Book Description
Kid-Tested (and Tested, and Tested…) Guidance for Parents in the Trenches.
The Inside Track to Raising Kids.
Most of us find raising one, two…or maybe three or four children to be challenging enough. The idea of parenting a half dozen seems almost crazy, and more children than that–impossible. But Pat and Ruth Williams have together raised (and are continuing to raise) nineteen kids. More importantly, they’ve not just survived the process–they’ve loved it!
What do they know that the rest of us don’t? What does it take to make a family of any size not only work, but thrive? After bringing up nineteen kids–as biological parents, adoptive parents, single parents, and step-parents–Pat and Ruth Williams have gained a volume of insights and experience that will enrich your home, strengthen your family, and help you be the parent you want to be. Inside you’ll find counsel that really works–whether you’re raising one child, one dozen (or more), or any number in between.
Customer Reviews:
intriguing.......2007-03-29
I enjoyed reading this book and finished it rather quickly. Genuine feelings and experiences from the authors about their own parenting journey. A little disappointed though about the topic of spanking. Though the authors emphasize their belief in this particular method should be limited and only with young children, it still gives the impression that it is preferred. I would also like to see more emphasis on parents' responsibilities and accountabilities in this difficult task of parenting. Overall, I appreciate this book and has recommended to others.
Product Description
This work provides a unique service to historians by identifying over 150 places in Austria, Germany, France and the United States that are in some way associated with Adolf Hitler. The entry on Braunau am Inn (upper Austria) gives information on Hitlers birthplace, which is now a school for handicapped children. The entry for Klesheim Palace, built in 17001709 and renovated to Hitlers tastes for his guests, details such visitations as that of Benito Mussolini on April 22, 1941, the two dictators met at the palace to discuss the Italian contribution to the war effort and German influence in Italy. Each entry contains background information on the site and Hitlers connection to it, including relevant biographical data. Much of the information is translated from German sources and has never been printed in English before. The sites are grouped within their cities and are thoroughly indexed for easy access to information on every site.
Customer Reviews:
Review by Blaine Taylor, Militaria International, June 2004.......2004-06-30
This is a fantastic, educational and well-written handy guidebook for all those readers either interested in World War II and Nazi Germany and wishing to know more or as a quick reference work for those more adventurous souls who want to visit these locations. If either desire is your goal, then this is definitely the book for you.
Having been reading and writing articles and books myself about the Third Reich for the last four decades, I found this little volume (218 pages and 130 black and white photographs) delightfully entertaining and I'm sure that you will, too.
I found the book particularly interesting in its myriad of details on the various locations of places that Hitler lived before the Nazi Party came into governmental office on Jan. 30, 1933, and also of the many and varied early NSDAP headquarters buildings--and this is before the Brown House opened in Munich! Once that city was designated as the "Capital of the Movement" by the Führer (Leader), there came the new Führerbau (Leader Building) where the Munich Conference of 1938 was held, and it is still possible today to visit the very building and room in which the Munich Agreement was signed.
There is also featured the birthplace of the Party, Hitler's Prince Regent Street apartment where his romantic interest niece Geli Raubal shot herself (or was murdered by Hitler) in September 1931, and the tea rooms where the Führer liked to relax, such as the Carlton and his favorite, the Cafe Heck. There is also his favorite restaurant, the Ostaria Bavaria, where one can still eat today.
One can also see the Beer Hall Putsch courtroom where he and the other co-conspirators were tried in 1923, as well as the jail where Hitler was incarcerated during it. Then there is Heinrich Hoffmann's studio where Adolf met Eva (Braun), a photographic sales shop girl and Hoffmann employee.
Where did Pvt. Hitler take his basic training during the First World War ? It's here, plus the apartment of Ernst "Putzi" (Cutie) Hanfstängl, who played the piano for him, wrote Nazi marching songs and was an early Party press secretary. Lance Corporal Hitler's Army barracks (in which he lived after the war as a spy on the tiny Nazi Party), and also the Landsberg am Lech prison where he was imprisoned following the failure of the putsch are included, too. It was there that he and fellow inmate Rudolf Hess (later Deputy Führer) wrote Mean Kampf (My Battle) which still sells worldwide today.
Then there is Stadelheim Prison, where the arrested Storm Trooper leaders were first kept and then shot during the Nazi "Blood Purge" of June 30-July 2, 1934.
Outside Berlin there is the Kehlstein teahouse, the famous Eagle's Nest, presented to Hitler on Apr. 20, 1939 as a 50th birthday present by Reich Leader Martin Bormann. At Nuremberg, there are the various Party Congress buildings erected by architect Albert Speer, as well as the Deutscher Hof (German Hotel) in the city's downtown, where the Führer stayed each year during the mammoth Nazi rallies.
Hitler's military headquarters are only briefly mentioned, but what is presented herein is interesting nonetheless.
What I have presented here is only a tasty slice of a giant pie that you will want to eat in full. In closing, I will leave you with this teaser: what possible Hitler sites could there be in the US? I'm not going to tell you! For that, you'll just have to buy the book and read it for yourself. You'll be glad that you did.
Reviw from BOOKNEWS.......2002-09-10
From Booknews
The New York author of (2000) provides a guide to Hitler-related locations in Austria, Germany, France, and the U.S. The lone American site was the New York City home of a part-Irish nephew. The entry on Hitler's birthplace notes that town officials are trying to prevent its Internet commercialization. Some sources are said to be translated from the German for the first time. Includes numerous photographs. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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The Habsburg Empire 1700-1918
Jean Berenger
Manufacturer: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
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ASIN: 0582090083 |
Amazon.com
Science isn't for everyone, but if you have even the faintest trace of curiosity about the world around you, Almost Everyone's Guide to Science will be a delight. Author John Gribbin, a cosmologist by training, is better known for writing such popularizations of the freaky world of 20th-century physics as In Search of Schrödinger's Cat. His choice of subjects for this latest project reaches new territory, expanding in breadth to cover not just physics but chemistry, geology, meteorology, and the life sciences as well; in short, he introduces the world as we know it. Challenging but not intimidating, his writing presumes an actively intelligent reader willing to pause and think things out from time to time. Like the best science writers, he knows that his characters are people like Einstein and Darwin rather than theories like relativity and natural selection. This human-centered writing style is absorbing and a little sneaky--even those readers pathologically resistant to retaining scientific information will find themselves startled once or twice by an odd paradox or brilliant insight. This mastery of storytelling is ultimately what sets Gribbin apart from most other science writers; if you've decided that it's time to survey what we know about the world, Almost Everyone's Guide to Science is the best place to start. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
For anyone interested in the remarkable achievements and discoveries of modern science--but intimidated by confusing technical detail--this book offers the perfect solution. Award-winning author John Gribbin stands back from the details and offers a broad picture of science, from the structure of particles within the atom to the birth of the universe. With eloquent clarity, Gribbin explains the simple rules that govern the physical world.
Customer Reviews:
Almost Everyone's Guide to Science: The Universe, Life and Everything.......2006-08-25
Excellant book, ties the atom to physics, chemistry, life and astronomy. Simplifies science.
Not a good book for beginners........2005-08-25
I like John Gribbin's books a lot. I have ten of them. I've read them all, some of them a few times.
However, this is not a good book for beginners. No attempt has been made by either author or publisher to present science to a non-scientific audience. The book consists of block text from beginning to end. There are no illustrations and no diagrams. Many scientific terms are used without any explanation of their meaning, and the style of writing is not simple.
John Gribbin is a very prolific author, he has just rattled off another book, and someone has thought of a catchy title for it.
Having said this, there is a lot of interesting material in this book. I'll be keeping my copy and re-reading it. But "almost everyone's guide to science" it certainly isn't.
A much easier book by John Gribbin is 'Stardust', which is about the way in which the elements that make up everything around us are themselves made in stars - hence we are all stardust!
If you want an excellent introduction to biology please be sure to look up a marvellous book called 'Exploring the Way Life Works' by Mahlon Hoagland et al which has received justifiably ecstatic reviews here on Amazon.
Great Book.......2001-10-06
I really enjoyed reading this book. Especially the end where it discusses planets, space, and how everything came together. It's amazing how much we puny humans can figure out about a star half way across the galaxy.
The one thing that held this book back from getting a perfect 5/5, is the fact that it had _no_ pictures to help explain the concepts. This was very annoying, but it does force the reader to visualize concepts in his/her head.
Over all, I would recommend this book to "Almost Everyone" interested in science.
Book Review No. 32.......2000-02-25
This is a best-seller by an eminent scientist who doesn't believe the world is goverened by magic or the supernatural.He presents scientific evidence that everything is coherent and fits together. Gribbin starts with the smallest particle and goes to the birth of the universe including the origin of our species. This is an ambitious, never-tried-before book. It is breathtaking in scope.Don't bother to read it if you don't have a healthy curiosity or the patience to put up with complicated scientific concepts. And don't worry about not understanding all of it; what you do understand will stagger you.
Interesting ideas: People are the most complex systems in the known universe. No two are exactly alike. Studies confirm tha tNinety-eight per cent of the DNA in human beings, gorillas and chimpanzees is the same...the differences tha tmake us uniquely human amount to a little over one per cent. We are one per cent human and roughly 99 per cent ape.
If our planet were the size of a basketball, the thickness of the breathable atmosphere would be no more than one quarter of a millimeter, a barely noticeable 6-mile-high smear over the surface of the ball. The Earth is a ball of rock covered by a thin smear of atmosphere and ocean.
In about ten billion years the Sun will cool into a solid lump. About 440 billion years ago there was a massive extinction of life on earth. Stray pieces of cosmic debris still collide with planets and one impact contributed to the death of dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.
Fine-particle scientists predict the existence of different kinds of particles from anything we have seen yet. They have not been detected, but have been given names such as photonios. This class of objects is referred to as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles or WIMPs because they have mass, but don't interact very strongly with everyday matter.Astronometers and Particle Scientists would like to detect these mysterious particles directly and this may happen within the next few years. Models suggest we are swimming in a sea of WIMPs, possibly a plausible explanation of the so-called spirit world.
This work is a monumental job of setting down that which, in scientific circles, is called the "Theory of Everything" (TOE) for all to understand. Gribbin has summed up the last 400 years of scientific thinking on where we came from, and where we are going, if that is of interest to you.
Jim Grubb grubb@uswest.net
A Fun Read--Yes, believe it!.......2000-02-10
Science books are generally drab, inpenetrable, and long. Gribbins' book is none of these. I found the book quite readable. The most complex scientific concepts are described in sufficient detail to tell the story, yet with clarity. He avoids math, chemical formulae, and jargon.
Many scientific overview books, particularly those with sweeping titles such as this, are lengthy to the point of being imposing. At 220 pp, this is an easy read over a few days.
If you're interested in understanding science from strings at 10E-35 meters to the size/age of the universe, you'll enjoy this book. As a chemist, it was illuminating to get a perspective on the other disciplines and scales of our universe.
Customer Reviews:
Fine book on a great man.......2000-06-21
This is vol. 2 of Skidelsky's Keynes biography (any sign of vol. 3?). It is a very enjoyable (and exhaustive) account of the most productive professional years (Bretton Woods aside) of one of the great figures of the 20th century. Keynes was the son of Victorian intellectual academic bougiousie; a star of the public school system; trained in mathematics and economics (student of Marshall); student of philosophy, then a bureaucrat in academia and government, becoming an expert in public finance as a high-ranking Treasury official during WWI; a traveller in artistic circles (later a benefactor), part of the Bloomsbury group (intimate with Duncan Grant, Virginia Woolf, etc. (to differing degrees, of course)); statistician/philosopher (his first major published work was "A Treatise on Probability"); pamphleteer ("Economic Consequences of the Peace," etc.); publisher/editor for both the popular and academic press; institutional investor; currency speculator; husband to a Russian ballet dancer; and most influential economist of the 20th century. Keynes would not be possible today.
The one drawback to the Skidelsky book is that it can be slow going. Those with no background in economics should be prepared to skim sections (or work hard). If you're already familiar with the difference between Ricardo and Malthus, and how their thinking carried through Jevons, Marshall, and Marx, and can follow arguments on gold standard vs. floating exchange rates, then you should be able to breeze through.
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Iron Thunder (I Witness)
Avi
Manufacturer: Hyperion
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I Am Not Joey Pigza
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Jinx
ASIN: 1423104463
Release Date: 2007-09-18 |
Average customer rating:
- Thunder at Hampton Roads
- Strong thumbs up from ironclad officianado
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Thunder at Hampton Roads
A. A. Hoehling , and
Adolph A. Hoehling
Manufacturer: Da Capo
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0306805235 |
Customer Reviews:
Thunder at Hampton Roads.......2002-05-06
A. A. Hoehlingýs Thunder at Hampton Roads tells the story of the U.S.S. Monitor, the worldýs first all-iron fighting ship. The book covers the entire story of this famous vessel, detailing the construction of the vessel, the battle between it and the C.S.S. Merrimack, and its rediscovery in the mid-1970ýs. The Monitor changed the image of the navy forever, ridding people of their notion of ships built of oak and canvas and replacing it with pictures closer to those invoked by the navy of today: ones of invincible metal and guns.
The book begins with an account of the construction of the Monitor. Northern and Southern forces were racing for naval supremacy throughout the war, and ironclads were among the most important technology being developed. The Monitor was specifically designed to combat the seemingly indestructible Southern Merrimack. A Swede named John Ericcson conceived of the idea for the North. Though similar in design to the other ship, which had already been proven in battle, the Monitor's development was viewed with some skepticism; many people thought it would never float, much less act as a battle-ready warship. They were proved wrong, as the Monitor was proved as worthy as its Confederate opponent.
The second section of the book details the Monitorýs encounter with the Southern ironclad Merrimack, and its sinkage off the coast of Cape Hatteras. The battle came in defense of a seaport called Hampton Roads. Both ships took substantial damage. The Monitor came away victorious, though the Merrimack did escape. Many people believed that the ironclad was the only thing that came between Hampton Roads and a complete ransacking by the Confederate Navy. The loss of the Monitor was an unfortunate incident. The ironclad was being towed by another ship, the Rhode Island, to Wilmington North Carolina, where it was indeed to take part in capturing the city. When the crew discovered that their ship was failing, they cut loose from the Rhode island so as to avoid bringing the other ship down with the Monitor. Luckily, most of the crew was able to escape via lifeboat. Sadly, fifteen crewmen, including the captain, went down with her.
The third section of the book details the post-war lives of those who were involved with the Monitor, and tells of its rediscovery in the 1970ýs. Many of the Monitorýs crewmen lived peacefully after the sinking, but one could not. Samuel Dana Greene, an executive officer on the Monitor whom many thought should have chased the Southern Merrimack until he had captured or destroyed it, killed himself. Supposedly he was consumed with guilt that was fed by the accusations over the fact that the Merrimack escaped to do further damage in the war. Only after his death was the matter cleared up by a superior officer who announced that the Monitor had sustained too much damage for it to follow the enemy ship.
The Monitor was discovered and photographed by a team of marine scientists twelve miles off Cape Hatteras where it had sunk to more than a century previously. Salvaging operations funded by the National Science Foundation and National Geographic were successful. Technological advances such as that of sonar greatly aided those who were devoted to discovering the Monitor. Restoration work was taking place when the book was published in the late 1970ýs
A. A. Hoehling used diaries, letters, shipsý logs, and newspaper articles to put together the story of the Monitor. He was directly involved with the salvage work on the vessel, which explains his desire to let the public know about this fascinating ship. It was his belief that the Monitor played a significant role in the Civil War and in the development of the navy, a point that he convinces the reader of throughout the book.
I believe that this book would be perfect for research on any aspect of the Merrimack or the Monitor. Through text and photos of the Monitor as it was when built and as it appeared sunken beneath the sea, the author tells the shipýs complete story. This is a valuable source for anyone researching naval forces during the civil war, not only the battles but also the inner workings of the Navy and its chain of command.
Strong thumbs up from ironclad officianado.......1998-02-14
Still the best book on the history of the USS Monitor. Hoeling is both an excellent researcher and a first-rate writer. I am very pleased this book is back in print. Naval historians should rejoice!
Book Description
This volume of presentations by a group of authorities on international terrorism and Al Qaeda constitute a valuable synopsis of current knowledge on this terrorist group and the policies in place to counter threats of future attacks. The articles contribute to understanding how Al Qaeda has evolved from a movement to an ideology, what influence it has on Middle East stability and what continued threat it is to the United States, Europe, and other areas of the world. The contributors, from academia, research centers, government agencies and the media, represent a cross section of recognized experts on Al Qaeda and international terrorism. Karen J. Greenberg is the Executive Director of the Center on Law and Security at the New York University School of Law. She is a visiting Professor of European Studies at New York University and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is co-editor of The Torture Papers (Cambridge, 2005).
Customer Reviews:
Decent, but lacking..........2005-10-03
The presentations provided in the book are decent and span a variety of opinions. The question and answer sections at the end of each chapter provide some interesting topics for discussion in relation to what was presented.
My problem with the book was that it lacked any real analysis and the majority of the people being interviewed, although labeled as "terrorism experts", were not. Just because you interview terrorists and report on terrorism as a journalist, does not mean you are an expert. The few people who are actual experts do provide an accurate picture of what the see today in relation to al-Qa'ida. Jessica Stern, Marc Sageman, Michael Scheuer, etc.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Middle East Policy, published by Thomson Gale on December 22, 2006. The length of the article is 1333 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Al Qaeda Now: Understanding Today's Terrorists.(Book review)
Author: Thomas R. Mattair
Publication:
Middle East Policy (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 13
Issue: 4
Page: 158(4)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
A sobering exploration of our high-octane trash output that was named an Editor's Choice by the New York Times and a nonfiction choice by The Guardian.
Eat a take-out meal, buy a pair of shoes, or read a newspaper, and you're soon faced with a bewildering amount of garbage. The United States is the planet's number-one producer of trash. Each American throws out 4.5 pounds daily. But garbage is also a global problem; the Pacific Ocean is today six times more abundant with plastic waste than zooplankton. How did we end up with this much rubbish, and where does it all go? Journalist and filmmaker Heather Rogers answers these questions by taking readers on a grisly, oddly fascinating tour through the underworld of garbage.
Said to "read like a thriller" (Library Journal), Gone Tomorrow excavates the history of rubbish handling from the 1800s to the present, pinpointing the roots of today's waste-addicted society. With a "lively authorial voice" (New York Press), Rogers draws connections between modern industrial production, consumer culture, and our throwaway lifestyle. She also investigates controversial topics like the politics of recycling and the export of trash to poor countries, while offering a potent argument for change. 10 b/w photographs.
Customer Reviews:
GONE TOMORROW explores all these facets and more........2007-01-07
The U.S. is the top producer of garbage on the planet, generating 30% of the world's trash and throwing out 1600 pounds per American per year - but what happens to garbage after it's in the trash? GONE TOMORROW: THE HIDDEN LIFE OF GARBAGE focuses on the answers to this question, providing journalist Heather Rogers' history of rubbish handling from the 1800s to modern times and reviewing the politics and social issues revolving around trash management policies. Technological transformations affected the nature and quantity of household garbage, postwar innovations handled more volume, and industry changes changed the nature and motivation of cartels handling garbage: GONE TOMORROW explores all these facets and more.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
An important book for anyone who cares about our environment.......2006-08-17
This book has had a profound effect on my growing enlightenment about sustainability. Heather Rogers traces the history of waste disposal, from the days when everything was used and re-used (and then scavenged and used again), to the dawn of mass production and organized waste disposal, where there is little if any economic incentive to minimize manufacturing waste. She argues convincingly that our consumerist economy is literally built on trash. If you think global warming and altered ocean chemistry are legitimate threats to our childrens' futures, then you should add this book to your must-read list.
We just think its gone because we don't see it..........2006-08-16
In my archaeology class we learned about the importance of the village midden, or garbage pile, in determining the culture and practices of the people inhabiting that village. On that basis, future archaeologists are going to have a heyday trying to figure out our current civilization.
Gone Tomorrow, the Hidden Life of Garbage by Heather Rogers is fascinating and depressing at the same time. There are fascinating tidbits such as the idea that garbage is a relatively recent invention, that less than 300 years ago it would have been unthinkable to consign so much of our production to the trash heap so soon after it is produced. Before mass production and mass marketing, items were produced to be repaired and reused again and again and slogans such as "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" were common. There wasn't anything to throw away as even scraps of cloth became part of a quilt or rug.
There are horrifying descriptions of garbage dumps such as Rikers Island:
"The rats became so numerous and so large that the department imported dogs in an effort to eliminate the rats... there were more than one hundred dogs on the island, dogs which were never fed by authorities but lived solely on these rats."
"Gases... were constantly exploding, erupting through the soil covering and busting into flames. ... When a hot spell would come along in the summer, the ground resembled a sea of small volcanoes, all breathing smoke and flames."
Another disturbing idea brought out by Rogers is that the trucks that pick up your garbage and your recyclables may be dumping them into the same landfill because recycling often just isn't economically sustainable. But it's politically impossible to cut back the appearance of recycling.
There are also some distractions in the book as when the author claims the "Keep America Beautiful" campaign was modeled after a later series of clean-up efforts by Ladybird Johnson. I'm not sure how you model something after something that comes later.
The book definitely has a pro-environment, anti-business, distrust of government bias to it. In spite of that, it is an interesting and enlightening book.
10 star must read Fun as well as informative information.......2006-06-02
Every now and then a book or two comes along that makes me want to get on the phone to friends or email friends to tell them they must read the book. This happened this past week when Gone Tomorrow the Hidden Life of Garbage by Heather Rogers arrived at my cottage.
We are a homeschooling family who as a project spent a year looking at what we buy and why and what happens to what we put out for recycling and refuge pick up, as well as what gets flushed or composted. So this book became part of our curriculum. In less than three months our water usage dropped 60%, and the garbage can went from being overflowing to being placed out once a month and then with very little in it. Am now considering cancelling the service when the contract is up. And going in with three other neighbors and combining what little we all have and sharing the cost.
Recently someone asked me why we don't put our recycling bins out or rarely put the garbage container out and we had to explain that just because we have them doesn't mean we have to fill them and put them out every week. And this is where the book is so on target when talking about how there is a downsize to the whole recycling area. It is one of those things that came about because of good intentions, but hasn't helped stop people from actually buying stuff. Also in target is how the author says that often the recyclable get dumped in with the regular trash pick up because there is no local market for the items. This is what we discovered one morning when we saw the garbage truck picking up the recycling bins and garbage at the same time, not separately. Even more so now that gas prices have gone up and garbage companies cant raise prices so they dump everything at once. So we simply save the glass and what aluminum items we have and make a run to the real recycling center where we also make some extra money.
Much like I did as a kid when I would eagerly walk the roads on the island we lived on in summer to gather up the cans and bottles the tourists left behind, to turn in for money.
The author also does a great job in explaining how packaging of products is overdone, but also done because we live in a highly suit happy society. So having that extra foil safety cap on a bottle of pills, or secure bag around the lettuce raise the cost of items as well as add to landfills. Around here Styrofoam has to be put out with regular garbage not with recyclables. Same with those pesky popcorn packing things.
On page 207 the author writes about an area in Oakland, California where the Batcave garden sits. While it may not be for everyone there is enough helpful can do information from this group that most Americans could adopt that would cut down drastically on what they buy and then what they discard. Heck most Americans would do better with less lawn to cut and more vegetables being planted that could save on food costs as well on garbage since edibles are compostable.
The author provides so much information on the big business that garbage is and how the costs get passed on to us in ways we often do not see. From increased food prices, to hidden fees for getting rid of items.
Was especially pleased to see on page 210 the group Freecycle mentioned, since I belong to my local Freecycle group and love the attitude that rather than dump something why not see if there is someone locally who can use the item. To find a group near you go to their internet site which is Freecycle.org
Also loved seeing where Berkeley's Urban One was mentioned. They have a license to glean items from the city's dump that are useable, and then the items are taken to Eco Park where they are sold, for a profit. There is a similar place in Sonora east of Angles Camp that I go to that does the same thing. Some areas have twice yearly pick ups where you can set anything from furniture to appliances out for pick up. We visit these areas and gather items that we can use or give to others in need. Its a shame that Americans are so obese in so many ways, and throw out such useable items.
So I recommend this book for anyone who wants a mature education on garbage and what we can and should do to reduce the amount we produce. Its not good enough to simply preach a use and recycle mantra.
Reuse and Recycle, but Rethink.......2006-05-30
This book came after the documentary by the same name (same writer), but it is not intended to be a companion piece. This work is self explanatory, and it packs quite a punch without lots of scenes of waste.
The author goes into some detail about the history of garbage and how the science of waste management came into being. In doing so, she discusses the economics involved and explains how waste is a fairly new phenomenon, as prior generations reused waste or repaired broken things. The author quotes Karl Marx a lot, and readers may be turned off as we equate him with communism. However, the comments cited here seem to hit squarely on the mark.
She also discusses the politics and lobbying involved in dealing with waste. Without a doubt, we are a wasteful culture. Everything is designed to be thrown out and replaced. As a result, we are slowly wasting our resources and burying ourselves (and third-world countries) in our trash. This is the part of the book that hits the strongest.
I would highly recommend reading this book. It draws attention to our need to start paying attention to what we are doing. Maybe we do need to rethink the way we do things.
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Books Index
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