Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places

Amazon.com

What lies along the highway, just out of sight? How about behind that building? Or under the street? Most of us muse idly about such things as we take our walks or drive our cars, but only a few go further and explore the secret histories of the places where we live. Landscape historian John R. Stilgoe is one of these intrepid explorers; for years he has taught Harvard students to open their senses to the created environment we share, to gently dissect our neighborhoods and public spaces for the knowledge hidden in plain sight. In Outside Lies Magic, he lets us all in on these wonderful secrets.

Guiding us on tracks laid by utility and railroad companies, showing us the hidden territory of postal systems, Stilgoe reminds us that important frontiers lie invisible in our backyards and side streets, waiting for our attention. Though more interested in showing us how to see than telling us what there is to see, his descriptions of power-line right-of-ways, alley-side entrances, and hobo jungles provide compelling incentive for the reader to take his advice to heart and start looking around and asking questions of the community. If you think it's important to "think locally," Outside Lies Magic is an outstanding training manual. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

Outside Lies Magic is a book about the acute observation of ordinary things, about becoming aware in everyday places, about seeing in utterly new ways, about enriching your life unexpectedly.
For more than 20 years, John R. Stilgoe has developed and practiced the art of exploring the everyday world around us, where so much lies hidden just beneath the surface, offering uncommon knowledge if we but know what to look for. In this remarkable book, Stilgoe inspires us to become explorers on our own–on foot or on bicycle–and by so doing to reap the benefits of escaping, even temporarily, the traps of our programmed lives.

"Exploration encourages creativity, serendipity, invention," he writes. And while sharing his insights on how to explore, Stilgoe provides a fascinating pocket history of the American landscape, as striking in its originality as it is revealing. Stilgoe dissects our visual surroundings; his observations will transform the way you see everything. Through his eyes, an abandoned railroad line is redolent of history and future promise; front lawns recall our agrarian past; vacant lots hold cathedrals of potential.

From the electrical grid overhead to fences, malls, and main streets, Stilgoe offers a fresh understanding of the links and fractures in our society. After reading Outside Lies Magic, your world will never look the same again.

Customer Reviews:

the magic of the ordinary.......2007-01-14

This book is the concentrated essence of a life's work. It shows us that connection is still possible in this disconnected age. It shows us that America's history is not captive in printed pages and tv documentaries, but lives all around in the building and in the pulling down, in the shiny new and in the rusted.

Stilgoe does not illuminate the unremarkable, instead he reflects the light that he sees emanating from it. A remarkable achievement. A remarkable book. Highly recommended.

187 pages of romantic drudgery.......2005-09-09

This book just seems to go on and on about all the little things we seem to miss in this electronic era that we live in, at face value this does have some truth to it, I myself was intrigued by the concept. But right from the very beginning you realize that these are things that are worth forgetting about. The book seems as if it was written for the specific interests of an autistic child.

I don't care about the why the grass grows the way it does on the interstate freeway and fail to see why anyone else would either.

Fascinating and Enervating.......2005-02-04

Possibly the most fascinating book I have read since Carl Sagan's "The Dragons of Eden". How often do you read a book that makes you want to get up off your chair (perhaps taking the book with you if you haven't finished yet) and wander off for outside adventures with its tantalizing accounts of what you will find in your neighborhood and town, and their outlying areas?!

Stilgoe draws us out into the "real world" page by page in this exploration of the modern world around us, its intriguing history of urban and rural constructions, and what it all means. A great book especially in that once you have read it, it continues giving to you as you take what you have learned from it and go further into the everyday world with it.

Talking about this book practically makes me jump up and down with excitement over the possibilities. No, wait -- it's LITERAL! I am, in fact, jumping up and down.

Quick, wonderful read - filled with wonder!.......2003-10-19

A fantastic little book that will remind you of wonder, make you wonder at the world around you, and help you stop ignoring the variety and patterns to which we've become numb.

pulling edges to the center.......2001-08-24

Stilgoe makes us consider the ordinary in extraordinary ways. The "solutions" some seek (self-help book overload, I'm afraid) ARE indeed here - you just have to look.

Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places

Average customer rating:

Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places
John R. Stilgoe
Manufacturer: Walker & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N79S8U

Book Description

Here, acclaimed landscape photographer Joe Cornish turns his eye to the magnificent scenery of Scotland’s 6,000-mile coastline. Traveling from the Mull of Galloway in the south to the tip of Unst in the northerly Shetlands, from the remote St. Kilda in the Atlantic to the Sands of Forvie National Nature Reserve on the North Sea, he captures all the stunning variety of the Scottish seacoast. Whatever the subject—be it a wide Hebridean vista or fragmented patterns of ice on a frozen beach—Cornish, with his artist’s eye and dramatic use of light, reveals it in fresh and startling beauty. Joe Cornish’s previous book was First Light: A Landscape Photographer’s Art.

Customer Reviews:

Breath-Taking Coast Pictures.......2005-10-02

Joe Cornish is an english landscape photographer. So he prefer to photograph the coastline of his home island. The first taste was his book "First Light". In his new book "Scotland`s Coast" he consequently shows pictures from the scotish coast. He started in the west moved to the north and finished in the east coast of Scotland. The book takes you to the steep cliffs, wide sandy beaches and rocky coastline in a dramatic sky. His typical style is to take pictures with a wide angle lens. So the pictures shows a great foreground that leads into the wide landscape in the background. All his pictures are made in a magic light with saturated colours. The pictures are published very sharp so you feel like standing behind the camera. If you are interestet in overwhelming Coast Photos buy this book.
But take care, there are no scotish castles in this book. One word to the publisher: Please, use next time a thicker paper this one "feel" so poor.

Book Description

This third volume in the Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research series deals with the major terrestrial, algal, and siliceous indicators used in paleolimnology. Other volumes deal with the acquisition and archiving of lake sediment cores, chronological techniques, and large-scale basin analysis methods (Volume 1), physical and geochemical parameters and methods (Volume 2), zoological techniques (Volume 4), and statistical and data handling methods (Volume 5). These monographs will provide sufficient detail and breadth to be useful handbooks for both seasoned practitioners as well as newcomers to the area of paleolimnology. Although the chapters in these volumes target mainly lacustrine settings, many of the techniques described can also be readily applied to fluvial, glacial, marine, estuarine, and peatland environments.

Customer Reviews:

Turtles for all.......2006-03-28

This book is a great guide to taking the somewhat difficult ideas explored in Mitchel Resnick's book "Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams" and implementing them with students. Adventures in modeling can be used alone but, for any teacher who wants to use this book in a computer class, it is helpful to read the other book first. The activities and challenges here are reasonable for students from college down though middle school. I know of one teacher who has even successfully used these activites with pre-teens.

Good book but not perfect..........2006-01-03

The book is good overall but I felt they need to use more carefully thought out examples and not try to push an 'agenda'.
It is as if the author(s) are trying to make an issue over creation vs evolution. In the very beginning chapter, they make an invalid example by comparing evolution vs creation to central control vs decentralized systems. This is a quote from the book, "This tendency to assume centralized control, which we call the centralized mindset, makes it difficult for people to understand the workings of many phenomena in the world. The recurrent questioning of evolutionary theories is another example: When people see complex living systems in the world, they assume that someone or something must have explicitly designed them; instead, these livings systems are the products of millions of incremental changes over time."

Great guide to modeling systems!.......2002-02-20

This is a great book for anyone interested in modeling dynamic systems. The authors provide wonderful background theory as a basis for building computer simulations. The simple step-by-step instructions guide you through the process of creating your own simulations using StarLogo. This book is an interesting, easily understandable beginner's manual and comes with all the software you need. It's a great way to teach yourself or other people how to program a simulation. I love the turtles!

Excellent guide to modeling systems!.......2002-02-18

This is a great book for people intereted in modeling systems behavior. The authors give an excellent background summary of the theory involved in StarLogo. The program given with the CD is easy to install and use. The book takes you step by step through thinking about and creating your own computer simulation in an easy to understand manner. There's lots of support for any technical difficulties you might have and good examples of what you can do with the program. I highly recommend it to everyone.

Book Description

Rock and Roll legend Ted Nugent contends that a lot of what is wrong with this country could be remedied by a simple, but controversial concept: gun ownership.

Customer Reviews:

What is WRONG with you people?.......2007-07-20

Anyone who buys into Nugent's "patriot" hype is somehow totally misinformed. He was a well-known draft dodger back in the Vietnam era. All of his flag-waving is nothing but a publicity stunt. As for his big talk about values, he has the morals of an alleycat.

Why is it that the radical right-wing these days has to promote chickenhawks and hypocrites as their spokesmen?

Why do so many otherwise fully functioning, well-meaning Americans buy into their bull?

If you want to promote this clown's masquerade as an uberpatriot, then buy this book. If you're truly concerned about the future of our country, then speak out against these merchants of intolerance. America works best when we work together. These guys who try to turn us against one another are doing a lot more harm than good. They appeal to your base emotions, without providing any solutions. Don't be sucked in.

Why so many ratings having NOTHING to do with the book?.......2007-07-13

Read the book, rate the book...it's really simple.

While it's really a 4 star book (some of the hunting stories do drag on a bit), I gave it five to help balance the oddly hateful reviews.

It's a book on Ted's take on politics, life and hunting told in Ted's usual style. If you like that sorta thing, you will like this book. If you don't like Ted, why not do something productive and read (and review) something you do like?

Nugent is no hero.......2007-06-24

I enjoy hunting.

I've voted Republican almost exclusively.

Ted Nugent is no hero. If you knew the revolting lengths he went to in order to avoid military service, you'd agree.

Ted Nugent is no moral role model. If you knew about his exploits with underage girls, you'd agree.

What we have here is an aging minor rock n' roll personality whose career was coming to an end by the early 90's. He merely reinvented himself to take advantage of the rising right-wing tide that also sees other military service avoiders like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Michael Weiner-Savage as pillars of virtue and wise political sages.

Please, people...

Get a clue.

Those of us who actually did serve in the military see these men for the jokers they truly are. If the radical right wing can find no better spokesmen than these, then it must be a strong comment on the defects in their message.

Nug rules!.......2007-04-10

Ted Nugent is AWESOME and an excellent role model. I bought this book for my husband, a Nugent fan, avid hunter and sportsman and collector of guns and he convinced me to read it, too. I learned a lot and am happy that I read it!

An Ungodly Book !.......2006-12-25

What type of God would enjoy people using lethal firearms to kill his animal creation. Ted Nugent is the polar opposite of Mahatma Gandhi, a truly Godl'y man.

Average customer rating:

GOD, GUNS & ROCK'N'ROLL
TED NUGENT
Manufacturer: NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK, INC.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KVBGDE

Customer Reviews:

An Excellent Book for Louisiana Historians.......2004-11-03

The setting for Samuel Hyde's provocative Pistols and Politics is the eastern section of Louisiana, known as the Florida Parishes, where present day cities like Clinton, Tangipahoa, Amite and Hammond are located. This area of Louisiana, often eclipsed by her more prominent southwestern and extreme southeastern portions, is front and center in Hyde's work. Specifically, Pistols and Politics highlights the tumultuous and difficult years of 1810-1899, the political events that shaped the area during that time, and the unfortunate consequences that those events would unleash on the unwitting residents of the Florida Parishes.

Hyde's book takes the reader on a documented journey from the early 1800s all the way through the Civil War and the South's painful era of Reconstruction. After an introduction of considerable length, chapter one provides the reader with a picture of the two main residents of the piney woods area: the elite planter class and the plain folk. In chapter two, the realities and events that shaped planter dominance and plain folk subservience in the antebellum era are examined. The effects of The War Of Northern Aggression on the Florida Parishes are explored in chapter three. In chapter four, racial and political ingredients are combined to create an explosive set of circumstances that would set the stage for later anarchy. Chapter five reveals the extent to which that anarchy manifested itself in the form of thuggery and vigilantism, which ruled the Florida Parishes after Reconstruction and into the 1890s. The last chapter focuses on the political feuding among several prominent families of the area that culminated into raw, unabated violence and murder.

The author succinctly conveys how underlying tensions between the working class and the planter elite were brought to the surface through Louisiana's Constitutions of 1845 and 1852, the War Between The States and the subsequent era of Reconstruction, as well as how these tensions culminated into an environment that encouraged violence as the effective means of resolving issues, salvaging one's honor and righting perceived wrongs. In addition, a volatile mixture of racial and ideological differences between the inhabitants of the Florida Parishes fueled post-war clashes and provided ammunition for what amounted to an eruption of near-total lawlessness. Throughout the second half of the book, the reader is constantly provided with examples of how the brutality of war, racial and non-racial violence, and the impotence of the law defined the region.
From the title of the book, the reader should readily realize that the subject matter at hand is not one of uplifting or heartening content. Instead, one will find that the tone of Hyde's book becomes progressively darker as the chapters are consumed. The introduction, and first chapter, while important in setting the stage for the rest of the book, are probably the least interesting, for the title and imagery of the book compel the reader to anticipate stories of violence, murder and mayhem. Not surprisingly, the author does not disappoint here. In some ways, Hyde's writing style read like a thriller novel; only in this case, the stories are true, the violence actually occurred, and people did indeed suffer and die.

It is difficult to employ the word favorite to describe any chapter of this book, since the majority of them deal with human suffering, tragedy and the unfortunate circumstances of violence stemming from racial and class tensions. However, I personally found chapter three to be the most intense, compelling and disturbing of all in the book. The accounts of naked aggression of the Northern Army and its systematic method of rampant pillage, forced starvation and, in some cases, rape and murder, welled up an unanticipated sense of anger within me. Specifically, Hyde's vivid descriptions of the 1864 destruction of Clinton, Louisiana (a town that I have passed through on many occasions) and the despoiling and humiliation of its citizens was distressing to read. The following chapter, which deals with the tumultuous 1868 election and the strife between the conservative Democrats and the scalawag Republicans, highlights the awful truth that while Louisiana's politics may have always been corrupt, they never reached such a crescendo as they did in the Reconstruction era, and will hopefully never do so again.

What then exactly is the Dilemma of Democracy that subtitles Hyde's book? As the reader will conclude upon reading the entirety of the work, it is this simple irony: for all of its perceived inequities, the antebellum era organization of the planter elite as the ruling class, along with the quasi-submissive common folk and the institution of slavery, provided a reign of relative peace and stability that was unparalleled in the area's history. Only when the vestiges of slavery and planter-dominated political representation were destroyed by war and the influx of outside settlers did democracy emerge, and with it, utter chaos and thug rule which thrust the Florida Parishes into a descent of violence and anarchy, haunting its inhabitants with an ominous legacy for generations.

An Excellent Study of the Politics of Class in Louisiana.......2002-04-10

With impeckable research and a lively style, Sam Hyde's Pistols and Politics examins Southern Plain Folk Culture and the Politics of Class (not Race) in Louisiana History. He provides the clearest treatment of the rival Constitutions of 1845 and 1852 in which, despite the success of both Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Democracy, planters (slave masters) took control of the Louisiana legislature (and hence Louisiana Antebellum politics) by imposing a representative apportionment based on counting total population including slaves. One man one vote was out the window! Hyde's treatment of the utter ruin of southeast Louisiana during a Civil War fought without rules or quarter is grim and graphic. Most appealing is the fair and careful treatment of a regional culture of violence that wracked the Florida Parishes with the fiercest feuds in American History. Those Hatfields and McCoys had nothing on Bloody Tangipahoa! A very good read!

Interesting look into "Bloody Tangipahoa".......2001-12-11

Hyde does a fascinating job of outlining the social history of the piney woods region north of Lake Pontchatrain and east of the Mississippi. From a brief overview of the colonial days of the region to its short-lived Republic of West Florida to its eventual incorporation into the state of Louisiana, the Civil War and through Reconstruction, Hyde explores the social and economic tensions between the wealthy planters nearer to the river and their neighbors to the east.

These economic tensions (and the resulting political manipulations) helped create a culture of violence in the region that lasted well past Reconstruction. As the final chapter of the book outlines, Hyde's own family was involved in a long-running feud that claimed several lives. The personal details interwoven into the history (and the many photos he was able to include) add to the depth of the work.

A Good Piece of Southern History........2001-03-31

This is an excellent book for those interested in a factual, no nonsense representation of the Florida Parishes in the Old South thorough the early twentieth century. I believe this book offers the serious student of southern history a significant glimpse into the lives and doings of some of the people who were affected most by the War of Northern Aggression. I highly recommend reading it to broaden your understanding of Southern History.

Simply fascinating!.......2000-07-27

This study is by far the most intensive analysis of the most understudied region of Louisiana ever published. It will also undoubtedly emerge as one of the most substantive examinations of a southern sub-region currently available on the market. The treatment of all periods from the colonial era to the advent of the twentieth century is comprehensive. The final section concerning the feuds that consumed the region is not simply some of the most dramatic interpretive reading regarding southern patterns of violence, but it also remains impressively non-partisan seeking the source of the troubles in prevailing attitudes and legal laxity rather than passing judgement on the actions of individuals.

Book Description

Perpetual economic growth is physically impossible on a planet with finite resources. Many concerned with humanity's future have focused on the concept of "sustainable development" as an alternative, as they seek means of achieving current economic and social goals without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own goals. Sustainable development brings together elements of economics, public policy, sociology, ecology, resource management, and other related areas, and while the term has become quite popular, it is rarely defined, and even less often is it understood.

A Survey of Sustainable Development addresses that problem by bringing together in a single volume the most important works on sustainable human and economic development. It offers a broad overview of the subject, and gives the reader a quick and thorough guide to this highly diffuse topic. The volume offers ten sections on topics including:

economic and social dimensions of sustainable development
the North/South balance
population and the demographic transition
agriculture and renewable resources
energy and materials use
globalization and corporate responsibility
local and national strategies

Each section is introduced with an essay by one of the volume editors that provides an overview of the subject and a summary of the mainstream literature, followed by two- to three-page abstracts of the most important articles or book chapters on the topic.

A Survey of Sustainable Development is the sixth and final volume in the Frontier Issues of Economic Thought series produced by the Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University. Each book brings together the most important articles and book chapters in a "frontier" area of economics where important new work is being done but has not yet been incorporated into the mainstream of economic study. The book is an essential reference for students and scholars concerned with economics, environmental studies, public policy and administration, international development, and a broad range of related fields.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books