Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, Supplement I (Dinosaurs the Encyclopedia) (Dinosaurs the Encyclopedia)

Amazon.com

If you think the title Dinosaurs: the Encyclopedia has a movie-sequel ring, you're only partly mistaken; editor Donald F. Glut has already authored The Dinosaur Dictionary and The Complete Dinosaur Dictionary. But you'll find no T. rex running amok here; this is a dense and rigorously scientific tome meant for only the most dedicated dinosaur lover. Part 1 contains an excellent background history of scientific findings in this rapidly changing field. (Also here is a wonderful, paragraph-long sentence detailing possible causes of the dinosaurs' demise, including "brains too small" and "inability to mate, sexual frustration, suicide.") Once into the alphabetical listings, however, it's easy for the layman to get lost. If the description "articular facets of prezygapophyses much enlarged in anterior caudals" makes your eyes cross, perhaps this is not the reference for you. But if your amateur paleontologist shows signs of getting serious, you won't get much more detailed, thorough, or reliable information than that contained here. And there's always the glossary in back, wherein you'll find words such as "ginglymus" and "astragalus" defined in everyday English.

Product Description

This is the first supplement to the highly acclaimed Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia that was named an ALA OUTSTANDING REFERENCE BOOK. Some of the reviews of the 1997 work: Highly recommendedChoice; grander than anything ever accomplished of similar title or reputationDinosaur World; the most thorough and most scholarly dinosaur encyclopedia yetRettig on Reference; THE dinosaur encyclopediaVOYA; a welcome resourceARBA; a monumental archive of informationBioScience; solidly scientific....plentiful illustrations and photographs [over 1,400] provide for fascinating browsingReference & User Services Quarterly. The new work, which maintains the arrangement of the primary volume and is up to date late into 1998, includes well over a dozen new dinosaurian genera and even more new species and new life restorations. Section I provides introductory text on subtopics such as The Mesozoic Era, Ectothermy Versus Endothermy and Dinosaur Extinctions. Section II continues the workable ordering of dinosaurian systematics. Section III continues the alphabetical compilation of new dinosaurian genera. Section IV continues the detailing of doubtful genera that have appeared in the paleontological literature.

Customer Reviews:

completey satisfied one more time!.......2006-03-22

I am completely satisfyed one more time! no delay, no problems perfect.

Very thorough for the dinosaur enthusiast.......2006-01-27

I bought this book a few years back and it is quite excellent. I think the series is updated every few years, and things constantly change with dinosaurs. This book has excellent drawings and actual photos of models, replicas, and skeletons of dinosaurs. Microraptor is in this supplement as well, and dinosaurs evolving into birds is discussed in here as well. Different groups like the sauropods and hadrosaurs are discussed with new discovers and information. Many oospecies and footprints are discussed in here as well. Highly recommended for any paleontologist, dinosaur enthusiast, and/or future paleontologist(like me).

The Glut of Dinosaurs continues.......2003-11-27

A year after the second supplement, here's another! Donald Glut's indefatigable efforts at keeping us posted about all developments in the world of dinosaurs are nothing short of astounding. Always fascinating reading for specialist and general maniac alike.

Fantastic and comprehensive.......2001-07-25

If you are a serious dinosaur lover with some money to spend, this is the book. At the time of publication, every classified species was included, along with pertinent details and from 1-3 pages of write-up. It talks of the holotypes, it has 1-2 photos on every page, it gives it all. It is exhaustive, well written, and just simply outstanding. Put it this way, paleontologists and reconstructionist-artists keep this on their desk like the military folk keep a copy of Jane's, it's simply far and away the best reference on the various species of dinosaurs. Is it pricey? Yup. However, you could easily spend far more buying every dinosaur encyclopedia sold on Amazon and still come up with a fraction of the material that is in this book. To be blunt, no other reference is in it's class. Throw in that periodic supplements are published that describe all of the new species and information discovered from the previous release, and you simply can't go wrong.

If I have to pick one flaw, it's that some of the photographs are of poor quality, however most of these seem to be because the only surviving photo is a zerox or what have you, so the quality is dependant on the source picture, not due to any corner-cutting (of which there seems to be NONE) in the book.

How do you top the perfect book? Add to it!.......2001-04-15

In the ever changing science of paleontology, sometimes it is impossible to keep up...until now. Donald F. Glut's Dinosaurs: the Encyclopedia, along with this subsequent and future supplements, reviews and condenses ALL (not merely some) of the technical papers published on the "terrible lizards" and packs them into one place. Want to know whatever happened to Brontosaurus? Look it up! For the budding enthusiast who is not quite sure what all the jargon means, a dictionary of terms is included in the back. If you are serious or want to be serious about the study of dinosaurs, Glut's encyclopedia is the place to start. Personally, I plan to purchase any and all future supplements to this wonderful bible of dinosaur science.

Book Description

The first edition of Zany's Los Angeles Apartment Guide continues the high standards of the Zany's series, with complete reviews of seventy Los Angeles County neighborhoods, from Hollywood to Studio City to the beachfront communities. All the information anyone needs when moving around the LA area, or moving to it for the first time.

Book Description

This volume explains how the recent advances in wavelet analysis provide new means for multiresolution analysis and describes its wide array of powerful tools. The book covers variations of the windowed Fourier transform, constructions of special waveforms suitable for specific tasks, the use of redundant representations in reconstruction and enhancement, applications of efficient numerical compression as a tool for fast numerical analysis, and approximation properties of various waveforms in different contexts.

Signal and Image Representation in Combined Spaces

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Signal and Image Representation in Combined Spaces
Yehoshua (Edt)/ Coifman, Ronald ( Zeevi
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHFW3O

Book Description

Wallace Stegner weaves together fiction and nonfiction, history and impressions, childhood remembrance and adult reflections in this unusual portrait of his boyhood. Set in Cypress Hills in southern Saskatchewan, where Stegner's family homesteaded from 1914 to 1920, Wolf Willow brings to life both the pioneer community and the magnificent landscape that surrounds it. This Twentieth-Century Classics edition includes a new introductory essay by Page Stegner.

Customer Reviews:

Stegnar recalls his teen years and recounts written early history of SW Saskatchewan.......2007-05-05

Stegner once again reveals his writing prowess, This time in a self-indulgent adventure to haunts of his youth.

I have some qualms about this work, however. In particular, I was not so keen on those parts where Stegner relied heavily on book-based history that never directly touched his own life. To be frank, his writing in these parts surprisingly got a bit stodgy.

His thought on sense of place and belonging, however, are remarkable, hitting me right between the eyes. Indeed, he had me wistfully recalling my own childhood in what seemed a remote area of the world with the archaeological junk heap and all. In measuring his boyhood to my own, I noted how little times had changed in that interval of 60-70 years and how much has changed for kids in the last 40. It had me wondering how my own sons lives would be different were it not for the MAFIA (mother's against fun in America).

Almost shockingly good.......2005-07-31

This book has no right to be so absorbing. Though the topic of this forgotten book by Wallace Stegner reeks of self-indulgence-- A writer returns to where he grew up, reminisces about his youth and the history of the frontier town his transient childhood most identified as home and concludes with a 100-page fictionalized account of a the terrible winter of 1906-- he manages to tie his past inexorably to ours, linking his nostalgia for his youth with our own, and exploring the promise and inevitable waste of the American Dream lived out on our frontiers.

Stegner, like Proust, experiences an "ancient, unbearable recognition" spurred by a return to the sites, sounds, and most importantly, smells of his childhood. He dreams of this period and is "haunted, on awakening, by a sense of meanings just withheld, and by a profound nostalgic melancholy." Everyone has some awareness of a deep meaning lurking in our past that has not, or cannot, be fully interpreted.

Perhaps the best part of the book is section three, the novella length exposition on the hope and danger of the high plains that does a superb job of creating looming dread as the winter drops hard on the land. Near the end of section three, Stegner expounds on what it is to be an American pursuing the Dream:

"How does one know what wilderness has meant to Americans unless he has shared the guilt of wastefully and ignorantly tampering with it in the name of progress? One who has lived the dream, the temporary fulfillment, and the disappointment has had the full course.... The vein of melancholy in the North American mind may be owing to many causes, but it is surely not weakened by the perception that the fulfillment of the American Dream means inevitably the death of the noble savagery and freedom of the wild. Any who has lived on a frontier knows the inescapable ambivalence of the old-fashioned American conscience, for he has first renewed himself in Eden and then set about converting it into the lamentable modern world."

Vividly told account of the Canadian frontier.......2003-05-05

This wonderful collection of essays and fiction about the last Western frontier is both romance and anti-romance. Writing in the 1950s, Stegner captures the breath-taking beauty of the unbroken plains of southwest Saskatchewan and the excitement of its settlment at the turn of the century. Part memoir, the book recounts the years of his boyhood in a small town along the Whitemud River in 1914-1919, the summers spent on the family's homestead 50 miles away along the Canadian-U.S border. His book is also an account of the loss of that Eden and the failed promise of agricultural development in this semi-arid region with thin top soil.

Stegner is a gifted, intelligent writer, able to turn the people and events of history into compelling reading. The opening section of the book describes the experience of being on the plains and specifically in the area where Stegner was a boy. And it lays out the geography of that land -- a distant range of hills, the river, the coulees, the town -- which the book will return to again and again.

The following section evokes the period of frontier Canada's early exploration, the emergence of the metis culture, the destruction of the buffalo herds, the introduction of rangeland cattle, and then wave upon wave of settlement pushing the last of the plains Indians westward and northward. A chapter is devoted to the surveying of the boundary along the Canada-U.S. border; another chapter describes the founding of the Mounted Police and its purely Canadian style of bringing law and order to the wild west.

The middle section of the book is a novella and a short story about the winter of 1906-1907. In the longer piece, eight men rounding up cattle are caught on the open plains in an early blizzard. Stegner builds the drama and the peril of their situation artfully and convincingly. The final section of the book returns to Stegner's memories of the town and the homestead, ending with his family's departure for Montana.

Stegner lived at a time and in a place where a person born in the 20th century could still experience something of the sweep of history that transformed the American plains. I've read many books about the West, and because of his depth of thought, his gifts as a writer, and his unflinching eye, Stegner's work ranks for me among the best. I heartily recommend this book.

wistful retrospective.......2002-10-01

Part history and part dreamy reminiscence, this book is an account of a boy growing up in Southwest Saskatchewan in the early part of the 20th Century. The central portion of the book is pure history, and the long chapters on cowboys are particularly challenging because they require an intimate knowledge of cowboy terminology. Stegner does not mince words about the difficulties of life on the plains--extremes of heat and cold, wind, hostile topography, lack of cultural amenities--the result of which is that most who grew up there moved elsewhere. But he also shows a passionate attachment for the country of his childhood. The narrative often seems rambling because, like James Michener, the author tries to incorporate so much besides history--including the biology and geology of the nearby Cypress Hills, the biologically diverse area nearby--and even his poetic musings have elements of fact, as when he describes the wind, or the gophers, or his swimming hole, or his school, or his family's homestead, or the problems involved in the town's incorporation.

Growing up on the northern plains........2002-05-22

Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Wallace Stegner grew up on the prairie frontiers of North Dakota, Saskatchewan, and Montana, and in the mountains of Utah. As is indicated by the subtitle, this volume combines history, a memoir, and historical fiction. Readers who have spent significant time on the snow swept northern steppes may find a small part of themselves, and of this land, in Wolf Willow. ...
"On those miraculously beautiful and murderously cold nights glittering with the green and blue darts from a sky like polished dark metal, when the moon had gone down, leaving the hollow heavens to the stars and the overflowing cold light of the Aurora, he thought he had moments of the clearest vision ... In every direction ... the snow spread; here and there the implacable plain glinted back a spark - the beam of a cold star reflected in a crystal of ice." (The scene evokes in me a powerful memory, as I recall often standing alone on just such "murderously cold" snow blanketed prairies and gazing into those "miraculously beautiful" night skies.)

Wolf Willow. A History, A Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier

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Wolf Willow. A History, A Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier

Manufacturer: The Viking Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GQYA3G

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Wolf Willow: A History, A Story and A Memory of the Last Plains Frontier

Manufacturer: Ballantine Books Comstock Edition
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: 0345031717

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Wolf Willow: A History, a Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier
Wallace Stegner
Manufacturer: Ballentine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J4EXAK

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Wolf Willow: A History, a Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier
Wallace Stegner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000W8FLQ8

Product Description

Wolf Willow A history, a story, and a memory of the last plains frontier. By Wallace Stegner Pages: 306 Publication: 1962 Compass Book Editions, Madison Ave., NY, NY

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Wolf Willow, A History, A Story, And A Memory of the Last Plains Frontier
Wallace Stegner
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ02HS

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WOLF WILLOW. A History, A Story, And A Memory of the Last Plains Frontier.
Wallace. Stegner
Manufacturer: Viking,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NYMYF2

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Wolf Willow: A History, A Story, And A Memory Of The Last Plains Frontier
Wallace Stegner
Manufacturer: The Viking Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OG9H7C

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An early voice

Crusade for Justice by Ida B. Wells

Redundant read is not important but the life of Wells is

Valuable Book, but a Redundant Read

Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells (Negro American Biographies and Autobiographies)
Ida B. Wells
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
African-American Studies | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0226893448

Book Description

Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was one of the foremost crusaders against black oppression. This engaging memoir tells of her private life as mother of a growing family as well as her public activities as teacher, lecturer, and journalist in her fight against attitudes and laws oppressing blacks.

"No student of black history should overlook Crusade for Justice."—William M. Tuttle, Jr., Journal of American History

"Besides being the story of an incredibly courageous and outspoken black woman in the face of innumerable odds, the book is a valuable contribution to the social history of the United States and to the literature of the women's movement as well."—Elizabeth Kolmer, American Quarterly

"[Wells was] a sophisticated fighter whose prose was as though as her intellect."—Walter Goodman, New York Times

"An illuminating narrative of a zealous, race-conscious, civic- and church-minded black woman reformer, whose life story is a significant chapter in the history of Negro-White relations."—Thelma D. Perry, Negro History Bulletin

Alfreda M. Duster, who died in 1983, was the daughter of Ida B. Wells and Ferdinand L. Barnett, the first black state's attorney in Illinois.

Customer Reviews:

An early voice.......2003-06-01

I read 'Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells' as part of a class in ethical and prophetic witness for seminary. This was, frankly, not the kind of book I was likely to read apart from a class assignment. But I am very glad to have been given the opportunity -- sometimes things we have to do are in fact good for us!

Ida B. Wells was an African-American woman of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. She was born and grew up in the South, born in Mississippi during the Civil War. It is significant the impact of the legacy of slavery on her life -- she recounts how her parents, who were married as slaves, remarried each other as free persons after the war. Wells was a determined and intelligent woman -- her parents died while she was young, yet old enough to be left with the responsibility of her younger brothers and sisters. At the age of 14 she found herself at the head of a household with five younger children.

She worked hard to make sure that her education did not suffer, and eventually (a rarity for women of any colour in America at the time) went to work for a newspaper.

In an incident that foreshadowed Rosa Parks, she was once removed from a train for sitting in the wrong section, despite her ownership of a valid ticket for the seat. She sued the railroad and won (newspaper headlines read 'Darky Damsel Gets Damages' without concern for the racist tone), but the judgment was overturned on appeal, and she later discovered her lawyers had been paid off by the railroads, and the appellate judges had thought she was just being uppity to pursue the matter.

Such was the state of the African-American community that none came to her assistance as she pursued this fight. This made her more determined to organise and fight.

Several of her newspaper partners and other friends in Memphis were lynched for these efforts, and Wells was threatened herself, and left the South, but did not give up her crusade. Where ever she went, through cities and towns in the North as well as over to Europe (where, she said, she felt like she was treated as a real human being equal with others for the first time) she decried the injustice of laws which dismissed charges or gave light sentences if victims were coloured, and prosecuted more strongly, gave out harsher sentences, or even resorted to lynch mobs if the defendant (who was often not guilty) was coloured.

'She fought a lonely and almost single-handed fight, with the single-mindedness of a crusader, long before men or women of any race entered the arena, and the measure of success she achieved goes far beyond the credit she has been given the history of the country.'

She continued speaking and publishing up to her death in 1931. She was never afraid of making herself unpopular, and often upset the African-American community by being critical of their complacency (especially the upper and middle classes). She became unpopular by standing against the military service during World War I, because of prejudicial and discriminatory practices, and never quite recovered in popular esteem from that.

But Wells had courage and determination that is rare in persons, male or female, of any colour, of any time, to take on such a task as the exposition and combat of lynching in the South during the post-Civil War decades. Talking directly with governors and even a president, Wells made her voice heard, and it was a difficult hearing in a difficult time.

Crusade for Justice by Ida B. Wells.......2003-03-08

This book sin't really anything special although it is interesting.The author describes her life all the way from her childhood where most of her family died, and through her success as a teacher and a newspaper editor who fought for freedom of speech in her articles.I recommend this book for those who are interested in the history after 1800s and how life went on at that time.Overall,it is a good book but I found it boring at times.

Redundant read is not important but the life of Wells is.......2002-07-23

Even though some of the material in this book is redundant, this is an opportunity to read primary source material about the actions and reactions of a woman many of us know little about. Learning about Ida B. Wells in the first person puts you into the times in which she lived. There is no way a biography can give you the same experience. This is a book I would recommend to anyone wanting to understand this period of our history and the personalities--their strengths and limits--that dominated the crusades of those times. I like knowing about Wells' frailties as well as her strengths and the insights that she shared. And I like hearing her viewpoints about other leaders of her time. The three star ratings may say something about the readability of the book, but not about what you gain by staying the course.

Valuable Book, but a Redundant Read.......2001-02-24

The historical merit of Ida Wells' story is profound: here we have a history of African Americans written from the perspective of a fellow A.A. at a time when black history was otherwise sadly neglected. This book provides information about the foundation of A.A. activist groups, such as the NAACP from the perspective of an insider. The events of Wells' life coincide with other great A.A. figures, such as Frederick Douglass. She also provides a candid and heartfelt commentary on the injustices suffered by blacks in her time, most notably episodes of lynching. Truly and inspirational story of a very strong and very motivated woman.

In terms of readability, however, the book gets a little redundant and repetitive after the half-way point. The details of Wells' many meetings and interactions are sometimes hard to follow and...well,repetitive.

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Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells
Ida B. Wells
Manufacturer: University of Chicago
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KH8OPQ

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CRUSADE FOR JUSTICE, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF IDA B. WELLS
Ida B.) Duster, Alfreda M, editor (Wells
Manufacturer: University of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MBP9GW

Book Description

Frederick Johnsen delivers this detailed technical look at the strengths and weaknesses of this versatile aircraft through technical manual excerpts, cutaway drawings, and photographs. WarbirdTech 22.

Customer Reviews:

WarbirdTech A-26 Invader.......2007-05-19

Very good nuts and bolts book. Not just a picture book, but a thorough history of the A-26.

Okay, but not great.......2006-02-19

Pretty good entry in the WarbirdTech series. Good overall history of the A-26 but, as is the nature of the A-26, can get a little confusing at times. Tedious in parts, especially when speaking about the civilian upgrades, but that's made up for with the pictures. Some great pictures of WW II/Korea nose art.

Douglas A-26 and B-26 Invader (Crowood Aviation Series)

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Best Book I ever read
Douglas Invader A-26/B-26/JD-1
Douglas Invader A-26/B-26/JD-1
Excellent

Douglas A-26 and B-26 Invader (Crowood Aviation Series)
Scott Thompson
Manufacturer: Motorbooks International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Aviation | Military | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This volume presents the complete story of the Douglas Invader medium bomber, from its design and early history through WWII wartime service and peacetime uses.

Customer Reviews:

Best Book I ever read.......2003-10-15

I found this book to be precisely accurate. A must read for anyone interested in these beautiful airplanes. Thompsons' work amazes me everytime. Check out his other great books, including Final Cut, B-25 Mitchell in Civil Service, and B-17 in Blue. You will not be disappointed.

Douglas Invader A-26/B-26/JD-1.......2002-12-04

wonderfull book, full of information and details. i flew in right seat as plane captain/aircrew in Navy JD-1 '51-53 towing targets for Navy
fighters, F4U Corsairs, F9F panther jets and PB4Y-2 Privateer bombers and Navy ships at sea. Greatest time in my life. I have been collecting Invader books, photos and details for a long time and this book is a welcome addition. Sadly none of the 140 JD-1 Navy invaders survived the scrappers torch. But, i have my books and memories.

Douglas Invader A-26/B-26/JD-1.......2002-12-04

Excellent.......2002-09-01

Having flown and owned an On Mark executive conversion A-26B, I found Scott Thompson's book to be very accurate and informative. A great historical and insightful work about a truly significant aircraft.

Douglas A-26 Invader Bomber Pilot's Flight Manual

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Douglas A-26 Invader Bomber Pilot's Flight Manual
Periscope Film.com
Manufacturer: Lulu.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1411691156

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Thomson Advantage Books: The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics (Thomson Advantage Books)
Thomas R. Dye , and Harmon Zeigler
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Democracy | Political Doctrines | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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Against Empire

The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics

ASIN: 0534601669

Book Description

The elites and not the masses govern our country is the theme of this affordable THOMSON ADVANTAGE BOOKS version ofTHE IRONY OF DEMOCRACY. Known for its "elitist approach" to American Government, this text presents its argument in a new context--the politics of the 21st century--including the Clinton and Bush Administrations effects on government and politics the U.S.

Customer Reviews:

Great work (but poorly copy edited).......2005-11-02

In "The Way: An Ecological World-View," Goldsmith shows us what an ecologically sustainable society, which ours is not, looks like. And he need not make one up, either, because there are plenty of models already in existence in so-called primitive societies. While Goldsmith's vision is optimistic in that it shows us what is *possible*, when one realizes the enormity of the task of transforming our society into one that is ecologically sound, one is liable to become rather despondent. As Goldsmith shows, all societies are package deals, meaning that everything--institutions, governments, customs, values, education, etc.--supports the overall condition of the given society. Thus in our society, mainstream scientists, educational institutions, religion, etc. contribute to our society's current state.

Another great feature of the book is its rich bibliography. It's a great place to look for further reading if you want to go more in depth.

I had two problems with it, though, both related to the copy editing. First, not *all* works are cited. For example, at the bottom of p. 390, Ch. 60, is the sentence "The social psychiatrist Marvin Opler has shown..." One would expect this sentence to be annotated, but no note is given. Where did Opler show this? What is the name of the work? Also, McNeill is mentioned in the text, but no work is given (my guess is McNeill's "Plagues and Peoples," but I don't know).

My second gripe has to do with punctuation. Often, commas are used where they shouldn't be. For example (p. 367): "Erwin Chargaff of Columbia University, writes of the..." There's no reason for a comma after "University" here. Unfortunately, mistakes like this are rife throughout the book. For me they get distracting and annoying, which is why I gave the book only 4 stars.

But overall, this is a great read that needs to be read by everyone in our culture (though I have no doubt it would be poorly received by most politicians, scientists, and average citizens).

A key philosophical treatise for the 21st Century.......2004-02-12

In `The Way: an ecological world view', one of the most informed and intellectually formidable minds of the environmental movement turns conventional thought on its head and demonstrates point by point how most of the fundamental mores and principles taken for granted by our modern society are fundamentally flawed and, as such, are leading us in the opposite direction of the healthy and happy life they promise. In contrast to this Edward Goldsmith argues for a revival of a way common to many societies prior to the industrial revolution and the influence of its reductionist world view.

The way of these traditional societies could not be more at variance with the way of the modern, and yet could not be more in tune with our biological, social and psychological needs. Goldsmith contrasts this vernacular way with the world view of the current technocratic, industrial mission.

The thesis that Goldsmith weaves together claims that by rejecting and pulling itself away from the path of the biosphere our modern industrial way of life has effectively become diseased in almost every aspect of its operation, and as a result cannot possibly sustain its own vital, living processes. The result of this straying from the Way is breakdown, disorder and chaos worsening from one crisis to another until final, inevitable collapse. This is so as the processes of industrial society are consistently at odds with the primary processes of the real world that have sustained complex life on the planet for several hundred million years without aid.

The Way explains how this works, and how the same principles are in operation at every level of organisation whether it be in the life of the cell, the individual, the family, the local community, society at large or the biosphere as a whole. It explains why the current dominant world view attempts to foist upon people the pathological belief that natural, living processes are redundant and must be surrogated by the great artificial enterprise of the fake, imitated and engineered. It rapidly becomes clear how this is threatening our own survival and the biosphere itself within what is a mere blink of an eye of evolutionary time.

Although modern in its technical elucidation and method, The Way's carefully reasoned message is a call for a revival of most of what is rejected by our modern way of life. The Way is a call to instinct, intuition and aesthetics as much as to knowledge gathered by careful study and analysis. It is a call for the mythopoetic as much as for reason and sensory experience. Religion, art and myth figure prominently as means of interweaving our lives with the natural way. Emotion, faith, aliveness and natural creativity are all called upon as vital for the survival of the ancient, intelligent living processes that maintain our planet, our societies and our very selves. It calls upon the basic common sense that if one realises one has made a serious mistake by turning the wrong way then it's not too late to turn back and recover the well trodden way once again. There is really no shame in rethinking the most fundamental assumptions of one's life, since now it has become a matter of general urgency.

Yet such ways by their very nature cannot be imposed simplistically from on-high without ruining them. By and large these complex living processes require nurturing cooperatively from below, and this may prove to be the most uncomfortable challenge of all to our massively over-powered and rigidly controlled institutional structures.

`The Way: an ecological world view' may yet become one of the key works that transformed our way of thinking and practice in the 21st century. Read on...

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