Baghdad without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia

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Horwitz has the touch, the ability to astutely capture the ludicrous essence of an experience while filling in all the pertinent socio-historic details. He chews qat with the Yemenis, plays soccer with the Sudanese Dinka refugees and listens to an endless refrain of "You are the perfume of Iraq, oh Saddam" in Baghdad. Horwitz' eye and wit are equally sharp, and his book is an exceptionally good read.

Customer Reviews:

When it comes down to it, we're all the same.......2007-10-09

Bagdad Without a Map is the account of a journalist working in the Middle East for some odd number of years in the 1990's. In this book he published the notes that are not really suitable for any journalistic account, but as such it probably adds more insights in the area then any format account would be. It seems Horwitz is able to get more out of your average interviewee for most seem to be sharing more then they normally would, even in countries in which Horwitz's home land and religion aren't on the list of biggest mates. Horwitz created an excellent balance between proper journalism (as in gathering facts) and a more personal account of the matter without a preoccupied opinion. Plus it comes with a pleasant writing style. While reading these it seems the people in the middle east are pretty much occupied by the same troubles and ambitions as westerners do, it's just that they are being governed by quite a different system.

You'll embarrass yourself reading this........2007-07-04

This may be the best travelouge I've ever read. Horwitz has an uncanny ability with words, to paint the scene and make the reader feel like they are there with him. I felt myself transported back to the countries I have visited, and can affirm that they were accurately represented. Horwitz is complimentary to the myriad cultures of the Middle East while being honest about the difficulties of the countries. And his adventures would be completely inplausible, if they had been in a novel. The book is laugh-out-loud funny. I mean that. I found myself on the bus unable to stop chorteling, or explain myself to the passengers around me. Looking for a good time? Read this book.

Read It And Find Out What The Arab Phrase "Cus ummak!" Means.......2007-06-24

In the able hands of Pulitzer prize winner Tony Horwitz, Baghdad Without A Map is the sort of book that never lets a reader get complacent. Mr. Horwitz' prose simultaneously fascinates and dazzles with its up-close descriptions of the array of delights and wonders ever-present in the Arab nations, and stuns with its frank revelations of such Third World horrors as a Sudanese leper colony, the Iranian front in the aftermath of a "successful" Iraqi offensive, and the brutality of tribal armies in Yemen. It is brave, it is deep, and it is sometimes almost too overwhelmingly honest.

I read this travelogue in 2007, long enough after Horwitz (author of the excellent Confederates In The Attic) undertook the journalistic voyages written about in this book for its subject matter to acquire the haze of nostalgia as well as retaining the shock value inherent in its tales of exotic foreign places. As Horwitz, a brave man indeed, doubly so since he is both an American and Jewish, makes the rounds of the Middle East and extended Islamic world from Iran to Libya, Sudan to Baghdad---"the land without weather"---a reader is simultaneously struck by the changes that have come to nations such as Iraq (during Horwitz's time a state locked in a xenophobic, Orwellian stranglehold, courtesy of the late Saddam Hussein) and appalled at the living conditions in which many Africans and west Asians dwell and take for granted.

In Baghdad Without A Map, we also meet a cast of characters few authors could possibly begin to invent, among them an Iraqi dissident who hides a pro-Saddam Hussein rug near his door, so it may be unfurled in case company comes; the patrons of a Cairo nightclub in which the much-prized bellydancers have the build of East German wrestlers; a daring fishing crew, playing their trade in the Persian Gulf amid primed Iranian mines; and an Iranian mourner at Ayatollah Khomeini's funeral, a one-time student at UCLA, who shouts anti-American slogans, even as he confides to Horwitz that he'd greatly love to take a trip to Disneyland. Horwitz also has much praise for the polished courtesy of the average Arab, and having lived among Arabs for many months, writes of the culture shock he experiences when he, though ethnically a Jew, enters Israel, which he describes as the rudest nation in the region.

Baghdad Without A Map is not a book to warm to but it is a respectable read that sheds light on places most of us will gladly never get to visit. It is a well-written exploration of the cultures and geography of distant lands, and it is at times a funny book as well. After its three-hundred pages are done, the reader, like the author, will be more than ready to leave the Middle East behind, but I doubt anyone will regret the time spent trailing Horwitz on his visits far and wide.

A fine book covering an important topic for our time.

****1/2 stars.

Accent on the misadventures and the irony..........2007-06-15

This book was written in 1991, just as Desert Storm was beginning; it gives only two chapters and an epilogue to Iraq itself. However, those chapters vividly remind us just how dreadful Iraq was under Saddam. And if you're thinking of going to Yemen, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Libya, Sudan, Lebanon, or Iran, this book will give you a taste of each country, with the accent on its irrational side, guaranteed to destroy your romantic notions. Con artists, urban decay, disintegrating vehicles, and an amazing variety of characters are common to all.

The best chapters to me were those on Sudan - Horwitz joins a engineer's wife who goes three times a week to a leper colony near Khartoum to dress wounds. Horwitz writes: "After visiting the Iran-Iraq front, I'd thought nothing could faze me. But a corpse, however disfigured, is past its pain...It is quite another matter to confront humans whose flesh is still being ravaged almost as you watch." Overcome, he rushes for the outside air and steps in a pool of sewage. "Two male lepers, squatting against the wall, broke out laughing, clapping their stumps together. The American is standing in shit! Their mirth was contagious and I stood there for a moment, knee-deep in gunk, gulping the foul air and chuckling along with them. It was the least I could do, lighten a leper's day."

In Southern Sudan, Horwitz visits the Dinka people whose rebellion is being snuffed out by the Sudanese government and Arab mercenaries. The Dinka society revolves around cattle: "the Dinka worshiped their cows, sang to the animals, even recited love poetry to them." He follows the sound of clapping and singing and discovers several hundred emaciated and starving women dancing, mimicking cattle, remembering their former lives, "uninhibited and ecstatic."

Several days later, a congressional "fact-finding" committee lands, with Gary Ackerman on board (a Democratic congressman who is "real involved in this hunger thing.") He hustles over to talk to Horwitz: "`Did you meet any slaves? Do they appreciate the American aid? Tell me about shopping in Khartoum. Is it junk?' Before I could answer, he cut in - `sorry, got to run' - and rushed off with the others for yet another photo-op."

As other reviewers have mentioned, much of the book IS funny, but surrealistic irony is the prevailing tone, and to me this tended to overwhelm the individual portraits of each country. One can't help but like Horwitz - he is a caring man as well as a journalist with an eye to the snappy story - and I wondered if his interest in the Middle East had been an enduring one. However, his subsequent books are on other subjects. He gives thumbnail histories of each country, but the anecdotes are the memorable part of the book. If you want to learn more, you'll have to look to another writer, but this book will make you want to know more.

Misadventures in Arabia..........2007-04-30

Pulitzer Prize-winner Tony Horwitz is one of my favorite nonfiction writers, so Im not sure what took me so long to read Baghdad Without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia. My mistaken impression was that Baghdad Without a Map was about the Persian Gulf War. Actually, it's a delightful travelog of his journeys through the Middle East. Many of the stories are amusing, others are sad and some are downright disturbing. But always, Horwitz is interesting and entertaining.

Horwitz's wife, Geraldine Brooks, became a foreign correspondent stationed in Cairo, and Horwitz (an unemployed writer) decided to join her and write freelance stories as he traveled through 15 countries and emirates throughout the Middle East. The author likes to look for the offbeat, and he went to camel races in the UAE, ate qat in Yemen, watched belly dancers in Cairo who weren't allowed to show their bellies, and tried to get around Baghdad without a map (Hussein's paranoia kept maps and weather reports from being published). He also touched on more serious topics as he dodged mines in the Persian Gulf, traveled to the Ayatollah's funeral in Iran, navigated the Jordan River between Israel and Jordan, priced weapons in Yemen and witnessed horrible conditions in the Sudan. But what Horwitz does best is talk to people, and he found a surprising number of Arabs who were willing to share their stories (not necessarily an easy job for a Jewish writer). This is how Horwitz was able to discover the true complexities of the Middle East. For instance,when in Tehran, he found "that there were two completely separate cities, one poor and devout, the other bourgeois and disenchanted. North Tehranis were frozen in time, like White Russians or French monarchists, left on the sidelines by the revolution."

Baghdad Without a Map is just about the perfect book, but one thing would have made it even better--and that is the inclusion of photographs. In fact, this is a criticism I have of almost all of Horwitz's books. But other than that, Baghdad Without a Map is an excellent book and will give the reader a better understanding of the many issues still plaguing the Middle East. The edition I purchased even had a new epilogue written after the Persian Gulf War. And after reading this work, I can understand why Horwitz's wife told him "Once the Middle East's in your blood, you've got it for life. Like Malaria."

Baghdad Without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia

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Baghdad Without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia
Horwitz Tony
Manufacturer: A Dutton Book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LCPIAY

Book Description

The battle for Ap Bia Mountain (Hill 937), was one of the fiercest of the entire Vietnam War.

Customer Reviews:

Honeycutt: Don't Blame the 506th.......2006-02-21

Absolutely an outstanding and accurate account of the fight for Hamburger Hill. Yes, the 187th bore the brunt of the battle but I would have liked to have seen a more in depth account of what confronted the 506th as they ascended Hill 937. I was there with Bravo Company, 1/506th. After reading the book I was left with the feeling that the entire 506th was eluded to as not doing everything they could to assist the 187th in a timely manner. That is the farthest thing from the truth. I can only speak to what Bravo ran into and it was the most intense combat I experienced during my whole tour of duty. First and foremost we did not have an experienced combat CO. Our regular CO, Capt. Erickson was on R & R and a rear area CO with no combat time under his belt at all came out in his place until he returned. Another point was the fact that our resupply {when we were lucky to get it} was done mostly by fly-bys because we could not get a Huey to touch down safely. Also we did not have the luxury of replacements {cherries or not} to take the place of our WIA's and KIA's. Another major point was that we lost almost all of our third platoon with the exception of a handful of men. Till the day I left Country, the third platoon was never reconstituted. So yes, at the start of the tenth day, Bravo was a demoralized company. Most of us had no clue at all what our marching orders were. We just continued to fight and push our way up the Hill. We did the absolute best we could with what we had.

A bloody battle presented from the American viewpoint.......2005-04-25

Samuel Zaffiri has done an excellent job describing the background, the decisions and the terrific action of the 10-day battle for the Dong Ap Bia in May 1969. The narrative is full of the horror felt by the ordinary soldiers and junior leaders, down to the platoon and section level, as well as the frustration for the tactical decisons made by the top leadership of the 101st Airborne Division during those hectic days. He points that, more than the "Tet Offensive", the battle for "Hamburger Hill" was a critical turning point for the US involvement in the Vietnam War and he gives much evidence of the turmoil it caused among the US public opinion. The book has a black and white map for every day of the battle and some medium quality b/w photographs, but its main weak point (for which it loses the fifth star) is the fact that is exclusively focused on the American side of the story and does not give any information regarding the elite 29th Regiment of the PAVN (not even the name of its commander!) which fought with such tenacity all those days under the most brutal bombardment from ground and air.

Honest and informative.......2004-03-25

I read this book recently after having seen the film version many years ago (an excellent Viet Nam film, better than Platoon or Full Metal Jacket -- and TRUE). Zaffiri recounts carefully the actions leading up to the operation, gives amazing details on the NVA actions as well as the American, and shows the utter futility of the operation as well as the determination of those who followed orders to take the hill.

The descriptions of what it was like for the grunts on the ground (insects, sweat, athlete's foot, snipers, friendly fire, etc.) and of parking a helicopter into a hot landing zone (in the middle of enemy positions) were as fascinating as they were terrifying. Ranks up there with Professor Ambrose's descriptions of soldier's experiences in WWII. Zaffiri also gets instant credibility as a combatant in Viet Nam. He knows what he's talking about, and it comes out without being judgmental or arrogant. Even gives a breakdown of what constitutes various military fighting units, and a small history of the 101st.

Don't be fooled: the Americans [...] lost many casualties over a nine-day, ten-assault period, suffered incredibly at the hands of equally determined and expertly trained NVA and sappers (they tied themselves to trees...virtual suicide!), and at the end of the engagement gave it right back up to the enemy by just abandoning the position.

For those who experienced it, there was no victory, but no shame, either. An excellent book on so many levels. Hawks and Doves alike can get something important out of it. Reads well if you're a military buff or not. Read the book, then rent the movie. In military parlance, it's "Outstanding."

Hamburger Hill truely lived up to its name.......2003-10-01

Hamburger Hill is a great book that captures the agony of storming a fortified mountain for no apparent reason 10,000 miles from home. The battle itself was one of the biggest battles of the war, and still resonates with the public to this day. This book helps us understand why. The book starts off with a great lesson on the Ashau valley and why it was so important to both sides and takes on an almost mythical status. In 1966 US forces are knocked out of the valley and the NVA quickly turn it into a massive base area. In 1968 thousands of NVA left this valley sancutary and conquered Hue among other places. The American high command fresh from the amazing victories during Tet finally have the resources to take on the dreaded Ashau Valley. The stage is set for the famed 101st Airborne (battling bastards of Bastogne) to assault into the valley and clean out the NVA once and for all. On May 10 1969 the Americans landed in the valley in force. On May 11 the first contact was made on the slopes of Dong Ap Bia mountain an obscure piece of real estate turned into a honeycombed fortress by the NVA. Over the next 10 days undermanned American troops launch wave after determined wave to knock an entrenced NVA Regiment from the mountain. The battle is fierce, defintely among the toughest fought by American troops in the entire war. Finally the decimated Americans kick the heck out of the NVA and claim the mountain. Once again the 101st has lived up to its reputation as an elite unit. Earlier in the war a victory like this might have meant something but by 1969 America had grown tired on losing its young men in droves and was angered at the losses suffered on this obscure mountain now called Hamburger Hill. This book covers it all, the high command dealing with political as well as military aspects as it tries to gain victory, the grunts who spill the blood to take this deadly mountain, and the fallout from having so many Americans die for seemingly no reason. This is a great book and should be read by anyone interested in learning about an important part of American history. You should also get Edward F Murphy's book on the battle of Dak To.(It features a similiar battle, called Hill 875, hard fought in 1967, or get his book the Hill Fights about Marines fighting in Khe Sanh in 1967.) Also get Ripcord by Keith William Nolan. This book deals with the 101st in 1970 and how because of the fallout from this battle they can't go on the offensive and save a firebase near the Ashau valley. Get this book Hamburger Hill, it a must read for people interested in Vietnam and you won't be disappointed. It is well written by an Army veteran and makes you feel like you are there.

A great read through and through.......2001-01-09

The soldiers of the famed 101st Airborne Division literally spilled their "blood and guts" to take what was supposedly a strategic hilltop. Thanks to Samuel Zaffiris' tremendous account of one of the most horrific and costly battles of the Vietnam War was I able to fully appreciate the uncommon valor and sacrifices made by the American G.I.

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Hamburger Hill
William Pelfrey
Manufacturer: Avon Books
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Binding: Paperback

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Anthony; Boatman, Michael; Cheadle, Don; Dolan, Michael; James, Don; Irvin, John Barrile
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Hamburger Hill, May 11-20, 1969
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Chicken Soup for the Veteran's Soul: Stories to Stir the Pride and Honor the Courage of Our Veterans

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Chicken Soup for the Veteran's Soul: Stories to Stir the Pride and Honor the Courage of Our Veterans
Hansen, Slagter, Jack, Mark, Sidney Victor, R. Canfield
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The educators' dilemma writ large.(Education for Cataloging and the Organization of Information: Pitfalls and the Pendulum)(Book Review): An article from: The Australian Library Journal

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The educators' dilemma writ large.(Education for Cataloging and the Organization of Information: Pitfalls and the Pendulum)(Book Review): An article from: The Australian Library Journal
Susan Hamburger
Manufacturer: Australian Library and Information Association
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Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from The Australian Library Journal, published by Australian Library and Information Association on May 1, 2004. The length of the article is 494 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: The educators' dilemma writ large.(Education for Cataloging and the Organization of Information: Pitfalls and the Pendulum)(Book Review)
Author: Susan Hamburger
Publication: The Australian Library Journal (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 2004
Publisher: Australian Library and Information Association
Volume: 53 Issue: 2 Page: 222(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The decisive battle: Vietnam, before, during, and after : 1968, TET Offensive, 1969, Hamburger Hill, 1970, Fire Support Base Ripcord : the untold story ... Base Ripcord, April 1, 1970 to July 23, 1970

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The decisive battle: Vietnam, before, during, and after : 1968, TET Offensive, 1969, Hamburger Hill, 1970, Fire Support Base Ripcord : the untold story ... Base Ripcord, April 1, 1970 to July 23, 1970
Martin J Glennon
Manufacturer: Liberty Zion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006EZQ5O

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Hamburger Hill
Jim Carabatsos
Manufacturer: Script City
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Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B00071VAME

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This is a systematically revised and updated new edition of a highly-acclaimed text which was an immediate bestseller on courses around the world. The second edition takes a broader perspective giving increased coverage of other dimensions of globalization alongside its core focus on the rise of supraterritoriality which the author argues is globalization's most distinctive feature.

Book Description

Robert Thayer brings the concepts and promises of the growing bioregional movement to a wide audience in a book that passionately urges us to discover "where we are" as an antidote to our rootless, stressful modern lives. LifePlace is a provocative meditation on bioregionalism and what it means to live, work, eat, and play in relation to naturally, rather than politically, defined areas. In it, Thayer gives a richly textured portrait of his own home, the Putah-Cache watershed in California's Sacramento Valley, demonstrating how bioregionalism can be practiced in everyday life. Written in a lively anecdotal style and expressing a profound love of place, this book is a guide to the personal rewards and the social benefits of reinhabiting the natural world on a local scale.
In LifePlace, Thayer shares what he has learned over the course of thirty years about the Sacramento Valley's geography, minerals, flora, and fauna; its relation to fire, agriculture, and water; and its indigenous peoples, farmers, and artists. He shows how the spirit of bioregionalism springs from learning the history of a place, from participating in its local economy, from living in housing designed in the context of the region. He asks: How can we instill a love of place and knowledge of the local into our education system? How can the economy become more responsive to the ecology of region? This valuable book is also a window onto current writing on bioregionalism, introducing the ideas of its most notable proponents in accessible and highly engaging prose.
At the same time that it gives an entirely new appreciation of California's Central Valley, LifePlace shows how we can move toward a new way of being, thinking, and acting in the world that can lead to a sustainable, harmonious, and more satisfying future.

Customer Reviews:

Live life close to the earth.......2003-07-18

In a narrative rich with the essence of the Sacramento Valley, Thayer crafts a compelling argument for a life lived closer to the earth. He begins this evocative book--which is part memoir, part lifestyle manual--by describing his home of the last 30 years as "a mail-order spouse whom I would grow to appreciate, then love." Most readers will forgive his reluctant love affair, for Thayer moved to California's monotonous, agricultural valley from the rugged, mountainscape of Boulder, Colorado.

The author, a landscape architecture professor at the University of California, Davis, chronicles his growing connection with and attachment to a place some might find unlovable as an illustration of his point that every area possesses both unique potentials and limitations. He advocates for communities built upon new urbanist principles, art that is framed by region and education that is reflective of place. Drawing from personal experience, he offers a multitude of suggestions on how to reconnect with our immediate surroundings.

He cautions against allowing our local communities to be supplanted by the hegemony of the global economy and champions relocalized trade. He takes exception to large, top-down organizations. "The truth," he writes, "which neither the traditional right nor left wishes to admit, is that broadly enfranchised, local grassroots efforts to identify with and care for natural regions are so powerful, so ultimately democratic, and so basically popular with the American people that they threaten the huge, entrenched political organizations on both sides."

At its core, the book holds that a bioregional orientation is the only way to create true sustainability. Building upon the themes of other authors, such as Paul Hawken, Jane Jacobs and David Orr, Thayer shows readers how a deepened connection to the surrounding natural region can add meaning and texture to our often disconnected, modern lives.

Urban Place: Reconnecting with the Natural World (Urban and Industrial Environments)
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Urban Place: Reconnecting with the Natural World (Urban and Industrial Environments)

Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Ecology of Place: Planning for Environment, Economy, and Community

ASIN: 0262524430

Book Description

Amidst city concrete and suburban sprawl, Americans are discovering new ways to reconnect with the natural world. From community gardens in New York's Lower East Side to homeless shelters in California, the search for a more sustainable future has led grassroots groups to a profound reconnection to place and to the natural world.

Studies of the health consequences of renewing a connection with nature support the urgency of providing green surroundings as cities expand and the majority of the earth's population lives in urban areas. Medical research results, from groups as diverse as healthy volunteers, surgery patients, and heart attack survivors, suggest that contact with nature may improve health and well-being. Engagement with nearby natural places also provides restoration from mental fatigue and support for more resilient and cooperative behavior. Aspects of stronger community life are fostered by access to nature, suggesting that there are significant social as well as physical and psychological benefits from connection with the natural world.

This volume brings together research from anthropology, sociology, public health, psychology, and landscape architecture to highlight how awareness of locale and a meaningful renewal of attachment with the earth are connected to delight in learning about nature as well as to civic action and new forms of community. Community garden coalitions, organic market advocates, and greenspace preservationists resist the power of global forces, enacting visions of a different future. Their creative efforts tell a story of a constructive and dynamic middle ground between private plots and public action, between human health and ecosystem health, between individual attachment and urban sustainability.

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Exploring an ecocentric ecosophy

Bioregionalism
M. Mcginnis
Manufacturer: Routledge
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ASIN: 0415154456

Book Description

i Bioregionalism /i is the first book to explain the theoretical and practical dimensions of bioregionalism from an interdisciplinary standpoint, focusing on the place of bioregional identity within global politics. Leading contributors from a broad range of disciplines introduce this exciting new concept as a framework for thinking about indigenous peoples, local knowledge, globalization, science, global environmental issues, modern society, conservation, history, education and restoration. Bioregionalism's emphasis on place and community radically changes the way we confront human and ecological issues.

Customer Reviews:

Exploring an ecocentric ecosophy.......2000-09-12

'Bioregionalism' is a collection of chapters written by different authors and includes many of the principal names in the field of bioregionalism. It rates four stars because it is a good reflection of some of the more credible bioregionalist literature. It fails to get the fifth star because the book lacks chapters by either Peter Berg or Kirkpatric Sale, who are arguably two of the most prominant and influential writers contributing to bioregionalist thought. The rating reflects that this book is very readable and would give somebody who is unfamiliar with bioregionalism a good overview of the subject while providing plenty more for a more knowledgable reader. The rating does not reflect whether the subject of bioregionalism is sound or 'worthy' and that must be left up to the individual reader. If read alongside authors such as Arne Naes, this book presents a stimulating alternative philosophy.

Lewis Creek Lost and Found (Middlebury Bicentennial Series in Environmental Studies)

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Lewis Creek Lost and Found (Middlebury Bicentennial Series in Environmental Studies)
Kevin Dann
Manufacturer: Middlebury
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Well known for his imaginative treatment of environmental issues, Kevin Dann presents a natural history of the Lewis Creek watershed in Vermont's Champlain Valley, told largely through the lives and thought of three individuals,whose investigations brought them into close contact with the area. Congregationalist minister John Perry (1825 - 1872) conducted paleontological research on the region's Paleozoic rock and attempted to negotiate his era's confrontation between science and religion. Rowland Robinson (1833 - 1900) was a Quaker farmer and author/artist whose historical fiction often dealt with issues of human impact on this watershed. The first plant-hunting expeditions of another Quaker farmer and noted plant collector, Cyrus Pringle (1838 - 1911), took place in this watershed as well.

Dann's account of these three men, whose lives span nearly a century, graphically illustrates contemporary human-nature relationships at the same time that it suggests the limits of science in circumscribing our experience of the physical landscape. The experience of pain and loss is documented along with the stories of success and celebration, since, as Dann writes, "Genuine places, like human hearts, have dark recesses within them, and by examining these recesses within the Lewis Creek watershed, we take a small step toward demythologizing Vermont."

Bioregionalism And Civil Society: Democratic Challenges to Corporate Globalism (Sustainability and the Environment Series)

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Bioregionalism And Civil Society: Democratic Challenges to Corporate Globalism (Sustainability and the Environment Series)
Mike Carr
Manufacturer: UBC Press
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Bioregionalism and Civil Society addresses the urgent need for sustainability in industrialized societies. The book explores the bioregional movement in the US, Canada, and Mexico, examining its vision, values, strategies, and tools for building sustainable societies. Bioregionalism is a philosophy with values and practices that attempt to meld issues of social and econmic justice and sustainability with cultural, ecolgoical, and spiritual concerns. Further, bioregional efforts of democratic social and cultural change take place primarily in the sphere of civil society.

Practically, Carr agrues for bioregionalism as a place-specific, community movement that can stand in diverse opposition to the homogenizing trends of corporate globalization. Theoretically, the author seeks lessons for civil society-based social theory and strategy. Conventional civil society theory from Europe proposes a dual strategy of developing strong horizontal communicative action among civic associations and networks as the basis for strategic vertical campaigns to democratize both state and market sectors. However, this theory offers no ecological or cultural critique of consumerism. By contrast, Carr integrates both social and natural ecologies in a civil society theory that incorporates lessons about consumption and cultural transformation from bioregional practice.

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