses the term "Lost Tribe" for those that apply the concept that is the theme of the book. That tone seems to imply that he thinks the idea of actively modifying the environment to benefit nature is an underdog position and will not be accepted by those in power (Bureaucrats with regulatory authority or grant money). Hopefully, that is not a self fulfilling prophesy!

The photography of the book is excellent. The book could have been improved, in this reader's opinion if the passages printed in the margins were individual photo captions instead of reprints from the main text. Nonetheless, the photos support the text.

Overall the book is inspirational and presents a powerful idea for environmental improvement. The book is also fun to read and highly recommended by this reader.

A new conflict out of an old one.......2005-09-20

In his new book Dan Dagget describes a new conflict over management of western resources. Instead of the tired old set-piece of preservation versus extraction, we now have a fresh, new struggle between Leave-It-Aloners--as Dagget terms those who believe that the best thing for humans to do with land is to leave it alone and let nature take its course--and the Lost Tribe, who are busy reversing land degradation through use.

Conflict, writes Dagget, is one of the major economic sectors to emerge from America's public lands. And Dagget himself is definitely a player. In the 1990s, he broke ranks with the advocacy-oriented Sierra Club on the grounds that results on the land counted more than prescriptions or beliefs. He began to follow the experiments of people such as Tony and Jerrie Tipton in Nevada, who were restoring grasslands on sterile, salt-encrusted mine tailings with cattle and hay where conventional prescriptions of technology and rest from grazing had failed utterly.

Using cattle to restore land, Dagget found, collided with what people "knew": that cattle could not restore land, they invariably degraded it. Therefore the grassland atop the mine tailings was invisible or irrelevant. It was, he says, like showing pictures of dog tricks to a cat fanatic.

The book is a wide-ranging and rapid survey of the remarkable achievements of some the Lost Tribers, which will be engaging and hopeful news to most. The theme running through is that human management has been crucial factor in creating many of the environments that we mostly now regard as natural. By ignoring or denying our participation in the landscape, we have become aliens--but in following the examples of the Lost Tribe, there are substantial opportunities to change our attitudes and behaviors, and become more native to our landscapes.

These are powerful and deep issues. Dagget's Lost Tribers are practicing a kind of interdependence that offers tremendous opportunities to regenerate degraded lands and communities--opportunities that didn't exist in the old set-piece between extraction and preservation.

An understanding of basic ecosystem processes underlies much of what the Lost Tribers have accomplished, and many of Dagget's readers might benefit from a basic description of the water cycle, for example, or how the biological carbon cycle operates differently in moist environments than in seasonally arid ones. But his book, outlining as it does this new conflict emerging from the old, stale one, will be a powerful creative force for change.

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