John Coltrane: His Life and Music (The Michigan American Music Series)

Book Description

John Coltrane was a key figure in jazz, a pioneer in world music, and an intensely emotional force whose following continues to grow. This new biography, the first by a professional jazz scholar and performer, presents a huge amount of never-before-published material, including interviews with Coltrane, photos, genealogical documents, and innovative musical analysis that offers a fresh view of Coltrane's genius.

Compiled from scratch with the assistance of dozens of Coltrane's colleagues, friends, and family, John Coltrane: His Life and Music corrects numerous errors from previous biographies. The significant people in Coltrane's life were reinterviewed, yielding new insights; some were interviewed for the first time ever.

The musical analysis, which is accessible to the nonspecialist, makes its own revelations--for example, that some of Coltrane's well-known pieces are based on previously unrecognized sources. The Appendix is the most detailed chronology of Coltrane's performing career ever compiled, listing scores of previously unknown performances from the 1940s and early 1950s.

Coltrane has become a musical inspiration for thousands of fans and musicians and a personal inspiration to as many more. For all of these, Porter's book will become the definitive resource--a reliable guide to the events of Coltrane's life and an insightful look into his musical practices.

". . . well researched, musically knowledgeable, and enormously interesting to read. Porter is a jazz scholar with deep knowledge of the tradition he is studying, both conceptually and technically." --Richard Crawford, University of Michigan

"Lewis Porter is a meticulous person with love and respect for Afro-American classical music. I applaud this definitive study of my friend John Coltrane's life adn achievements." --Jimmy Heath, jazz saxophonist, composer, educator

Lewis Porter is Associate Professor of Music, Rutgers University in Newark. A leading jazz scholar, he is the author of Jazz Readings from a Century of Change and coauthor of Jazz: From Its Origins to the Present. He was a project consultant on The Complete Atlantic Recordings of John Coltrane, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Historical Reissue, and an editor and assisting author of the definitive Coltrane discography by Y. Fujioka.

Customer Reviews:

Coltrane: His Music.......2007-08-17

To fully appreciate this book the reader should certainly be able to read music. There are a multitude of scores that the reader should understand to be able to get the most out of this book. However even if you can't read music (As I can't) there is a lot to interest one in this book. Coltrane came from the Rocky Mount Section of NC. It seems ike he had an interesting, stable Family Life, though the Father does not seemed to have lived with him. Moved to Philly after High School, where he did Graduate. He was in the Service in the Mid 40s, and surprisingly was in an integrated Navy Band. I thought the services were segregated at that time.
There are also details of his two marriages.
If you can read music or at least understand scoring this book is highly recommended. If you are like me you will still probably enjoy it.

The first serious study of John Coltrane.......2006-11-28

Porter's biography is a detailed exploration of Coltrane's musical development, consisting of extensive analyses of selected examples of Coltrane's music, together with what reads like a patchwork of biographical details (much of which is newly researched and not included in other Coltrane biographies). The latter dimension of the work was apparently an afterthought which Porter started working on in 1994 after having spent the previous fourteen years working on the musical analysis (he indicates this in his preface to the book). The analysis of the music is challenging and would probably be inaccessible for someone who does not have some knowledge of music theory.

The biographical portion of the book seems to be well researched and explores parts of Coltrane's life which his other biographies have not delved into (although Porter does rely significantly on two previous biographies - one by J.C. Thomas, the other by C.O. Simpkins, to flesh out his own research). The first chapter, titled "Southern Roots," is an exploration of Coltrane's familial roots and the origins of the Coltrane name. A family geneology, photos of family marriage licenses, the 1920 census of High Point, North Carolina (where Coltrane grew up) and even Coltrane's birth certificate are included. The author then explores Coltrane's childhood through stories recounted by family members and friends who knew Coltrane as a boy. Included in this section is a remarkable photo of Coltrane's grade 3 class, in which the young Coltrane already has a look of concentrated seriousness.

Porter then goes into a lengthy exploration of Coltrane's early musical development through a discussion of Coltrane's encounters with books and teachings the saxophonist used to develop his obviously vast musical knowledge. This section, which dominates the first third of the book, is highlighted by interviews with other musicians, particularly Jimmy Heath, who knew Coltrane during his musically formative years, and by Porter's insights into some of the sources of Coltrane's playing. This section is definitely one of the strengths of the book.

During the second third, Porter makes the usual stops, touching on Coltrane's substance abuse, his membership in the Miles Davis Quintet and his apprenticeship with Thelonious Monk.

The final third of the book begins with Coltrane's final split with Davis and ends at the present time with an examination of the saxophonist's influence on contemporary music. In between, the formation and eventual dissolution of Coltrane's classic quartet is outlined. Within this last third is Porter's most intense analysis of Coltrane's music, highlighted by a very detailed exploration of one of the peaks of his art, "A Love Supreme."

Another chapter, called "The Man:'A Quiet, Shy Guy,'" in the final section presents quotes and interviews drawn from a variety of sources about aspects of Coltrane's personality along with his views on philosophy, religion, race and politics. This chapter, although useful, is somewhat awkward and might better have been integrated into the other chapters. As it is, it highlights one of the problems with Porter's book - it tries to be too many things and does not integrate them into an organic whole.

A particularly valuable part of the book is a forty page chronology which documents all of Coltrane's known performances and interviews. This section alone, might make the book worth purchasing for some readers.

In summary, if you are looking for an analysis of Coltrane's music, this is the place to look. If it's the biography you are interested in, this book cannot be ignored because it presents details not mentioned elsewhere but it still falls short. Porter's writing is dry and academic, which is useful for presenting the facts of an artist's life or for analysing his work, but it fails to evoke a sense of the man and the world he lived in. For that, a writer with a warmer, more imaginative style is needed.

The definitive Coltrane biography still remains to be written, but Porter's book is worth holding onto in the meantime.

The ultimate Coltrane bio.......2005-07-01

This is a nearly perfect biography in every way. It is comprehensive, objective, and written with a good understanding and appreciation of Coltrane's music. The tone is scholarly without being too dry -- a difficult balance to achieve.
The book is fairly long, providing in-depth coverage of Coltrane's life and music from his early development through his controversial late work. There is a good balance between discussion of his musical and personal development. There are lots of quotes included from people who knew him and worked with him.
For non-musicians, the theory and analysis may be intimidating and un-necessary. For musicians, it is good reading, but non-musicians may not understand some parts that deal strictly with music theory. I don't really think there is any way to explain the significane of Contrane's music in any depth without going into this type of explanation, so I cannot count this as criticism. How can one explain the significance of Giant Steps, for example, without describing the innovative harmonic movement by thirds? How can you give a good discussion of Interstellar Space without analyzing specific examples of motivic development? For non-jazz musicians or non-musicians, these parts can probably be skipped when they go over their heads without significant loss to the value of the book, but perhaps they should at least skim through them to get an idea of why Coltrane is such an important figure in jazz history.
There is adequate criticism and praise for Coltrane's music from many different, reliable sources included throughout. For example, McCoy Tyner's displeasure with the direction Coltrane took with his groups in the mid-60's is included, along with quotes from people who loved playing with him at that time.
Overall, this biography is objective, comprehensive, and enlightening to anyone interested in jazz or in the development of a remarkable talent in general. Very much recommended.

A New High in Jazz Scholarship.......2004-01-27

John Coltrane - His Life and Music

I have probably read nearly every biography on John Coltrane that is available in the hope of finding writing that is worthy of the scope of this jazz master's genius. Most of the reading I've done has been fairly disappointing...more like glorified fanzine articles rather than serious discussions of the man and his music. Eberhard Jost in his book Free Jazz does do some pretty in-depth analysis of the music of Coltrane, but almost all other books focus more on gossip and life details and leave the musical analysis to vague lofty sounding phrases that have very little meaning on a real level.

So Lewis Porter's book is a breath of fresh air, not just in writing about Coltrane, but also in jazz scholarship in general. Porter's is the first jazz biography I've read that is a really musicological biography and worthy to stand up to the biographies written about classical music figures. Rather than create a portrait with personal meditations, as J.C. Thomas did in Chasin' the Trane, or beating a predetermined ideological drum, as Frank Kofsky did in John Coltrane and the Jazz Revolution of the `60s, or create a fanzine kind of portrait, as Bill Cole did (by far the best of the pre-Porter bios, but still lightweight musically) or create a sort of modern day hagiography, as Eric Nisenson did in Ascension, John Coltrane's Quest, Porter gives us a straight biography, with little personal interjection, and a lot of penetrating insights based on the actual music Coltrane produced.

Porter's book has the benefit of more years of research into Coltrane's life and legacy. Increasingly, as the years since the 60s have worn on, it has become clear that the influence of Coltrane is perhaps the biggest single influence on all facets of jazz, arguably equaling or maybe even exceeding the influence of Charlie Parker. His is certainly the most all-pervading voice since Bird and the influence doesn't seem to be waning as the millennium turns. Porter's book relies on the best of the earlier biographies. He quotes Thomas and Cole with some frequency. But he also relies on a welter of recorded interviews with Trane, interviews with those who knew Trane, and with surviving family members, including much precious information about Trane's early years from his cousin Mary and from many of his childhood and Philly friends. The picture that emerges is not radically different than the picture we get from earlier biographies. All of the elements of the Coltrane mystique are there; the obsessive practicing, the drive to succeed, the drug addicted years, the dramatic kicking of the habit, the later search for musical and spiritual Truth, and the sudden and tragic death. But devoid of interpretation, these facts loose some of the legend surrounding them. To me, this can only be a good thing. Coltrane would not have wanted the worship that has developed around him. The details of Trane's life as outlined by Porter show a man who was deeply gifted, haunted by childhood loss, driven to perfect his art, and yet also daunted by lingering addictions and the physical havoc that he had played on his body early in his life. This Trane is no less worthy of honor than the legendary Trane, and a bit more loveable and human.

Where the Porter biography has it over all others is in the copious musical examples. Porter analyzes many recorded solos in detail, including Giant Steps, My Favorite Things, a Love Supreme, and perhaps most impressively Venus, from Coltrane's last recorded album. Porter's skill as a musicologist is quite impressive and a gift that is rarely given to jazz literature. He analyzes Trane's changing improvisational technique, from the early "sheets of sound" period, where pattern after pattern of complex, harmonically based scales are piled over chords, to the more melodically based modal material, based on the manipulation of short melodic cells. Porter gives us a glimpse into the mind of a genius here, showing the amazing logical processes behind Coltrane's font of inspiration. Also, for those who don't want this type of musical analysis, the chapters are located at dramatic breaks in the biography, and are easily skipped without loss of any significant information. This makes the book still accessible for the non-musician.

This is not a perfect book. Porter does occasionally make himself known as an author, something which is not usual in scholarly biographies. This usually happens when he interjects the phrase, in my opinion. It's not a real fault, but in a book of such scholarly aspirations, these comments probably should have been edited out or reworded so that they didn't jar quite as much. More serious is the chapter that discusses the medical issues with Trane's death. Much nonsense has circulated about Trane's death, which Porter attempts to correct. Unfortunately, he does so with poorly drawn medical arguments. For instance, cirrhosis of the liver has very little if anything to do with liver cancer, and while he is correct that for cirrhosis to occur the patient has to be an active alcoholic or drug abuser, some studies indicate liver cancer can be affected by abuser, even years after the patient stops using. The causes of Trane's death are probably complex and may never be fully explained, but Porter should have checked his medical sources a bit more carefully or steered clear of this potential minefield.

But despite those fairly small points, this is a major step forward in Coltrane scholarship and in the whole field of Jazz Studies. Porter has set a new high for jazz writing; one that I hope will be met by a new crop of scholars. If any American art form deserves this kind of scrutiny, jazz is it.

For you Coltrane listeners/fans!.......2003-06-13

After reading this biography of him, I had so much more knowledge of him that I didn't have before. There is more to his life than what most people think. A must read for jazz/Coltrane fans! A lot of musical analysis, too.

John Coltrane: His Life and Music.(Review) (book reviews): An article from: Notes

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John Coltrane: His Life and Music.(Review) (book reviews): An article from: Notes
Zbigniew Granat
Manufacturer: Music Library Association, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Music Library Association, Inc. on December 1, 1998. The length of the article is 2235 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: John Coltrane: His Life and Music.(Review) (book reviews)
Author: Zbigniew Granat
Publication: Notes (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 1998
Publisher: Music Library Association, Inc.
Volume: 55 Issue: 2 Page: 363(4)

Article Type: Book Review

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JOHN COLTRANE: HIS LIFE AND MUSIC.
Lewis. Porter
Manufacturer: Univ. of Michigan Press,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SKXP5E

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Publisher Note:

Disaster at D-Day: The Germans Defeat the Allies, June 1944

Manufacturer: Wrens Park Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Germany | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0905778561

Product Description

Reprint.

Customer Reviews:

Publisher Note:.......2006-10-15

The author explores a very important question surrounding the successful Allied landing at Normandy in 1944, What if they were not successful? What if their was a change here, a unit in the wrong place or another decision by a commander that might have changed the course of history.

Disaster at D-Day: The Germans Defeat the Allies,June 1944 (Greenhill Military Paperbacks)

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Great
German victory in Normandy
Good - but ultimately flawed
Misses some major points
A Dark D-Day Tale

Disaster at D-Day: The Germans Defeat the Allies,June 1944 (Greenhill Military Paperbacks)
Peter Tsouras
Manufacturer: Greenhill Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1853676039

Book Description

This alternate history of the Allied D-Day landings is based very firmly on fact and is a brilliant study of how a campaign could lead to unexpected results. It is June 1944. The Allied armies are poised for the full-scale invasion of Fortress Europe. Across the Channel, the vaunted Wehrmacht lies waiting for the first signs of the invasion, ready for the final battle. What happens next is well known to any student of modern history - but the outcome could have been very different, as Peter Tsouras shows in this devastating account of a D-Day in which plans, missions and landings go horribly wrong. Peter Tsouras introduces minor adjustments at the opening of the campaign - the repositioning of a unit, bad weather and misjudged orders - and examines their effect as they gather momentum and impact upon all subsequent events. Without deviating from the genuine possibilities of the situation, he presents a scenario that keeps the reader guessing and changes the course of history.

Customer Reviews:

Great.......2006-04-19

To the naysayer.

Airpower had a neglible effect on the Normady fight. For evey railroad and bridge knocked out, 3 survived.

Attacks on columns over reduced them by 10 percent.

The Luffwaffe was still able to put hundreds of planes in the Air and they shot down over 1,000 Allied Planes and one group managed to strafe Gold Beach OTL.

WW2 was a ground War through and through. Air power had yet to fully influence the war signifgantly.

German victory in Normandy.......2004-02-13

For me, a keen student of military history since childhood, nothing is more fascinating than alternate history. What could have happened and what nearly happened. This book was a sensation for me and taught me to look differently at history. One can argue that the author gives the Germans too much good fortune, but on the other hand one must admit that the changes made towards reality are surprisingly small. Especially the early fall of Caen into Allied hands, which turns out to be the beginning of the end for the British forces is brilliant. Yes, one can find weak points in this book, but all in all it is one of the best alternate books I've ever read. I bought two copies and I can honestly say that I regret that Mr. Tsouras wrote only one chapter about the period following the German victory in Normandy in his book 'Third Reich Victorious' about how the Germans managed to stop the Soviets by throwing all their forces to the east and Rommel managed to turn the tide at the eastern front as well. It would have deserved another great book. Buy it! It will give you a better understanding of the Normandy campaign and a fresh look at history.

Good - but ultimately flawed.......2004-02-09

This is a good, generally well-written 'alternate history' study, but it is not a classic in my view.

Tsouras' aim is to show how the Germans could have 'won' at D-Day. To do this he has to re-arrange things. Some of those rearrangements do seem possible -- but in one crucial area - his scenario demands a considerable suspension of belief. And this is NOT what is called for in a true 'alternate' history as opposed to a fictional treatment.

To start with Tsouras gives the Germans slightly better luck in their initial disposition of forces, he allows certain units to be in position, certain commanders to be with their troops as opposed to being absent either on home leave or attending a war-game inland.

This is all fine. As the Allies land he allows the Germans to counter-attack much more quickly than they did. This has a significant impact on the Allies, it's interesting because it could have happened, had not the defence been ham-strung as it was in reality by Hitler's orders over when to deploy his panzer divisions.

However, to win the campaign, as opposed to just the landings themselves, the Allies or the Germans had to beat the other in the battle of the build-up. The winner would be the side which could amass the most troops, tanks, ammunition and supplies, to allow them to overwhelm the other.

In reality of course, the Germans did not believe that the Normandy landings were the main landings, and they kept back key divisions defending the Pas de Calais until it was too late.

Tsouras allows the Germans to realise much more quickly than they historically did, that the Normandy landings were 'it'. He doesn't truly address the issues raised here. The reasons the Germans were slow off the mark were two-fold:

First,
their intelligence regarding the Allied order of battle was poor -- they thought the Allies had more divisions than they really had -- so they thought there were enough troops and equipment for a second invasion in Northern France.

Yet for the Germans' intelligence to be better, they would have had to have a much better intelligence network in the UK, and they would have had to be able to take many more aerial photos of the south coast of England -- and this would have meant the Luftwaffe would have had to have been much stronger than it historically was in 1944 -- this 'better' intelligence is a re-adjustment that does not easily work.

Second,
the Germans historically believed the Allies would attack via the shortest land-route to Berlin -- ie; across the Pas de Calais. Tsouras' treatment allows them to revise this deeply-held view very quickly. Without allowing them better intelligence, this change is unlikely.

But allowing for all this, the book's weakest point is in its treatment of air power. Even had the Germans immediately realised that the Normandy landings were 'it', and had Hitler ordered every unit in France to Normandy to contain and destroy the Allied build-up -- it is very hard to see how this could have happened given the Allies overwhelming aerial superiority over France in 1944-45.

In the build-up to the campaign, Allied bmobers destroyed hundred of key bridges, rail junctions, marshalling yards, track, signals complexes. A series of tactical bombing that was supplemented by the French Resistance, which in 1944 had a significant impact on the ability of the Germans to move troops and tanks. Had the Germans shown signs of moving in the way Tsouras has them in his book, the Allies would have reacted by heavily attacking units on the move. Historically this is what they did. Many German units only reached the front after a severe mauling and with numerous significant delays.

We are left with 'absent' Allied air forces -- which is rather far-fetched.

Saying all this, the book is a good read, if only to show how unlikely it was the Germans could have 'won' at D-Day. However, what Tsouras does very well show, is that it could have well have been far more bloody than it actually was, and that the Germans could well have thrown back the Allies into the sea on at least one of the beaches.

He also shows that in the first few days at least, the German might well have been able to give the British and Americans such a beating that they could have created a stalemate.

However while Tsouras' book has -- for Germany - a reasonably benign outcome, in reality, any disaster at D-Day would have ultimately see the USAAF dropping its first atomic bombs not on Japan -- but on Germany:

Any Disaster at D-Day for the Allies in 1944, would have led to Atomic Devastation for the Third Reich in 1945.

Misses some major points.......2003-10-04

Having enjoyed Tsouras' Gettysburg book, I began this one eagerly and was disappointed on a number of levels. For one, it follows the flawed story line of "Germans change and adapt their plans but the Allies don't." The author seems to presuppose Allied intelligence fails repeatedly (such as the disaster with 1st Airborne), but the Germans never make similar mistakes. The reality was that German intelligence remained flawed throughout the war. This was supposed to be D-Day, not Market Garden--hardly comparable situations on all levels.

The simple logistics of the German build-up also strain credulity. It's hard to imagine, given the situation facing Army Group B and OB West that Spring that they would have been able to move the vast numbers of troops and supplies necessary to carry out the plan described in this book. Allied air interdiction made it very difficult for the Germans to achieve what they did historically, never mind what is supposed here. There's no explanation of how this could possibly have worked, absent a 30 day storm or something.

There were other problems, but the logistical impossibility of what is described here was one of the biggest problems with the account.

A Dark D-Day Tale.......2003-07-13

On the sixth day of the sixth month of 1944, elements of six Allied infantry divisions and three airborne divisions began the assault on Hitler's Fortress Europe. Within 24 hours, despite horrible losses at some points, the first wave of invaders breached the German line and a huge Allied host began pouring ashore.

Peter G. Tsouras, tweaking history's reality by presenting a plausible chain of alternate events, paints a chilling picture of a German victory over the invading Allies. In Tsouras' fictional history, German armored units destroy the Omaha Beach landings, Hitler and his generals react much faster than they actually did, and nothing the Allies attempt to do in order to save Operation Overlord works.

Tsouras uses the techniques of a traditional historian. His prose is straightforward and never veers into novelistic style, even though this is, indeed, a novel by any other name. The use of maps, photographs and footnotes gives the book the feel of a "real" history book.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Air & Space Power Journal, published by Thomson Gale on December 22, 2005. The length of the article is 515 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: Disaster at D-Day: The Germans Defeat the Allies, June 1944.(Book review)
Author: John H. Barnhill
Publication: Air & Space Power Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Page: 101(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Disaster at d Day the Germans Defeat the Allies, June 1944

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Disaster at d Day the Germans Defeat the Allies, June 1944
Peter Tsouras
Manufacturer: Greenhill Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000X6517S

Disaster at D-Day : The Germans Defeat the Allies, June 1944 (Military Paperbacks Ser.)

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Disaster at D-Day : The Germans Defeat the Allies, June 1944 (Military Paperbacks Ser.)
Peter G. Tsouras
Manufacturer: Greenhill Books/Lionel Leventhal, Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RBFOJE

Book Description

"The ancient Celts capture the modern imagination as do few other people of classical times. Naked barbarians charging the Roman legions, Druids performing sacrifices of unspeakable horror, women fighting beside their men and even leading armies--these, along with stunning works of art, are the images most of us call to mind when we think of the Celts," observes Philip Freeman. "And for the most part, these images are firmly based in the descriptions handed down to us by the Greek and Roman writers." This book draws on the firsthand observations and early accounts of classical writers to piece together a detailed portrait of the ancient Celtic peoples of Europe and the British Isles. Philip Freeman groups the selections (ranging from short statements to longer treatises) by themes--war, feasting, poetry, religion, women, and the Western Isles. He also presents inscriptions written by the ancient Celts themselves. This wealth of material, introduced and translated by Freeman to be especially accessible to students and general readers, makes this book essential reading for everyone fascinated by the ancient Celts.

Customer Reviews:

A great source for Celtic history.......2004-01-28

Has all the major ancient sources on the Celts translated into easily readable English.

War, Women, and Druids: Eyewitness Reports and Early Accounts of the Ancient Celts

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War, Women, and Druids: Eyewitness Reports and Early Accounts of the Ancient Celts
Philip Freeman
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Druidism | Earth-Based Religions | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000ORPG8K

Book Description

In No Man's Garden, ecologist Daniel Botkin takes a fresh look at the life and writings of Henry David Thoreau to discover a model for reconciling the conflict between nature and civilization that lies at the heart of our environmental problems. He offers an insightful reinterpretation of Thoreau, drawing a surprising picture of the "hermit of Walden" as a man who loved wildness, but who found it in the woods and swamps on the outskirts of town as easily as in the remote forests of Maine, and who firmly believed in the value and importance of human beings and civilization.

Botkin integrates into the familiar image of Thoreau, the solitary seeker, other, equally important aspects of his personality and career-as a first-rate ecologist whose close, long-term observation of his surroundings shows the value of using a scientific approach, as an engineer who was comfortable working out technical problems in his father's pencil factory, and as someone who was deeply concerned about the spiritual importance of nature to people.

This new view of one of the founding fathers of American environmental thought lays the groundwork for an innovative approach to solving environmental problems. Botkin argues that the topics typically thought of as "environmental," and the issues and concerns of "environmentalism," are in fact rooted in some of humanity's deepest concerns-our fundamental physical and spiritual connection with nature, and the mutually beneficial ways that society and nature can persist together. He makes the case that by understanding the true scientific, philosophical, and spiritual bases of environmental positions we will be able to develop a means of preserving the health of our biosphere that simultaneously allows for the further growth and development of civilization.

No Man's Garden presents a vital challenge to the assumptions and conventional wisdom of environmentalism, and will be must reading for anyone interested in developing a deeper understanding of interactions between humans and nature.

Customer Reviews:

An encouraging view of the future..........2002-08-23

A refreshing book with something rare in environmental writing; an encouraging look at the future! This book presents a clear point throughout: technology, civilization, and nature are not at odds with each other, but are best viewed as actually deeply connected and at this point, interdependent.

A refreshing and insightful book.......2000-12-16

I had the good fortune to read this book in page proof and enjoyed it immensely. Botkin does a wonderful job of pointing out how Thoreau's methodologies were far in advance of his time and provide us with encouraging examples of how we ought to relate to the natural world on the one hand and the civilized world on the other. Highly recommended--particularly at this remarkably low price for a hardcover!

NO MAN'S GARDEN. THOREAU AND A NEW VISION FOR CIVILIZATION AND NATURE.

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NO MAN'S GARDEN. THOREAU AND A NEW VISION FOR CIVILIZATION AND NATURE.
D. Botkin
Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WQMRVM

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