Book Description
When she was seven, Rachel Manija Browns parents, post-60s hippies, uprooted her from her native California and moved to an ashram in a cobra-ridden, drought-stricken spot in India. Cavorting through these pages are some wonderfully eccentric characters: the ashram head, Meher Baba, best known as the guru to Pete Townshend of The Who; the librarian, who grunts and howls nightly outside Rachels window; a holy madman, who shuffles about collecting invisible objects; a middle-aged male virgin, who begs Rachel to critique his epic spiritual poems; and a delusional Russian who arrives at the ashram proclaiming he is Meher Baba reincarnated. Astutely observed and laugh-out-loud funny, this astonishing debut memoirnow available in paperbacksignals the arrival of a major new literary talent. The hardcover edition was named a Book Sense Pick and was selected as aBook of the Week by BN.coms Book Club.
Customer Reviews:
Yes, we know you're intelligent. .......2007-07-08
I hate to disagree with my Fellow Readers, but I found this to be an insufferable diatribe about how intelligent the author is. Yes, we know she was an early reader. Yes, we know she had a terrific vocabulary by the age of 7. I was so tired of hearing how bright this child was that I found it hard to finish the book. As an American Educator, I found her mother's quote insulting as well; "American schools don't know how to deal with kids as bright as you are." Give me a break; we are trained to enrich as we are trained to remediate~her experience shouldn't be fodder for such an unfair generalization. Maybe she should have elected to edit her mother's comment or leave it out altogether. At any rate, I have better things to do with my summer vacation than finish this essay. I did enjoy some of the snippets into Indian and ashram life so if you can get by this author's attempt to hit you over the head with her brilliance, it may be worth your while.
A Very Bitter Person.......2007-03-29
I heard about this book from a friend and read it out of curiosity. Brown really has a way with words and a gift for evocative description. However, from the very first, I was struck by her deep-seated resentment and bitterness, and the impression that as a child she wasn't much fun to be around. Although Brown tries to be funny, I find it hard to forget that she is vilifying real flesh-and-blood human beings, not her own imaginary characters. True, she changes their names, but I doubt this makes them hard to recognize by the people who know (or knew) them.
This is not a story, but a series of episodes that are linked together by Brown's need to condemn her parents for taking her to India to live in an ashram with a collection of oddball spiritual seekers. When it comes to plot in the Aristotelian sense, there is no "there" there.
In this work, Brown is critical and derisive towards everyone, while portraying herself as a special, heroic, and misunderstood victim. Reading between the lines, she needs to rationalize her own bratty and hostile behavior towards everyone around her except, I think, one kid named Walter. I can understand a child being self-centered, and utterly devoid of compassion or tolerance, but it's hard to understand these traits in an adult looking back on her life.
Given what's happening in today's world, I was especially disappointed by Brown's gross insensitivity to the principles of religious tolerance. I'm not a religious person myself, but I respect the beliefs of others, and especially their Constitutional right to religious freedom in America. There may be abusive nuns and priests, but that doesn't give anyone the right to abuse a religion that encompasses millions of sincere Catholics. It's just plain wrong to make fun of people -- even those who follow the teachings of an obscure Indian guru -- based on their religious or spiritual convictions.
In addition, I was quite disturbed by Brown's veiled implication that one of Meher Baba's disciples touched her with sexual intentions. If the disciple touched Mani inappropriately, then this is a very serious charge that should be addressed by her parents and the entire Meher Baba community. If he didn't touch her inappropriately, then it's very wrong of Brown to make this implication. Brown is honest to the point of cruelty throughout the book, so why the sudden coy ambiguity surrounding such a serious issue?
This book was not a page-turner for me, but I kept hoping for the kind of insight that often arrives to people who make an inquiry into their own lives and behavior through the medium of writing. I'm very sorry for the suffering that Brown went through as a child and hope that writing and publishing this book was a way for her to find personal healing. It's just too bad she had to hurt so many other people in the process. In some cases this was revenge, but in other cases she was exposing innocent people who never meant her any harm to contempt and ridicule.
Funny, Informative and Honest.......2007-02-16
The memoirs that I have most enjoyed are well-written, containing elements of fiction such as a strong "plot," which even leads to a crisis point, making it read like fiction. When I find books such as those, they trump even a good novel in my book. All the Fishes Come Home to Roost is exactly that kind of read. Rachel Munija Brown is an American misfit in India, as the subtitle proclaims. She writes about her less-than-ideal childhood, most of which was spent in an ashram (religious commune) in India. What I admire most is that the story is told for the most part without blame. She knows that it influenced who she was as a child and who she became as an adult, but she does not harbor bitterness or resentment. She tells her story in a straightforward manner, including the ups and the downs with a liberal dose of humor to lighten what would otherwise be seen as quite an unfortunate situation. It's not meant to be a tell-all, or a self-help book, or an attempt to prove what the author has overcome.
One way in which I could identify with Brown was in her love of books. She grew up reading, and throughout her memoir, she is reading, and she mentions the titles of the books, and sometime the plot if it helps to further her own plot. I couldn't help but smile when she mentioned books that I have read, like Cherry Ames, Student Nurse.
Interesting memoir.......2007-01-22
I am always reading biographies, memoirs and all kinds of true stories. This book is the true story of Rachel Manija Brown's life growing up as an Indian in a hippie and fanatical enviroment. She keeps you intrigued and interested in her entertaining way of telling the story.
A fascinating memoir emerges which is hard to put down........2006-12-12
The author's childhood in All the Fishes Come Home to Roost: An American Misfit in India was distinctive indeed: not only did she come of age in India, but she was the youngest resident of an Indian ashram populated by hippies and fanatics. Her memories of her childhood there are permeated not only by cultural observation of India and hippies alike, but by humorous notes on a child's-eye view of a culture we rarely get to see: hippies overseas. A fascinating memoir emerges which is hard to put down.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
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- Quilts of Virginia - 1607-1899
- Quilts of Virginia, 1607 - 1899
- Quilts of Virginia
- Quilts of Virginia, 1607-1899
- Wonderful history of quilts in Virginia
|
Quilts of Virginia, 1607-1899: The Birth of America Through the Eye of a Needle
Virginia Consortium of Quilters ,
Paula C. Golden ,
Bunnie Jordan ,
Hazel Carter ,
Joan McGowan , and
Maren Lindberg
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
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Georgia Quilts: Piecing Together a History (Wormsloe Foundation Publication)
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Quilts in a Material World: Selections from the Winterthur Collection
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Quilts in Red and Green and the Women Who Made Them
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Facts and Fabrications: Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery: 8 Projects, 20 Blocks, First-Person Accounts
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Quilting News of Yesteryear: 1,000 Pieces and Counting
ASIN: 0764324659 |
Book Description
Quilts of Virginia, 1607-1899: The Birth of America Through the Eye of a Needle (Paperback - July 30, 2006)
by Virginia Consortium of Quilters, Barbara Tricarico (Editor/Photographer), Maren Lindberg (Chair) Paula C. Golden, Bunnie Jordan, Hazel Carter, Joan McGowan
Customer Reviews:
Quilts of Virginia - 1607-1899.......2007-10-09
Quilts of Virginia, 1607-1899: The Birth of America Through the Eye of a Needle
Congratulations to the creators of this book, the Virginia Consortium of Quilters. This is beautifully illustrated and very well written. I very much enjoy reading the history of quilting and learning about the States of America, this book is one of the best that I have read. Virginia is such a rich source of inspiration and the material that these authors have found is just wonderful. Sometimes history books can be a bit dry and technical, this is one that should find a home in every quilters collection.Well done and I look forward to any further works that may be currently a "work in progress".
Quilts of Virginia, 1607 - 1899.......2007-09-07
I have almost every State Documentation book published, and this is one of the best. There are wonderful stories that go with every quilt. The pictures are in gorgeous color. Loved every page.
Quilts of Virginia.......2007-08-27
Fantastic Book. Can't stop looking at it. Fabulous addition to my
quilt library!!!!
Quilts of Virginia, 1607-1899.......2007-03-15
This book was a joy! It contained many beautiful quilts of the time frame. I loved the quilts, of course, but I really appreciated all the historiacal information that was included as well. Virginia is rich is early American history. Tie that in with quilts and I am hooked! I came back and bought another copy for a gift. Every quilter in Virginia should own this book!
Wonderful history of quilts in Virginia.......2007-01-25
This is a beautiful book, very well researched, that presents the quilts of Virginia along with the history surrounding the quiltmakers. Virginia was the home of so many early political and prominent figures in American History. In these pages you will find many familiar figures from Martha Washington to Willa Cather, but not only the famous and their quilts are highlighted. Reading the stories behind these quilts, one experiences a true connection to the times in which the quiltmakers lived. The book documents over 270 quilts made before 1900, all of which are beautifully photographed. The information is presented regionally and includes a partial listing of museums and facilities where the quilts can be seen in person. Of all the books of this kind which document the quilts of our ancestors, this is by far the best I have seen. This is a book to treasure.
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The Golden Carpet
Somerset Declair
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 0553295802
Release Date: 1991-12-01 |
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Disney's Aladdin Magic Carpet Ride (Little Golden Book)
Teddy Slater Margulies
Manufacturer: Golden Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0307301443 |
Customer Reviews:
MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW.......2003-06-04
Do you love magic carpets, genie's and magical lamps? Do you love stories about
beautiful Princesses and handsome Princes? If you do this little tale is for you.
A poor boy named Aladdin asks for a wish from his genie, that wish is to be a Prince so he can win the heart of the beautiful Princess Jasmine. The wise genie
does not want to grant this wish, for he knows that it is better for someone to love you for who you truly are, than to love you for something you are not. But Aladdin does not listen. What do you think happens?
The story has a good moral lesson, some magic for the children and bright, colorful illustrations. All in all a very nice read.
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Disney's Aladdin, the magic carpet ride (Little golden books)
Teddy Slater Margulies
Manufacturer: Western Pub. Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0006S1LHM |
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Disney's Classic Stories: 8 Little Golden Books : The Lion King, Aladdin the Magic Carpet Ride, Pocahontas, Bambi, the Little Mermaid, Pinocchio, Pooh Eeyore, Be Happy, the hun
Manufacturer: Golden books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0307155536 |
Customer Reviews:
Disney Favorites.......2001-06-11
If your children like books and Disney, they will love this collection! We received this as a gift. These are workmanlike adaptations of, or excerpts from the movie of the title: just the right length. My kids enjoyed ( and still enjoy) them, whether or not they actually saw the animated film.
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Twinks Magic Carpet Ride/Rainb
Golden Books
Manufacturer: Golden Books
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0307160068
Release Date: 1985-07-15 |
Book Description
This extraordinary retelling of American political history shows that—despite the clear separation of church and state—religion lies at the heart of American politics.
“This is American history the way I like it, prodigiously researched and vivaciously told. Mr. Morone has a knack for peeling off veneers, for locating the surprising fact, for adopting the unexpected and illuminating slant. He is a rarity, a scholar who is never boring.”—Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of a New Machine
“Hellfire Nation [places] much of our public life in its proper soul-searching context—and its careful anatomy of the hand-in-glove relations between the American state and the American faithful is both welcome and illuminating.”—Chris Lehmann, Washington Post Book World
Customer Reviews:
worthwhile.......2006-09-25
i really love this book. it's got a great set of foundational lines of inquiry, a slick usage of data, and a broad enough focus to consider the politics of gender, race, nationality, class, and so on with coherence.
the only significant problem is that part one ends at 1776 and part two begins at 1800; this skips over both the revolutionary war and the constitutional convention. it might be argued that this period merits a book of its own (perhaps several dozen have already been written), but i would've liked morone's investigatory reasoning to extend over it. that caveat aside, an extremely important contribution.
A very readable book!.......2006-06-26
I am a 50 year old German, who lived in the Southern United States from 1980 to 1990. Is has always intrigued me, why religion plays such a prominent role is the USA, while it plays essentially no role at all in Germany (and in most of Western Europe ). This book explains why this is so.
On the way, one learns a few interesting facts, e.g. that it was King George, who had to tell the settlers to leave the Quakers alone (before, the Puritans took great pride in persecuting and killing them..so much for the quest of freedom of religion...)
The author never leaves any doubt, as to which side he is on, and this renders the book even more believable.
I highly recommend it!
Stunning........2004-06-09
If, like me, you are a bit of a history buff who regrets having paid scant attention in those American history courses, this is an essential book.
Professor Marone reconsiders our national history, in its more wrenching periods, as the struggle for a shifting moral high ground. The result is literally stunning, uprooting, and wise.
History buffs support an entire industry that is spinning out "how-then, what-now" books about the founders, the civil war and the current hit parade of latter day pols. Professor Marone delivers something very different: a brilliant archeology of the winner-take-all contest for righteousness that has so thoroughly characterized our national life, from John Winthrop to yesterday afternoon.
And he can write: in places a little breezily, in others quite densely, but always clearly and engagingly.
Professor Morone's personal political stance is clear enough, and yes, it's left of Fox News. I can only hope that people who don't share his views on the present will take time to relish this masterful, sweeping interpretation of our past.
Good history, but only average politics.......2004-06-08
Morone's study is a fascinating attempt to reinterpret American history through the lens of religion and morality. However, this laudable effort is damaged by his insistence upon maintaining the traditional academic liberal lenses of "race, class, gender" in every historical era, as if there were no other ways to understand what happened. He also does not take religion seriously enough to understand why it causes people to act as they do -- I walked away feeling like he was openly contemptuous of religion, despite his apparent interest in it.
Society's moral revolution and "the other".......2003-05-25
By far the most interesting book I've read in a *long* time, Morone's _Hellfire Nation_ examines the 200+ years of America's history, but takes a wholly different approach from the norm; instead of seeing the early Puritan settlements as an anomaly that would gradually fade as history progressed, he cites the Puritanistic "us versus them" outlook of morality as being an integral part of most of American history.
And yes, this is a very refreshing and fascinating way in which to view history. Morone's basic thesis is that a) "popular" American morality is frequently cited as the only thing that can protect "us" from "them," whether "they" are blacks, the Irish, Jews, et cetera, and b) that this emphasis on those frightening Un-Americans is what fuels "moral fanaticism," like prohibition, Comstockery, the VD/social hygiene movement, c) and from this, laws are put into place which persist long after their spawning social movements have died down, leaving them in the hand of fanatics. The thesis doesn't just hold up; it *thrives*, adequately explaining many facets of much of American moral history, and while Morone's constant repetition of the final point stated above (that fanaticism eventually dies down, leading a select few to continue its legacy to the detriment of a no-longer-incensed society) becomes a bit wearisome, it really does show how *well* so many social events fit into this pattern.
Verdict? Yes, Morone's clearly "biased," if one must use that term, to a classical liberal side of things (i.e. don't expect any sympathy for Jim Crow here), yet he is certainly open-minded, wondering for example how prohibition would have turned out if its emphasis had been on the positive nature of sobriety instead of punishing and routing bootleggers (he has similar semi-misgivings about the social hygiene movement's relentless pursuit of prostitutes). But that doesn't dimish Hellfire Nation's power. If you have a passing interest in the intersection of morality and society, you must give this one a shot!
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Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History.(Book Review): An article from: Journal of Church and State
T. Jeremy Gunn , and
Blandine Chelini Pont
Manufacturer: J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State
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Binding: Digital
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ASIN: B00081ZIWG
Release Date: 2005-07-31 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of Church and State, published by J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State on September 22, 2003. The length of the article is 1042 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: Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History.(Book Review)
Author: T. Jeremy Gunn
Publication:
Journal of Church and State (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2003
Publisher: J.M. Dawson Studies in Church and State
Volume: 45
Issue: 4
Page: 821(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Historian, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2005. The length of the article is 795 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: Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History.(Book Review)
Author: David Edwin, Jr. Harrell
Publication:
The Historian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 67
Issue: 1
Page: 126(2)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Historian, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2006. The length of the article is 563 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: Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History.(Book review)
Author: J. David Hoeveler
Publication:
The Historian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 68
Issue: 1
Page: 155(2)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
While the state of California remains one of the most striking and varied landscapes in the world, it has experienced monumental changes since European settlers first set foot there. The past two centuries have witnessed an ongoing struggle between environment and economy, nature and humanity that has left an indelible mark on the region.
Green Versus Gold provides a compelling look at California's environmental history from its Native American past to conflicts and movements of recent decades. Acclaimed environmental historian Carolyn Merchant has brought together a vast storehouse of primary sources and interpretive essays to create a comprehensive picture of the history of ecological and human interactions in one of the nation's most diverse and resource-rich states.
For each chapter, Merchant has selected original documents that give readers an eyewitness account of specific environments and periods, along with essays from leading historians, geographers, scientists, and other experts that provide context and analysis for the documents. In addition, she presents a list of further readings of both primary and secondary sources. Among other topics, chapters examine.
California's natural environment and Native American lands
the Spanish and Russian frontiers
environmental impacts of the gold rush
the transformation of forests and rangelands
agriculture and irrigation
cities and urban issues
the rise of environmental science and contemporary environmental movement.
Merchant's informed and well-chosen selections present a unique view of decades of environmental change and controversy. Historians, educators, environmentalists, writers, students, scientists, policy makers, and others will find the book an enlightening and important contribution to the debate over our nation's environmental history.
Customer Reviews:
Some among them are killers park referrence for Yosemite.......2007-01-10
Interesting definition of the park Some among them are killers park. I am a descendent of the original Indians of Yosemite and there is a problem with that meaning. The defintion "Some of them are killers" for Yosemite was fabricated in 1978 and is not the original meaning of Yosemite. The real meaning was "The Killers" or "The Grizzlies" because the Miwoks were afraid of the Ahwahnees. It was Chief Bautista and Russio, who were helping the Mariposa Battalion, who coined that term "Yosemite" for the Indians in Yosemite Valley which they were afraid to enter. It is because the Miwoks were once enemies of Chief Tenaya and the Ahwahnees. 30 years Yosemite National Park Service hired a person named Craig Bates who was married to a Miwok woman and had a 1/2 Miwok son who created that new defintion. So it is increble that ONE person changed the meaning and defintion of one of the most important and well known parks in the whold world...and no one noticed. The Miwoks were actually the scouts and guides for James Savage and the Mariposa Battalion, but you would not know it because the information was controlled by the "Indian expert" at Yosemite, which causes wrong information to be written...like the actual defintion of Yosemite.
An excellent survey of the environmental history of California.......1998-12-01
Versus Gold presents a broad, sweeping record of the environmental history of the California region over the past 250 years. Its vast scope and rich material make it an excellent book for anyone interested in the evolution of the human-environment interaction in California, from the pre-European communities, who flourished successfully in the region for millennia, to today's nature-isolated society. The painstakingly gathered primary source material and bibliography and the relevance of the essays make it an invaluable resource for any formal study in the environmental history of California or the U.S. (People familiar with the editor's related book, _Major Problems in American Environmental History_ (Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1993), may be interested to know that only seven of the 105 entries in this book are taken from that one.) The editor uses the cumulative effect of a selection of primary texts and related essays to describe and analyze the history of the human-environment relationship in California. The primary sources are extremely diverse and include origin stories and compelling firsthand accounts of Native American groups and excerpts of various documents such as old diaries, legal notices, historic academic writings, novels, contemporary journal articles, maps, antique photographs, etc. The essays represent a wide range of writings by historians, environmentalists, ethnographers, ecologists, activists, philosophers, etc.--from Mark Twain, Mary Austin and John Steinbeck to Judi Bari and Gary Snyder. The essays generally do not directly refer to the primary sources, but rather discuss the general topics of the chapters and provide context and analysis on the subject of the sources. A few of the topics covered are "Native Californian Cultivators", "Dredging for Gold", "Sea Otters Encounter Russians", "Aboriginal Fishers", "Hydraulic Society Triumphant", "Chaos and California", "The Battle for Bodega Bay", and Deep Ecology. One negative effect of all of this variety of material is that it sometimes diffuses the book's focus. Indeed, a cover-to-cover reading can be challenging because of the kaleidoscopic effect of its topics. On the other hand, this does not detract from its usefulness as an occasional reader, a complement to other books in a course, or as a resource for additional research in the field, as its subtitle suggests. Also, considering its variety, the coherence afforded by its organization is remarkable. The documents and essays together cover topics spanning the days of prehistory in the California region to the present day. Descriptions of pre-European inhabitants of the region are followed by discussion of European settlement and use of the area and interaction with the land, with attention paid to the relationship between immigration and the natural wealth of the region--particularly gold, the concept of which drew a frenzied influx 150 years ago. The book follows the early transformation of the idea of nature into commodity and the exploitation and large-scale transformation of ecosystems by the European settlers; some contemporary philosophical thought on that exploitation and its dramatic results is also included. Throughout, the work illustrates human perceptions of and reactions to environmental destruction, such as that wrought by hydraulic mining, the flooding of large valleys and the transformation of grasslands by over-grazing, including the preservation efforts of the twentieth century by such people as John Muir, Huey Johnson, etc.; various preservation rationale are discussed. Particularly interesting is the surprising amount of concern by Europeans in previous era for the human impact on the environment, such as the despair expressed by a mid-nineteenth-century author about the already-extreme non-local ownership of California land; this lends new perspective to our current environmental concerns. The theme of the human response to environmental destruction intensifies in later chapters (reflecting actual chronology), culminating in chapters on the evolution of environmental science, environmental movements and the editor's own vision for a rejoined green (nature) and gold (economy) in California. The sources presented in _Green Versus Gold_ are extensive and impressively varied (this is typical of Merchant's work, such as the foundational _The Death of Nature_); it would be hard to imagine a more diverse and comprehensive collection of material about the environmental history of California in a single volume. The breadth of the material gives the reader unique insight into the state of environment and the human-environment relationship across a variety of landscapes and social structures, from the intense management of ecosystems by Indian groups in pre-European times to the high degree of alienation from the land in modern Los Angeles. Through these selections, the central theme of the book--the developing tension between the green of nature and the gold representing the human use of nature in California--is brought to light. The discussion of human efforts for nature and the editor's ideas about a partnership ethic in the closing chapters provide relief from the overwhelming evidence of the human domination and destruction of nature.Kenneth WorthyNovember, 1998
An excellent collection on the history of the California environment.......1998-11-13
Carolyn Merchant, ed. _Green Versus Gold: Sources in California's Environmental History_. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1998. Green Versus Gold presents a broad, sweeping record of the environmental history of the California region over the past 250 years. Its vast scope and rich material make it an excellent book for anyone interested in the evolution of the human-environment interaction in California, from the pre-European communities, who flourished successfully in the region for millennia, to today's nature-isolated society. The painstakingly gathered primary source material and bibliography and the relevance of the essays make it an invaluable resource for any formal study in the environmental history of California or the U.S. The editor uses the cumulative effect of a selection of primary texts and related essays to describe and analyze the history of the human-environment relationship in California. The primary sources are extremely diverse and include origin stories and compelling firsthand accounts of Native American groups and excerpts of various documents such as old diaries, legal notices, historic academic writings, novels, contemporary journal articles, maps, antique photographs, etc. The essays represent a wide range of writings by historians, environmentalists, ethnographers, ecologists, activists, philosophers, etc.--from Mark Twain, Mary Austin and John Steinbeck to Judi Bari and Gary Snyder. The essays generally do not directly refer to the primary sources, but rather discuss the general topics of the chapters and provide context and analysis on the subject of the sources. A few of the topics covered are "Native Californian Cultivators", "Dredging for Gold", "Sea Otters Encounter Russians", "Aboriginal Fishers", "Hydraulic Society Triumphant", "Chaos and California", "The Battle for Bodega Bay" Deep Ecology. The documents and essays together cover topics and issues spanning the days of prehistory in the California region to the present day. Descriptions of pre-European inhabitants of the region are followed by discussion of European settlement and use of the area and interaction with the land, with attention paid to the relationship between immigration and the natural wealth of the region--particularly gold, the idea of which drew a frenzied influx 150 years ago. The book follows the early transformation of the idea of nature into commodity and the exploitation and large-scale transformation of ecosystems by the European settlers; some contemporary philosophical thought on that exploitation and its dramatic results is also included. Throughout, the book illustrates human perceptions of and reactions to environmental destruction, such as that wrought by hydraulic mining, the flooding of large valleys and the transformation of grasslands by over-grazing, including the preservation efforts of the twentieth century by such people as John Muir, Huey Johnson, etc.; various preservation rationale are discussed. Particularly interesting is the surprising amount of concern by Europeans in previous era for the human impact on the environment, such as the despair expressed by a mid-nineteenth-century author about the already-extreme non-local ownership of California land; this lends new perspective to our current environmental concerns. The theme of the human response to environmental destruction intensifies in later chapters (reflecting actual chronology), culminating in chapters on the evolution of environmental science, environmental movements and the editor's own vision for a rejoined green (nature) and gold (economy) in California. The sources presented in _Green Versus Gold_ are extensive and impressively varied (this is typical of Merchant's work, such as the foundational _The Death of Nature_); it would be hard to imagine a more diverse and comprehensive collection of material about the environmental history of California in a single volume. The breadth of the material gives the reader unique insight into the state of environment and the human-environment relationship across a variety of landscapes and social structures, from the intense management of ecosystems by Indian groups in pre-European times to the high degree of alienation from the land in modern Los Angeles. Through these selections, the developing tension between the green of nature and the gold representing the human use of nature is brought to light. The discussion of human efforts for nature and the editor's ideas about a partnership ethic in the closing chapters provide relief from the overwhelming evidence of the human domination and destruction of nature.Kenneth WorthyOctober, 1998
Books:
- Andrew Wyeth: A Secret Life
- Angelina Jolie: Angel in Disguise (Star Biographies)
- Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary - A Photographic Remembrance
- Awakening the Virgin
- Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts
- Beauty & Submission
- Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography, Poor Richard: Autobiography, Poor Richard, and Later Writings (Library of America)
- Calculated Risk: The Extraordinary Life of Jimmy Doolittle-Aviation Pioneer and World War II Hero
- Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Biography
- Companero: The Life and Death of Che Guevara
Books Index
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