Discovering Wild Plants: Alaska, Western Canada, the Northwest

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Book Review of Janice J Schofield's Discovering Wild Plants

A Superb Field Guide

An excellent resource with high-quality photos.

Wow, what a field guide, and check out all those recipes!

Discovering Wild Plants: Alaska, Western Canada, the Northwest
Janice J Schofield
Manufacturer: Alaska Northwest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Alaska's Wild Plants: A Guide to Alaska's Edible Harvest (Alaska Pocket Guide)

Alaska's Wilderness Medicines: Healthful Plants of the Far North

Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples (Royal BC Museum Handbook)

Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West

Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West

ASIN: 0882403699

Book Description

Learn all about the interesting and delicious wild harvest of Alaska, western Canada, and the Northwest in this significant illustrated volume on 147 wild plants.

Customer Reviews:

Book Review of Janice J Schofield's Discovering Wild Plants.......2007-09-03

I found this book at the Library on the Island of Popov, in the Aleutian chain, in the school library on Sand Point. I was learning about the local flora and this book was like a gold mine. Not only did they have pictures, but told where to pick, when to pick, what part to pick. There were receipes. I was interested in the medicinal uses and these were listed for each item. It was truly a find. The Fish and Wildlife associate teaching classes with us had their own book and let me borrow theirs. I used it daily and ordered my own when I got home.

A Superb Field Guide.......2006-06-27

This book is really all I could ask for in a plant-guide to the Northwest. My only complaint is that I wish Schofield's book was even more comprehensive than it already is. As it stands, each plant she covers is thoroughly discussed, covering the traditional and contemporary uses of the plant, as well as the methods of identification and life-histories of the subjects. The book is well illustrated with both photographs and line drawings, much more so than other guides I've used. If you are at all interested in local plant-life (especially if you live in Alaska), I highly reccomend this book.

An excellent resource with high-quality photos........1999-08-03

I enjoyed this book thoroughly, from it's interesting tidbits on historic uses of plants, to the explanations of known toxic principles within plants. The cautions about harvest, use, and overuse are well-stated. The descriptions enhance the line-drawings, and each plant description comes with an excellent photograph, making this a terrific guide for identification of wild edibles!

Wow, what a field guide, and check out all those recipes!.......1998-09-29

I just got this book (fourth printing, 1998) in my mail, and I can testify that it's well worth the money. It's a really good field guide to plants of The Far North, be it Alaska or Finland.

In addition to excellent pictures (which really show you clearly how to tell this plant apart from others) you'll frequently run across a sentence that goes something like "So-and-so says in his/her book that it's edible after it's been dried /boiled /whatever, but my taste tests implied ...".

Truly outstanding research and practical information, both on medicinal and culinary uses of these plants, make this an invaluable addition to the library of anybody interested in plants in the Far North.

Great work, Janice!

Book Description

Since time immemorial, certain plants have been hailed as magical because they have the capacity to change consciousness. Smoked, chewed, eaten, or inhaled, they allow direct experience of alternate realities which seem as real as our common one-and often a great deal more intense. Anthropologist Christian Ratsch explains the botanical classifications and pharmacology of many of these plants and examines their roles in different cultures. The result is a book that offers valuable insights into human encounters with altered states of consciousness.

Book Description

A true insider's guide to Florida's subtropical islands, from Key Largo and Key West to the Dry Tortugas, this book offers a comprehensive look at famous attractions such as daily sunset celebrations, historic bars, renowned restaurants, and America's only living coral reef. Supplemented with information about local hidden gems, it offers tips about secret gardens, hip diners, and beachfront bistros. The swashbuckling history of the Keys and some of its most famous inhabitants are brought to life with charming text-from Jimmy Buffett to the ever-present ghosts of Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams.

Customer Reviews:

Keeps Your Attention!.......2007-05-16

I cannot stress enough how great this book is! I bought it the 1st time my husband and I planned our Key West trip and had to cancel due to a hurricane. I read it from cover to cover then, highlighting all of the things that we wanted to see or do. Now, we are planning our escape to paradise once again and I cannot put this book down. She makes it so interesting, it is not like reading your everyday guide book, she knows things about all of the Keys and has something interesting to say about every one of them. You will love this book if you are a history buff like me. I would enjoy this book even if we were not going to the Keys! I find myself reading something and then going back and re-reading the same thing because it is such neat information! Order it- you will not be sorry!

Best Key West Book.......2007-03-08

This book is the best of the best! Not only does it tell you about the toursist spots to visit in Key West, but also gives you great not so popular spots. It tells you about things to buy and places to eat. This book also gives details about the rest of the Florida Keys. So, if you are traveling to Key West, this book is a must have!

Made our Key West vacation nearly perfect.......2004-09-29

We bought this book in the early stages of planning a Labor Day weekend trip to Key West. It was sheer luck that we chose this book, and now we can't imagine our first visit without it.

I am impressed with the book's balance of suggestions for traditional tourist destinations and quirky attractions. (I would have never thought to visit the Key West cemetery without her guidance.) Best of all were the dining suggestions. Louie's Backyard, Banana Cafe, Camille's and Mangoes were wonderful. At the top of the list was Blue Heaven! My memory of Blue Heaven's gumbo soup and yellowtail snapper will linger with me always.

June Keith's book made our Key West vacation nearly perfect. I will recommend it to anyone planning to go to the Keys.

Great writer, but you'll need another guide book.......2004-03-29

This book includes lots of interesting history and background on the Florida Keys. But you won't be able to use this as your only guide book for the Keys. No useful maps or directions are included. Also, she doesn't include prices for lodging or dining. This book was fun to read and had good suggestions, but we definitely needed more information that was not included in the book.

Great Travel Book for the Keys.......2003-04-23

This author really knows the area and gave great tips and tidbits of history and information to make our trip more interesting. Her restaurant reviews were right on target. We ate incredibly well the entire trip! If you go to Key West, take her suggestions - ours too, and try the following restaurants: Louie's Backyard, Camilles, Blue Heaven (a must for breakfast or a fabulous lunch). As for tours and excursions, we tried the following based on information in her book and had a great time: Tall ship dinner cruise; The Butterfly conservatory (Wings of Imagination); Truman's Little White House; Hemmingway House; Audubon House. These restaurants and tours were not all we tried but they topped the list.

Go enjoy the Keys - and don't leave without this book.

Book Description

Introducing Biological Rhythms is a primer that serves to introduce individuals to the area of biological rhythms. It describes the major characteristics and discusses the implications and applications of these rhythms, while citing scientific results and references. Also, the primer includes essays that provide in-depth historic and other background information for those interested in more specific topics or concepts.

It covers a basic cross-section of the field of chronobiology clearly enough so that it can be understood by a novice, or an undergraduate student, but that it would also be sufficiently technical and detailed for the scientist.

Customer Reviews:

Feedback from others the authors have received.......2006-08-17

As a co-author of the book "Introducing Biological Rhythms," I would like to share with potential readers some of the comments that we have received from others who have already received a copy. I hope this may help others who might be interested in some of the topics in our book. Thanks.

"I started immediately to read [the book] and also brought it with me on the train, in the plane and any place where I could sit and read. It is well written... To me it is the only book today that covers the whole field of Chronobiology, and you find everything there. It is a very useful reference that I will recommend to anybody that might be interested in the field. I will also get the institute to buy extra copies... I am really impressed by your work." Ole D. Laerum, PhD, Director, Stem Cell Research Group, The Gade Institute, Department of Pathology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.

"It represents an encyclopedic coverage viewed from Minnesota...; the infradian cover is particularly interesting." Hugh H. Simpson, MD, Division of Pathology, Royal Infirmary, Glasgow, Scotland.

"The book looks beautiful... Congratulations for this great amount of work, with an approach that is different from the one now `in vogue' in our field!" Francis Lévi, MD, Directeur, Cancer Chronotherapeutics, Hôpital Paul Brousse et Université Paris XI, Villejuif, France.

"I am impressed by the number of pages that you have written. It is not surprising that this work demanded several years. I will now read it with a great deal of interest." Bernard Millet, PhD, Botany Laboratory, Besancon University, Besancon, France.

"I just received your book, congratulations. I already have my students using it. It is great. What a marvelous accomplishment." Jayna L. Ditty, PhD, Dept of Biology, St. Thomas University, St. Paul, MN.

"Your book is magnificent. I very much respect your work and opinions about rhythms. I hope to give the book some serious reading in the near future. Will pass your book info on to other scientists." Helen V. Ratajczak, PhD, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Ridgefield, CT.

"I'd like to share, now as a reader, my very good impression of your book. I like it very much. It's written in a way I appreciate in books - with clear aims and clear messages. The Take-Home Message is a great thing. I like the style - friendly and simple (even when you're presenting complicated things!), with nice humor." Oleg Tsinkalovsky, MD, Centre of International Health, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.

"You have my sincere gratitude for undertaking the Herculean and useful task, for your scholarship in doing it, and for the broad scope of the book on which I congratulate you, and I trust that in reading it I can learn much more about the field and about the two authors." Franz Halberg, MD, Halberg Chronobiology Center, University of Minnesota, Mpls, MN.

Book Description

The inverse scattering problem is central to many areas of science and technology such as radar and sonar, medical imaging, geophysical exploration and nondestructive testing. This book is devoted to the mathematical and numerical analysis of the inverse scattering problem for acoustic and electromagnetic waves. To this second edition the authors have added new material on Newton's method for the inverse obstacle problem, a new elegant proof of uniqueness for the inverse medium problem, a discussion of the spectral theory of the far field operator and a presentation of a new method for determining the support of an inhomogeneous medium from far field data. In addition the text has been updated in various places.

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Loeb to the rescue

Virgil, Volume II : Aeneid Books 7-12, Appendix Vergiliana (Loeb Classical Library, No 64)
Virgil , and G. P. Goold
Manufacturer: Loeb Classical Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Ancient, Classical & Medieval | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Greek | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Roman | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Virgil, I, Eclogues. Georgics. Aeneid: Books 1-6, Revised Edition (Loeb Classical Library)

The Iliad: Volume II, Books 13-24 (Loeb Classical Library No. 171)

The Odyssey: Books 1-12 (The Loeb Classical Library, No 104)

Ovid III: Metamorphoses, Books I-VIII (Loeb Classical Library #42)

The Odyssey: Books 13-24 (Loeb Classical Library, No 105)

ASIN: 0674995864

Book Description

Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro) was born in 70 BCE near Mantua and was educated at Cremona, Milan and Rome. Slow in speech, shy in manner, thoughtful in mind, weak in health, he vent back north for a quiet life. Influenced by the group of poets there, he may have written some of the doubtful poems included in our Virgilian manuscripts. All his undoubted extant work is written in his perfect hexameters. Earliest comes the collection of ten pleasingly artificial bucolic poems, the Eclogues, which imitated freely Theocritus's idylls. They deal with pastoral life and love. Before 29 BCE came one of the best of all didactic works, the four hooks of Georgics on tillage, trees, cattle, and bees. Virgil's remaining years were spent in composing his great, not wholly finished, epic the Aeneid, on the traditional theme of Rome's origins through Aeneas of Troy. Inspired by the Emperor Augustus's rule, the poem is Homeric in metre and method but influenced also by later Greek and Roman literature, philosophy, and learning, and deeply Roman in spirit. Virgil died in 19 BCE at Brundisium on his way home from Greece, where he had intended to round off the Aeneid. He had left in Rome a request that all its twelve books should be destroyed if he were to die then, but they were published by the executors of his will.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Virgil is in two volumes.

Customer Reviews:

Loeb to the rescue.......2005-07-29

Roman society was enamoured of Greek culture -- many of the best 'Roman' things were Greek; the major gods were derivative of the Greek pantheon; philosophy, literature, science, political ideals, architecture -- all this was adopted from the Greeks. It makes sense that, at the point of their ascendancy in the world, they would long for an epic history similar to the Homeric legends; the Iliad and the Odyssey, written some 500 years after the actual events they depict, tell of the heroism of the Greeks in their battle against Troy (Ilium). The Aeneid, written by Vergil 700 years after Homer, at the commission of Augustus (himself in the process of consolidating his authority over Rome), turns the heroic victory of the much-admired Greeks on its head by postulating a survivor from Troy, Aeneas, who undergoes as journey akin to the Odyssey, even further afield.

Vergil constructs Aeneas, a very minor character in the Iliad, as the princely survivor and pilgrim from Troy, on a journey through the Mediterranean in search of a new home. According to Fitzgerald, who wrote a brief postscript to the poem, Vergil created a Homeric hero set in a Homeric age, purposefully following the Iliad and Odyssey as if they were formula, in the way that many a Hollywood director follows the formulaic pattern of past successful films. Vergil did not create the Trojan legend of Roman origins, but his poem solidified the notion in popular and scholarly sentiment.
Vergil sets the seeds for future animosity between Carthage and Rome in the Aeneid, too -- the curse of queen Dido on the descendants of Aeneas of never-ending strife played into then-recent recollections of war in the Roman mind. Books I through VI are much more studied than VII through XII, but the whole of the Aeneid is a spectacular tale.

True to the Loeb translations generally, this offers the Latin text on one page and an English translation on the facing page; this translation is done by G.P. Goold, working from H.R. Fairclough's standard edition (which is also used for the first half of the Aeneid, in the first volume of the Loeb printing). The translations are careful and work more at being faithful to the text in literal without being choppy manner; poetic license (which can often wreak havoc on a comparison of original language to translation analyses) is kept to a minimum, but not entirely absent here.

Vergil died before he could complete the story. He wished it to be burned; fortunately, Augustus had other ideas. Still, there are incomplete lines and thoughts, and occasional conflicts in the storyline that one assumes might have been worked out in the end, had more editing time been available. Despite these, the Aeneid remains a masterpiece, and the Loeb editions will remain standards for academic scholarship for some time to come.

This volume includes several hundred pages of additional material beyond the second half of the Aeneid, the so-called minor poems of Vergil. These are similarly translated, and quite interesting, even if often overlooked in favour of the Aeneid in most classes.

Indeed, even the second half of the Aeneid is often overlooked, making this a very rare volume - it is hard to find a complete copy of the Aeneid in Latin, even in a two-volume edition. Loeb to the rescue!

Book Description

A member of one of the most distinguished and honored families in Iraq, Mayada grew up surrounded by wealth and royalty. But when Saddam Hussein's regime took power, she was thrown into cell 52 in the infamous Baladiyat prison with seventeen other nameless, faceless women from all walks of life. To ease their suffering, these "shadow women" passed each day by sharing their life stories. Now, through Jean Sasson, Mayada is finally able to tell her story-and theirs-to the world.

Customer Reviews:

There's something missing.......2007-08-22

When it comes to autobiographical or biographical books, like this one, and the events recounted are mainly dramatic and very sad, the impulse is to rate it with 5 stars. However, I find that this particular book, or rather, its narrative, seems to be lacking that something or other which would put the whole thing into a more tangible perspective. Of course one cannot but sympathise with Mayada and all the "shadow women" and what they went through as described (imprisonment and torture in Iraq).

However this time, and unlike some previous work I read by the same author, I felt that the book lacks in substance a bit, some points have not been explained clearly and, in my opinion, the frequent descriptions of Mayada's fortunate background blur some more fundamental issues.

Jean Sassons books.......2007-07-25

This is the third book by Sasson that I have read. They appear to be somewhat of a formula with a certain story line and something titilating added. I believe that she ran out of material for her Saudi Princess books and so has now went to Irag. Considering the state of affairs in the middle east, I believe that she would not be able to write the truth of the womens lives, as if she did, she would be unable to live there.

Need to Know Info.......2007-07-19

If there is any question in your mind why we are in Iraqi fighting what seems a useless war then read this book.
I agree that it is time for our soilders to come home. We have done our part. This books explains why we needed to go better than anything any politician could say.
Mayada and all the shadow women, known and unknown, suffered as much as the Jewish people did under Hitler. I hope Saddam and Adolph are getting back what they gave tenfold in their corner of hell.

The horror of Saddam's Iraq.......2007-02-09

It is easy to speak about the war in Iraq when safe and well-fed. But Mayada's story of prison and torture in Saddam's Iraq is a powerful testimony calling for justice against a regime that ranks with Stalin in brutality. Mayada's account covers everything from rubbing shoulders with Saddam and others in his entourage to meeting falsely accused prisoners undergoing incredible torture and humiliation. She exposes life inside Iraq from the luxurious elite to the oppressed victims, revealing fear and tyranny that Westerners can only imagine. Despite the troubles in post-Saddam Iraq, Mayada exclaims that despite the current strife Iraq is better off now that Saddam is gone. After reading her story, I couldn't agree with her more.

The torture chamber of Iraq........2006-12-14

As the author vividly shows in her books, the Middle East is not a fair place for women. As with her earlier books about Saudi Arabia, Sasson shows the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein. This regime tortured and killed people regardless of whether they were Kurd, Shiite, Sunni, women, men or children. This was an evil regime. The author through Mayada tells of the torture regime of Saddam. One can only wish that Saddam could get the same deal while he awaits his fait.

I read this book with the expectation it would show something more about Iraqi society. What I got was the story of Mayada and her family story. One wonders how life is for the poor Iraqi women, who have no connections in the government. Other than that, a nice read about the torture chambers of Saddam Hussein.

Book Description

The 20th-century classic that inspired a generation of nautical novels.

Customer Reviews:

My 2 cents.......2005-04-21

I did enjoy this book, though I felt it was sloww getting started. I agree with another reviewer, that while reading the last 80 to 100 pages, the book was very hard to put down.

An amazing book.......2002-09-05

My naval career was a very modest one, but my impression is that this book exudes authenticity for the Navy of its time-period, and echoes of it still exist in the Navy I remember of 1951-1953. Some of the account, when not much was going on in Phillipines (where the Delilah was), were not overly exciting, but the book in its last 70 pages or so is unputdownable. A unique and vital book, and lives up to Good Reading's tout of it as the "One of the most powerful American sea Stories since Moby Dick."

Delilah and its bizarre aftermath.......1998-05-19

Someone, somewhere ought to do justice to Marcus Goodrich and write a biography. The Columbia educated runaway from San Antonio eventually wrote the original treatment (not the screenplay) for "It's a Wonderful Life". (I believe it was his sister, Francis, who actually co-wrote the screenplay with her husband, Albert Hackett.) Before that, he had served in both World Wars, his experience in the first, aboard the sunken destroyer U.S.S. Chauncey, having formed the basis for "Delilah", published in January, 1941 to good reviews and high sales among men bound for the Navy. He was married to Olivia DeHavilland for five years, from 1947-1952, before a stormy divorce. That, a harsh experience in World War II, and bitter disillusionment toward Hollywood's insistence on artistic control of screenwriters, led him at the age of 55 to retire to obscurity in Richmond where he eventually died on October 20, 1991 in what once was the Confederate Soldiers' Convalescent Hospital; he was 93. According to the strangest preface ever composed, in the 1965 re-print of "Delilah", despite writing incessantly and finishing the second half of "Delilah", "but not quite", it would likely never be published. (And, indeed, neither it nor his other two incomplete manuscripts, ever have been. The published part ends at the declaration of war by the United States on Germany in April, 1917.) In 1965, Goodrich said: "If I cannot get back to [the second half of "Delilah"] and complete it, I shall probably burn it. I live under pressure." There is more to the book than meets the eye, it being helpful to know some detailed history of the world wars to get the best from it. (Remembering when this book was published, note how Goodrich refers in hostile terms to the Japanese Fleet, an ally in World War I.) Worth a read, especially if you are interested in warships at sea and the first or second world wars. Also check out the glowing review given the book by W.J. Cash, (! author of "The Mind of the South", published in February, 1941), at the very beginning of his commencement address to the University of Texas graduating class on June 2, 1941, (reprinted in "W.J. Cash: Southern Prophet", by Joseph L. Morrison, Knopf, 1967, p. 295). (Cash died strangely a month later in Mexico City and "Delilah" was the last book known to have been read by him.) "Delilah" is a strange, ghostly ride with meandering, gothic prose (or "Henry Jamesian" as one contemporary reviewer put it in 1941), supplying an ample feeling of an oily cacophony of machinery fused with sweat and boiling anger characteristic among sardine-like submariners cramped at sea for weeks; the whole effect is somehow worth it in the end and one questions whether "Delilah" is a ship, a destructive woman, or a violent, crowded age. Read the preface to the 1965 edition slowly, once before and once after reading this curious book. Then, as Goodrich said of his writing, "put it away in the icebox and let it cool awhile", take it out and read parts of "Delilah" again.

An unbelievably good book. Stunning. Amazing........1997-12-27

This book won a Pulizter back in, I guess, the 20's. It is an amazing book. Parts of it seem surreal, as when the main characters explore the inside of an ocean-side mountain. But the people in the book are interesting, well-developed, and believable. Goodrich co-wrote the screenplay for "It's A Wonderful Life", but there's no resemblance.

Beautifully written naval adventure........1997-07-26

Does not rate a 10 only because the 2nd half of the novel was never published. The book describes the actions and characters of the crew of the U.S. Navy Destroyer "Delilah," serving in the Phillipines just prior to the First World War. The writing is extraordinarily sophisticated and fine; small exerpts don't do it justice. The book must be read slowly, for much of its purpose is to describe the subtle relationships between men at work, and considerable effort is given to character and motivation. A solemn, strange, sometimes weirdly funny novel. Beautiful

Amazon.com

Most American conservatives take it as an article of faith that the less governmental involvement in affairs of the market and pocketbook the better. The rich do not, whatever they might say--for much of their wealth comes from the "power and preferment of government." So writes Kevin Phillips, the accomplished historian and one-time Washington insider, in this extraordinary survey of plutocracy, excess, and reform. "Laissez-faire is a pretense," he argues; as the wealth of the rich has grown, so has its control over government, making politics a hostage of money. Examining cycles of economic growth and decline from the founding days of the republic to the recent collapse of technology stocks, Phillips dispels notions of trickle-down wealth creation, pricks holes in speculative bubbles, and decries the ever-increasing "financialization" of the economy--all of which, he argues, have served to reduce the well-being of ordinary Americans and government alike. Highly readable for all its charts and graphs, Phillips's book offers a refreshing--and, of course, controversial--blend of economic history and social criticism. His conclusions won't please all readers, but just about everyone who comes to his pages will feel hackles rising. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

For more than thirty years, Kevin Phillips' insight into American politics and economics has helped to make history as well as record it. His bestselling books, including The Emerging Republican Majority (1969) and The Politics of Rich and Poor (1990), have influenced presidential campaigns and changed the way America sees itself. Widely acknowledging Phillips as one of the nation's most perceptive thinkers, reviewers have called him a latter-day Nostradamus and our "modern Thomas Paine." Now, in the first major book of its kind since the 1930s, he turns his attention to the United States' history of great wealth and power, a sweeping cavalcade from the American Revolution to what he calls "the Second Gilded Age" at the turn of the twenty-first century.

The Second Gilded Age has been staggering enough in its concentration of wealth to dwarf the original Gilded Age a hundred years earlier. However, the tech crash and then the horrible events of September 11, 2001, pointed out that great riches are as vulnerable as they have ever been. In Wealth and Democracy, Kevin Phillips charts the ongoing American saga of great wealth–how it has been accumulated, its shifting sources, and its ups and downs over more than two centuries. He explores how the rich and politically powerful have frequently worked together to create or perpetuate privilege, often at the expense of the national interest and usually at the expense of the middle and lower classes.

With intriguing chapters on history and bold analysis of present-day America, Phillips illuminates the dangerous politics that go with excessive concentration of wealth. Profiling wealthy Americans–from Astor to Carnegie and Rockefeller to contemporary wealth holders–Phillips provides fascinating details about the peculiarly American ways of becoming and staying a multimillionaire. He exposes the subtle corruption spawned by a money culture and financial power, evident in economic philosophy, tax favoritism, and selective bailouts in the name of free enterprise, economic stimulus, and national security.

Finally, Wealth and Democracy turns to the history of Britain and other leading world economic powers to examine the symptoms that signaled their declines–speculative finance, mounting international debt, record wealth, income polarization, and disgruntled politics–signs that we recognize in America at the start of the twenty-first century. In a time of national crisis, Phillips worries that the growing parallels suggest the tide may already be turning for us all.

Customer Reviews:

is there any democracy left for the rest of us?.......2007-08-20

The American experiment in democracy has degenerated into a plutocracy, in which wealth and power preempt democracy's ideals of equality and freedom [cf Kevin Phillips' Wealth & Democracy]. While Phillips gives a depressing history of the decline, and its corruption thru the centuries, Cadillac Desert focuses on perhaps the biggest corrupter of all - the sprawling water projects of the American West, in which water is diverted at huge cost to grow crops no one needs, all to support giant corporations that threaten to wipe out the family farms that were the rationale for the projects in the first place. Taken together, these books demonstrate that ideology or the party in power matters little - elections become a charade, masking the control of government by capital and its corporate controllers.

Intriguing in Places, Sermonizing in Others.......2006-06-20

Kevin Phillips is not a bad man. He genuinely has an interest in the admittedly complex topic of economics, wealth consolidation and its effects on democratic institutions. The problem with Phillips' book is not that he has shed his Republican affiliation to take up the cause of progressive crusading, but that it often shifts from the gripping to the mind-numbingly technical without warning.

There are valid points in Phillips' book that are deserving of deeper thought and consideration; resorting to charts and trend diagrams, however, is not always the best way to illuminate the ideas Phillips wants to express in his work. At times Phillips seems more content to showcase just how much he knows rather than relating that information to the reader in a way that can then be turned into a point of discussion that does not border on a PowerPoint presentation.

At times Phillips spends more time placing blame for certain economic problems than he does discussing causes and possible solutions, though this can be forgiven if the reader follows Phillips' apocalyptic view of what is to come if the increased consolidation of wealth among the very few continues. In highly-charged political times, readers are apt to either give this work five stars or one, in line with their prevailing political ideology. The truth is, Wealth and Democracy is not a brilliant work, nor is it a worthless waste of time. Nearly every reader can find something interesting to grab hold of in Phillips' work. That is worth something.

The Game!.......2006-05-14

The middle class is not democratizing economically or politically. The middle class is not taking control of its money and instead the middle is rapidly transferring money from its savings into the massive market profits for the super rich. The middle class should immediately abandon any transfers from savings into the stock market and preserve their wealth, but instead they will be lured into hedge funds and mutual markets speculating that someday they will be super rich.

Richard Goodwin says, "money establishes priorities, holds down federal revenues, revises federal legislation, shifts income from the middle class to the super rich." "Money restrains the enforcement of laws written to protect the country from abuse of wealth-laws that mandate environmental protection, anti-trust, laws to protect the consumer against fraud, laws that safeguard the securities market...and more." Money in Babylon has become all powerful, while reform has dawdled. Politics has capitulated to the Market barons. For example, lobby investment dollars can turn a 100,000% return. Manufacturers craft industry-specific subsidies, insert tax breaks into code, extend patients or give away public property for free. The Timber industry spent $8 million in campaign contribution to preserve the logged road subsidy worth $458 million. Glaxo Wellcome spent $1.2 million to get a 19th month extension on Zantec worth $1 billions. The tobacco industry spent $30 million in tax contribution for tax breaks totaling $50 billion.

Historically, conspicuous consumption became a pillar of statecraft in Venice. Licentiousness stimulated art demand increasing competition for nude paintings. The market attacked and destroying all moral codes inhibiting content in the market and lead to opulence, extravagance, and vice. "The world we inhabit today, with its ruthless competitiveness, fierce consumerism, restless desire for ever wider horizons, discovery, and innovation...is a world which was made in the Renaissance." Renaissance emerged as Materialism philosophy reigned supreme; objective argument provided the ideology within the corrupting gatherings of individuals. American Renaissance and industrialism embraced Darwinism. Darwinism represented the longest-lasting philosophic shield held up by the American Wealth Accumulators: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockerfeller, Chauncey Depew, and James J. Hill. The trinity materialistic God equaled Darwinism, conspicuous consumption, and self interest. The Renaissance lionized the idols of consumption, the top artist and purveyors of luxury goods: Bottielli, Titan, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci. Monetarist, Milton Friedman said, "Greed was the basis to society" and wanted a system "setup an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm. Capitalism is that kind of system."

Chicago University indoctrinated students with doctrines of big business. Public choice argued American law was a system of commands, prohibitions, and rules often contradicting and countermanding, the "natural logic" of the markets. The cleansing of the law of interferences like government regulation worked to facilitate the freedom of the markets. Disillusionment strengthened and market utopia was a idealism not a reality. Consumption drove debt burdens. Debt burdens peaked in the 1920s, 1960s, 1980s, and 1990s. Debt is the double edged sword that threatens the wealth accumulation of the super rich. The super rich flee markets heavy in debt at a certain point of no return. "Speculative excesses supported by the tendencies of elites spin illusions for themselves and the less-sophisticated public about the new capacities of government and private sector management. Manias require convincing siren songs: insisting that things really are different this time, financially as well as technologically." Debt has transformed the two headed eagle into on head. The fed and the treasury, in a sense have become joint, proactive managers of the multi-trillion dollar "USA fund". Markets economies might be claim, but globalizing U.S government economic management has become the game.

The speculative bubble of 2000-2001 experienced real damage in early 2000s as the recession hit manufacturing and deepened the damage with a crisis in several technology industries, and spread widely into the service industry. The share of U.S manufacturing assets in foreign hands jumped 3% in 1970, 8% in 1980, 19% in 1990 and foreign ownership surged from $270 billion in 1997 to $497 billion in 2000. US companies traded hands with foreign owners: Dresdner Bank purchased Wasserstein Peralla; Sumitomo owned 15% of Goldman Sachs; ING owned Actna Financial Services; Zurich Financial took S Investments, Credit Suisse bought First Boston; and UBS Warburg purchased Paine Webber.

a modern day truth teller.......2006-03-23

I've always been impressed with the honesty and integrity of Kevin Phillips. Coming out of the conservative movement, Phillips nevertheless places truth, and a deep concern for the well being of American democracy, well over and above mere partisanship. The current corrupt leadership in Washington DC could learn a thing or two here, where Phillips turns a critical eye to the age old tension between democracy and the tendency toward an oligarchy. Lately, it seems that democracy has been the loser in this struggle.

For example, as Molly Ivins pointed out in a somewhat recent column in The American Prospect magazine, when Republicans talk about "flexibility," it means letting business do whatever it wants without standards, mandates or worker and consumer rights. Ever since FDR's New Deal, working overtime gets you time-and-a-half in money, which has the happy effect of holding the work week down to 40 hours -- or at least preventing it from ballooning grossly.

Some recently proposed Bush rules, which the congressional Republican leadership then codified and expanded, would:

-- Exclude previously protected workers who were entitled to overtime by reclassifying them as managers. Companies are already using this ploy where they can get away with it. Say you're frying burgers on the night shift at McDonald's, making overtime, and suddenly -- congratulations -- you're the assistant night manager, with no raise and no overtime.

-- Eliminate certain middle-income workers from overtime protections by adding an income limit, above which workers no longer qualify for overtime. You like that? You make too much to earn overtime.

-- Remove overtime protection from large numbers of workers in aerospace, defense, health care, high tech and other industries

This is one of many examples which can be explained by an underlying dynamic which Kevin Phillips addresses in this very important book. As Phillips points out, the wealth class increasingly controls social and political institutions, either outright, or through a more subtle influence, and this allows them to retain their class privileges. This may be good for them, but it's not so good for democracy.

Informative, Thought Provoking.......2006-01-31

Wealth and Democracy is a well-written, cogent account of the historical intersection of income distribution and politics. i would recommend it to economics students as it explains some fairly arcane issues in a very non-technical style. It also has some great anecdotes. I hope potential readers won't be put off by the many negative reviews here on Amazon (many of which appear to have been written by the same person judging by the recurring phrases (Nixon-ite!) and spelling mistakes). As someone who works for a leading U.S. company in the finance sector in Asia, I would say Phillips' analysis should be taken seriously, especially given the current account and fiscal deficits that are gradually draining the U.S. of its economic lifeblood.

Saving democracy: the number of millionaires and billionaires doesn't move in tandem with democratic politics. Indeed, the two are often at loggerheads. ... An article from: Chief Executive (U.S.)

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Saving democracy: the number of millionaires and billionaires doesn't move in tandem with democratic politics. Indeed, the two are often at loggerheads. ... An article from: Chief Executive (U.S.)
Kevin P. Phillips
Manufacturer: Chief Executive Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008FCVE0
Release Date: 2005-07-30

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Chief Executive (U.S.), published by Chief Executive Publishing on May 1, 2002. The length of the article is 526 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: Saving democracy: the number of millionaires and billionaires doesn't move in tandem with democratic politics. Indeed, the two are often at loggerheads. (Perspectives: Politics). (book review)
Author: Kevin P. Phillips
Publication: Chief Executive (U.S.) (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2002
Publisher: Chief Executive Publishing
Page: S32(1)

Article Type: Book Review

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A Conservationist's Manifesto

Coming to Land in a Troubled World
Peter Forbes , Kathleen Dean Moore , and Scott R. Sanders
Manufacturer: Trust for Public Land
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Nature Writing | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0967280699

Book Description

The present rate of devastation of our natural world and of healthy lives is unprecedented, and accelerating. The work of conserving land, species, and ways of life is more urgent and vital than ever before. What does it mean to truly conserve land and community life in this era? And why is this so vitally important if we are to heal the divisions in our culture and ourselves, change our patterns of consumption, and reverse the fate of our earth?
In three powerful essays, three influential writers and thinkers--Scott Russell Sanders, Peter Forbes and Kathleen Dean Moore--explore these questions, giving us new insights about the promise of land conservation in our present world. Through its deep examination of the value of land to our culture and our souls, this book becomes a meditation on reconciliation and restoration, love and loss, wholeness and innovation, fairness and community. It gives us new approaches and new hope to work to heal the great divisions and losses we see around us each day.
The book also includes a Â“Land and People IndexÂ” which gives often startling statistics on the state of our world, such as the fact that America now has more malls than high schools. The index, a set of guidelines for setting oneÂ's highest values, and other tools give this reader an added dimension: as a practical and thought-provoking workbook for conservationists and social activists it offers ways to move forward with more power to effect change.

Customer Reviews:

A Conservationist's Manifesto.......2004-03-02

COMING TO LAND is an amazingly rich book, capable of fostering profound personal and social transformation.

In the first essay, "Landing," Kathleen Moore unearths and airs the profound disconnects of our culture: "We have been away for many centuries, we people of the western industrial nations. We have built a culture on the mistaken assumption that human beings are independent of one another and of the places and systems of the earth." To borrow from author Derrick Jensen, we are a culture of make believe; and the end result of the lies we tell ourselves and our children is economic and cultural alienation en mass. But Moore is not content with this revelation. She goes on to discuss several other "lies that isolate us" (the false dichotomies of today/tomorrow, near/far, us/them, and humans/nature) and then outlines the process of grief, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance of our ecological predicament. It is a very sobering essay that seeks "creative acts of commitment--acts of imagining and choosing." It is an essay about "caring for people and caring for places, (accepting) the challenge of reconciliation, bringing together what has been apart for a very long time."

The second essay, "A Conservationist's Manifesto," is just that--a rich, stirring document about humanity's relationship with nature. Having begun as a lively talk between members of the Century for Land and People, it encapsulates the insight and wisdom of many individuals, including such environmental luminaries as William Cronon and Bill McKibben. Point 22 reads: "In order to live, we must use the earth--but we should not use it up. For the sake of our descendants, we must learn to grow food without depleting the soil, fish without exhausting the seas, draw energy from sunlight and wind and tides. We must conserve the minerals we mine and the products we manufacture, recycling them as thoroughly as the forest recycles twigs, leaves, fur, and bone." All together, it is truly inspiring document, promoting a mature and ethical relationship between humans and the environment; and would make for a wonderful educational tool.

The third essay, "Lifting the Veil" by Peter Forbes, is actually six essays in one, and by far the longest and most eclectic of the bunch. Weaving in and out of such topics as time capsules, domestication, and the biographies of great people (Aldo Leopold, Scott and Helen Nearing, Thoreau, and Rachel Carson), Forbes articulates a new vision of conservationism. Differing from the old view, which simply seeks to preserve places, Forbes' vision seeks deep and lasting social change. Ever conscious of how it might end in less funding and social marginalization, he keeps his radical roots. In his words, "As much as conservation is succeeding in creating refugia, or safe havens for pockets of diverse life that might survive the industrial growth society, we conservationists are failing to take the risks necessary to help people life differently, to envision and create an alternative culture. The alternative culture won't emerge solely because land has been protected, but only when our relationship, connection, and communion with that land have been restored."

Altogether, this book is about "protecting the places that we have a birthright to, (helping) us find our roots or put down new roots, enabling us to envision the land as part of ourselves." Full of common sense, deep, earthly wisdom and a vision of what truly matters, COMING TO LAND contains the germ of an ecologically sustainable future.

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