Book Description
In Read My Desire, Joan Copjec stages a confrontation between the theories of Jacques Lacan and Michel Foucault, protagonists of two powerful modern discourses - psychoanalysis and historicism. Ordinarily, these discourses only cross paths long enough for historicists to charge psychoanalysis with an indifference to history, but here psychoanalysis, via Lacan, goes on the offensive. Refusing to cede historicity to the historicists, Copjec makes a case for the superiority of Lacan's explanation of historical process, its generative principles, and its complex functionings. Her goal is to inspire a new kind of cultural critique, one that would be "literate in desire," that would be able to read what is inarticulable in cultural statements. Choosing a variety of battlegrounds, from historical phenomena - the 40,000 unsettling photographs of Moroccan drapery taken by Lacan's mentor, G. G. de Clérambault; the coincidence between vampire literature and the eighteenth-century imperative to breast-feed; the recurrent emptiness of urban spaces in film noir; the rise of democracy and questions of human rights - to theoretical concepts such as the gaze, cause, and sexual difference, Copjec imagines the blows that each contender might strike. Although Lacan emerges the victor, one has a sense that for Copjec the contest is close, that she is interested not in simply dismissing Foucault but in seizing his theory at those moments when its concerns and strategies are similar to Lacan's. She is intent on understanding how two compelling theories come to diverge, how small differences distort common assumptions. Establishing the links between psychoanalysis and critical philosophy, Copjec treats psychoanalysis not as a private language but as the mother tongue of modernity. She thus makes Lacan's famous "return to Freud" a return, as well, to the best principles of the Enlightenment. By this maneuver she forces us to question the historicist dialect that we have been taught to speak and that we all but take for granted and to regret the loss in it of psychoanalysis's more rousing accents.
Customer Reviews:
poor poor psychoanalysis never lets go..........2005-06-24
I am re-reading parts of the book now, as I intend to write something on Reagan comparing Copjec with Massumi's account. Or did I say compare? there is nothing to compare, in fact. Massumi accomplishes with bravado what no psychoanalyst could ever dream of doing. and not because of a lack of intelligence.
Let me only say, I find the book to be frustratingly pretentious, symptomatically reductive and overall such a poor poor account of much more complex realities. to begin a text by quoting the famous critique of structuralism that 'structures don't walk in the streets', and then to cite favorably Lacan's offensively "academic" presentation to students who, at least for a while, we finally getting involved in something important - that in itself is such a telling start. or to say later that Decartes caused the democratic revolution, or that without him psychoanalysis would not have been possible - check your history books people!!!
I keep reading and I get more and more upset - what is this psychoanalytic disease that is spreading everywhere, I thought D&G had already killed it. apparently not. only look at Zizek's popularity these days, with all the ridiculous things he has said about Lenin (who after all is so much larger than any Lacanian psychoanalyst). Lacan should have said it to his own students: all that you want is another master...
A bad book to read, even though as good as they make them in lacanian circles these days. read some deleuze, or better guattari. that's going to take you to a different planet!
A Lacanian Triumph.......2005-01-03
Many have complained about Zizek's bomastic claims and flacid style. This book of Copjec's is the exact opposite. It is rigorous while informative, strong while complex, entertaining while accurate. More than 10 years since its releast, it is still one of the most important books on Lacanian theory ever written. It covers Lacan synopitcally. For those looking for an introduction into Lacan, I can think of no book better. For those who are versed in Lacan, this arguments in this book will be a pleasure to follow. Reading this book will give one a good understanding why for Lacan the subject emerges from a failure, the idea of the cause, the super-ego, and ESPECIALLY Lacan's complicated Logic of the Not-All and its argument against Judith Butler. And it also serves as a good lead into the sequal "Imagine There's No Woman". It is truly a must have for anyone interested in Lacan.
A Rare Find: Quality Criticism.......2000-07-27
I bought this book months ago and am still working my way through it, which is a good thing, because Joan Copjec has packed every single essay with the most acute insight that I feel my brain growing every time I read it. This book isn't, as it is promoted, a dialogue between historicism and psychoanalysis in which psychoanalysis wins. Rather, Copjec examines how historicists misuse or misinterpret Lacan in their theories, which she seeks to right my proposing different readings of Lacan. If this review makes no sense it's because I can't possibly wrap my brain around everything that Copjec says. Needless to say, if you have an interest in theory, read this book. The first essay on film theory is fascinating, and the emphasis on the failure of language to signify and how this failure is marked in language provides an exciting platform on which to rethink the social subject. I can't wait to read GIVING GROUND.
Critical theory at its sharpest.......1999-07-31
This book is a remarkable achievement. With admirable lucidity and precision, Copjec succeeds in demolishing many naive and inaccurate claims about desire and history. Anyone wishing to know why Michel Foucault and Judith Butler have impoverished debates about sexuality should read this original book. The final chapter is a truly devastating critique of Butler's *Gender Trouble*, making one wonder why that book had any influence at all.
Average customer rating:
- Easy to read and wonderfully written
- I like the authors chapters
- A long time ago...
- Best book on the turn of the first Milennium I've seen!
- Interesting, but readers should beware.
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A.D. 1000: A World on the Brink of Apocalypse
Richard Erdoes
Manufacturer: Ulysses Press
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Customer Reviews:
Easy to read and wonderfully written.......2005-09-25
I am not one to write a reviews but this book deserved one. When I buy history books I read the chapters that pertain to what I need them for and nothing else. This book however was different. I was pleased as I began to read it that it covered a lot of everyday life as well as church and war life. This was perfect, I was so excited. It really gave me a feel for the time period and how it was to live there, he was so thorough in his explanations of the terror these people faced, not just in the thought that their lives where about to end but in the ways that they lived their lives. I will of course have to go back and re-read much of it, there was so much information to take in and I didn't have my hi-lighter for any of it! This book in my opinion was worth way more then I paid for it, and had I found it when it wasn't on sale I would have bought it anyways. I have found that reading an author that writes history as though he were writing a book and not a non-fiction literature piece makes the journey back in time much more vivid and realistic. I get bored with the college textbook fashion of writing and find that I don't nearly absorb as much. He wrote this book in such fashion and it really seemed like this was a passion for him while he was doing so, making the pages just as exciting for you to read as it was for him to write. I would definitely recommend this book if this time period is something that interests you as much as it interest me, you will learn something and have a great time doing so.
I like the authors chapters.......2005-07-03
One thing is clear about this work and I'm sure the author did not intend for it to be...Christianity, science, math,
philosophy, music arranging, written language, personal hygiene, advanced agriculture, medicine, etc were not indiginous to Europe proper a mere 1000 years ago and were transported there from the greco east and african south. That being said Richard Erdoes writes a fantastic historical-narrative on the euro landscape thru the eyes of a monk named Gerbert,aka Pope Sylvester. He also describes the trials and tribulations of the population from ad 800 to ad 1000 as they stumble thru life trying to make sense of the carnage, famine, cannibalisms (Putin forgot this part of his history), pestilences, and other madnesses that plagued every portion of the continent. He devotes chapters to countries so that the readers might get a good understanding of each geographical area and its tribe...For example chapter five is excellent as it devotes some time to explaining the advances in Spain and how the African Arabized Moors and the Arab tribes also known as the Saracens brought advancements to the area...for which Gerbert received most of his advanced training beyond the monastary. For this area was one of the most populus and best cultured areas in Europe and was one of few able to feed its population. Constantinople following Spain was the next best place to be. Other chapters on italy, scandinavia, germany, france and the russian-hungarian east are profiled in very good detail. Of course some of the works best highlights are the murder, mayheim, papal intrigue and establishment corruptions that were prevalent. Good summation of a revised history though not a particularly schlolarly one.
A long time ago..........2004-06-18
As Karen Armstrong says in her introduction, the year 1000 was a very different world, one that would never have believed that the global triumph of the West would take place in the next 1000 years. There were no cohesive nations of long standing; the Roman Empire's collapse hundreds of years prior remained the defining influence, and even consolidations under the likes of Charlemagne would not change the fact that half of Europe was still fighting the other half, usually in small, tribal cliques.
Despite the dominance of the Christian church, still at this time officially undivided, much of Europe was rife with superstition and nature religions that occasionally practiced barbaric rituals; the church unfortunately occasionally engaged in barbaric rituals of its own.
The Muslim and Chinese dynasties, on the other hand, were cultivated and developing at a rapid pace; the Greek Christian world was considered peripheral civilisation not to the West (considered barbarian territory) but to the other two dominant powers, neither of which concerned themselves much with Europe.
Robert Erdoes' book is not really a history book, but rather a narrative historical almost-fiction, a dramatised vision of what the world was like at the turn of the first millennium. he speculates that many people were thinking that this might be the millennium spoken of in some biblical interpretations -- this is generally incorrect, given that many people didn't realise what year it was, and other dominant cultures didn't use the now-standard Christian-inspired calendar.
The main figure in Erdoes' book is a man named Gerbert, an up-and-coming figure in the Western church hierarchy, who by virtue of his position is afforded opportunities to travel and experience different peoples and places. Gerbert, the teacher of the emperor Otto III, eventually becomes Sylvester II, a powerful but always embattled pope. Otto, holding on to the remnants of Charlemagne's empire and vision of a reunited vision, works with him, but in the end, both fail.
Erdoes develops the worldview in an interesting fashion. This being more a novel than a history, it does not have citations, facts and figures for the most part. Erdoes often opts for the historically-incorrect but true to the mindset rendering of history -- as in the most ancient of times, sometimes the truth of a civilisation can be told more from its mythology than from its simple history.
A fun book to read!
Best book on the turn of the first Milennium I've seen!.......1999-12-19
This is a very interesting book, not boring, not stuffy. It gives a good view of the turning of the first Milennium, from a few different angles. Easy to read, hard to put down. If you want to learn about that specific time period without feeling like you're doing boring homework then this is a good book for you!
Interesting, but readers should beware........1999-08-30
"A.D. 1000" reads like a work of narrative fiction, and it proves quite interesting. The fundamental structure of the book follows the chronology of Gerbert's fascinating rise to the Papacy. Because of Gerbert's unusual opportunities for travel, educational development, and influence in the most powerful courts of Europe, the book provides opportunities to discuss living conditions in the time. But caveat emptor: the author is not sufficiently critical of his sources. Some descriptions are presented as fact even though other seasoned historians have discredited similar claims.
Average customer rating:
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A.D. 1000: Living on the Brink of Apocalypse
Richard Erdoes
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
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ASIN: 0062502956 |
Customer Reviews:
A long time ago..........2006-03-22
As Karen Armstrong says in her introduction, the year 1000 was a very different world, one that would never have believed that the global triumph of the West would take place in the next 1000 years. There were no cohesive nations of long standing; the Roman Empire's collapse hundreds of years prior remained the defining influence, and even consolidations under the likes of Charlemagne would not change the fact that half of Europe was still fighting the other half, usually in small, tribal cliques.
Despite the dominance of the Christian church, still at this time officially undivided, much of Europe was rife with superstition and nature religions that occasionally practiced barbaric rituals; the church unfortunately occasionally engaged in barbaric rituals of its own.
The Muslim and Chinese dynasties, on the other hand, were cultivated and developing at a rapid pace; the Greek Christian world was considered peripheral civilisation not to the West (considered barbarian territory) but to the other two dominant powers, neither of which concerned themselves much with Europe.
Robert Erdoes' book is not really a history book, but rather a narrative historical almost-fiction, a dramatised vision of what the world was like at the turn of the first millennium. he speculates that many people were thinking that this might be the millennium spoken of in some biblical interpretations -- this is generally incorrect, given that many people didn't realise what year it was, and other dominant cultures didn't use the now-standard Christian-inspired calendar.
The main figure in Erdoes' book is a man named Gerbert, an up-and-coming figure in the Western church hierarchy, who by virtue of his position is afforded opportunities to travel and experience different peoples and places. Gerbert, the teacher of the emperor Otto III, eventually becomes Sylvester II, a powerful but always embattled pope. Otto, holding on to the remnants of Charlemagne's empire and vision of a reunited vision, works with him, but in the end, both fail.
Erdoes develops the worldview in an interesting fashion. This being more a novel than a history, it does not have citations, facts and figures for the most part. Erdoes often opts for the historically-incorrect but true to the mindset rendering of history -- as in the most ancient of times, sometimes the truth of a civilisation can be told more from its mythology than from its simple history.
A fun book to read!
Amazon.com
As the subtitle of David Quammen's Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind suggests, his fascination centers on those animals that raise human "awareness of being meat," and he likens the historic impact of these predators to modern-day car accidents: sudden, unexpected, life-changing. While his research is extraordinary--encompassing extensive field work and diverse reading on the science and lore surrounding predatory animals--Quammen's peripatetic mind jumps from history to psychology to ecology and from Africa to Russia to Australia, sometimes leaving his readers without a base camp to recuperate during the breath-taking journey.
His research on the lions of Gir forest in India, on the crocodiles of Northern Australia, on the bears of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, and on the Siberian tigers of Far East Russia finds animals held in constant tension, encircled by every-expanding human populations. But Quammen doesn't oversimplify the conflicts. Often, in fact, Quammen has so much to say about competing interests that he makes several false starts before finding his true theme. Recalling his reading in the l970s literature on crocodiles in Africa, for example, Quammen abruptly jumps to a failed farming and reintroduction project begun in India before finally settling into the investigation of Northern Australia's Crocodylus Park.
These changes in geography, time, and perspective can be disorienting in a book that is already complicated by its several competing approaches. Adding to the abundance, Quammen explores human population growth projections, images of the Leviathan in the Bible, keystone species theory, the Muskrat hypothesis (the idea that the "wastage parts" of an animal species are the ones most likely to suffer predation), and the 1994 discovery of the Chauvet cave paintings. Yet Quammen, author of The Soing of the Dodo moves with such ease through this wilderness of ideas that even the most difficult material becomes palatable. --Patrick O'Kelley
Book Description
"Rich detail and vivid anecdotes of adventure....A treasure trove of exotic fact and hard thinking."—The New York Times Book Review, front page
For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above—so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem.
Casting his expert eye over the rapidly diminishing areas of wilderness where predators still reign, the award-winning author of The Song of the Dodo examines the fate of lions in India's Gir forest, of saltwater crocodiles in northern Australia, of brown bears in the mountains of Romania, and of Siberian tigers in the Russian Far East. In the poignant and troublesome ferocity of these embattled creatures, we recognize something primeval deep within us, something in danger of vanishing forever.
Customer Reviews:
Land Eating Mammals.......2007-03-11
By the time I completed David Quammen's "Monster of God" I had to wonder "who's the predator here"? Of course given half a chance it would be the four animals (Asiatic Lions, European Brown Bears, Saltwater Crocodiles and Siberian Tigers) he covers in his thoughtfully written book but as he points out, along with other naturalists and conservationists, they are not being given half a chance. For me this was a very sobering read and I had to put it down for a couple of weeks before I could bear to finish the last ten pages. There are glimmers of hope sprinkled throughout the book with Mr.Quammen masterfully guiding us through these fragile wild places where these "monsters" are intended to be stalking (us!). The section on the Asiatic lions and the Maldhari people in India, caught in a push-pull situation, was very moving while the Brown Bear section set in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania was chilling. The passages about Ceausescu's "shooting expeditions" are blazed into my memory almost as a metaphor of what man is doing to the whole bloody planet. It isn't the easiest reading style but I felt in very capable hands with Mr. Quammen showing us once more that time is, in fact, running out for these magnificent animals and for us.
Great Read...but some will hate it. .......2006-02-12
Great read...Quammen interweaves history, culture, science, folklore, and exotic locations to describe four alpha predators: the Asiatic Lion, the Australian Crocodile, the Romanian Bear, and the Siberian Tiger.
Quammen is an accomplished naturalist and master of literary prose whose expansive topics and mastery of prose will delight some and madden others. Topics in the book range from the epic poem Beowulf, to the discovery of the Chauvet Caves in France, to H.R Giger's creature used in the Alien movies.
This is not a "Maneaters" or "How to Survive a Bear Attack" type book. If you expect that type of read, you'll be sorely disappointed. Also, whether by accident or design, Quammen focuses on alpha predators that to a limited extent, coexist with humans within that culture. (Quammen even states that similar interactions with the bears in Yellowstone Park or the lions in Africa, as opposed to the bears and lions in Romania and India respectively, he describes in the book, would probably result in certain death.)
Quammen neither demonizes nor coddles these creatures, but instead clearly establishes their proper role in the environment and what effect man's exploding population will have on them in the next 100 years. Intelligent, thoughtful, and provocative writing.
If you can discipline yourself to read through the entire book, you just might find it enlightening.
Heavy on context, light on gore.......2006-02-04
While Quammen himself has remarked on the natural world's "great capacity for vulgar entertainment," he is reluctant to travel far down that path in Monster of God. Indeed, if you came looking for gory details of terrifying animal attacks, you'd better be prepared to find them hidden amidst long stretches of historical and political information. You will learn far more about nomad buffalo herders in India, the plight of the aborigines in Australia, and the hunting trips of Nicolae Ceaucescu in Romania, than you will about any particular predator species. Quammen is careful to provide context--possibly too much context. He has a point to make about social class and resource management, a theory he gives the unlikely name of "the Muskrat Conundrum," and he feels there's a lot of historical and economic ground to cover, before we can understand what man-eaters have to do with the social class of the people they eat.
His goal is for us to sympathize both with the predators, teetering on the edge of extinction, and the people whose lives dictate that they live among and fear these predators. A former novelist and literature scholar, Quammen presents the human side of the story with astute characterizations of varied personalities. His approach is the intimacy of immersion journalism. Though disguised as a sensationalist page-turner about animals that kill people, Monster is, at its heart, a conservationist's tale.
A problem that generally plagues the literature of conservation is the unrelenting dreariness and pessimism that can galvanize the thick-skinned reader but leaves all others inert and despondent. In contrast, David Quammen's dire predictions, put into a rich context of history, society, environment and gripping dramatic prose, place Monster of God into another category: not quite a guilty pleasure animal attack book, and not the bitter pill medicine of standard environmental writing. Instead he's presented a combination of both forms, a scholarly yet entertaining monster book with a conservationist's conscience.
Huge amount of information, a bit tiresome to read, and nothing about God........2006-01-22
I was somewhat disappointed by "Monster of God." This book has a wealth of information on India's lions and tigers. There are also great quantities of material covering the other man eating species he investigates (Aussie crocks, Romanian bears, etc...) The reading of "Monster of God" can get tedious at times. Sometimes it reads like a travel journal, other times like a dissertation paper. The bibliography is enormous. There are also many historical examples and related events.
At 430+ pages of text and long index and bib, the book does offer great resources for those interested. Unfortunately, many readers might be put off by the dragging pace that is often found in the writing. How many examples does one need to understand that animals will kill people? How many accounts of footprints or animal signs is needed to make a point? Therein is my problem with this book. There is so much material that the author's main point gets drowned out by the piles of facts and statistics. If "Monster of God" were more efficiently edited and redacted making the central idea of the text clearer I would have enjoyed it much more. Lastly, the title is confusing. There are a few references to the Bible, but God is absent from this book. Perhaps a better title would have been, "The Monsters of History" or "Evolution's Monsters" or just plan "Man Eater and Man."
Great food for thought, but sorely needing illustrations!.......2005-12-29
This is a well written, though somewhat scattered attempt to better understand the book's subject and subtitle: "the Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind". The strength of the book lays in David Quammen's thorough research, including his personal journeys into the actual predator habitats he discusses, and pithy nature writing skills. He focuses on four specific species of lion, crocodile, bear, and tiger; each located respectively in India, Australia, Romania, and Siberia. Many of the best parts of this book come from Quammen's interactions with the local inhabitants who are directly involved with these big game animals, living with them day to day in one way or another. These peoples include both indigenous and non-indigenous cultures such as the Maldhari of Gir in India, the Yolngu of eastern Arnhem Land in Australia, and the Udege of the Bikin River valley in the Russian Far East. Quammen talks with and utilizes the tracking services of and indigenous knowledge of these peoples along with Orissan villagers in India, Carpathian shepherds in Romania, and a number of scientists and other individuals along the way, making Monster of God a mosaic of travelogue, anthropology, history, nature-writing, and biology.
It was the enticing subtitle of the book which originally attracted me to it and I expected more psychology and history than I got. The sections where Quammen actually focuses on these topics include interesting comparisons between kingship, power, and lions; paleontological speculations about dragons and the biblical Leviathon; discussions on Beowulf and Gilgamesh; as well as observations about modern cinematography in the form of the sci-fi Alien movies. At seemingly random points he makes references to all of these sources, which are all pertinent, but fails to make any real ground-breaking insights.
My main criticism of this book is that it sorely needs illustrations. With only a few redundant maps indicating the four main regions in which Quammen travels, the absence of photographs, charts, graphs, more maps, and other illustrations was conspicuous. Were Quammen's editors desperately trying to cram this book into under 500 pages? Was Norton too cheap? With a $26.95 hardbound list price I can't imagine that was the issue, but by the way, I've seen this book being sold brand new in a local used bookstore for under $7 so keep that in mind when purchasing online. Or did Quammen not think pictues important? Whatever the case, you'll surely understand what I'm talking about in the chapter where he makes comparisons between canine teeth among various carnivores, or tantalizes the reader with the "overwhelming" cave paintings at Chauvet which he had "obsessed over for several weeks" while writing. A few reproductions of the Alien or Jaws movie posters would have been a nice touch, as would pictures of dragons and other mythical beasts constantly referred to in the text. How about the people who took Quammen in and helped him write the book - it would've been nice to see them represented pictorially. And most obviously, where are the animals themselves? Beyond the useless maps all we get is a single, hypothetical algebraic equation on page 423 which supposedly defines what a keystone species is or isn't!
In spite of these unforgivable oversights the book deserves at least four stars and I've given it that, but should have only three if I were to base my rating on a strictly consumer standpoint because for the prices they're asking for books these days I feel slightly ripped off. Nevertheless, the writing is worthy of four or five stars so if that's all you care about, then you'll probably be happy depending on what you're looking for. As a travelogue and update on the current status of the four big-game animals represented here which are on the verge of extinction, it is a nice blend of background and current affairs. But if you're looking for a more in-depth analysis of the policies surrounding poaching, game reserves, hunting and preservation, then you'll find nothing new here. If you've come to this book like me because the sub-title topic sounded interesting you might not be 100% satisfied with what you were looking for, however you will probably discover new topics of interest to pursue elsewhere.
Overall, Quammen touches on a variety of complex subjects, but provides little more than an enticing introduction to them. They include ecology, conservation & preservation, game reserve management, zoology, poaching, habitat destruction, climate change, and the very serious matter of black markets for animal fetishes and "herbal medicines". There was enough material here for a larger book, or perhaps two or three volumes. I came away from this book wanting more, not less.
Quammen predicts that by the year 2150 there will be no more lions, tigers, or bears. 30,000 years of human/alpha-predator co-habitation will have ended. The question of what this means from a psychological standpoint is what this book attempts to answer and professes to focus upon, but succeeds more in describing current affairs and biology than in psychology, literary history, or mythology - as would be expected from a nature-writer. I'm not disappointed, but Monster of God is a meandering, tangential journey through the "jungles of history and the mind" through the eyes of a talented and knowledgable nature-writer who seems conflicted between viewing these "man-eaters" as great, mythical beasts with profound historical impact on human psychology, and seeing them more in the manner of some of the more jaded hunter personalities he encounters throughout: as either commodities, or simply, as nothing more or less than animals. The fact is that they're each disappearing because of human encroachment and the impacts of extinction are uncertain. Whether we respect, rever, or detest these great man-eaters most of us do in fact fear them out in the wild, even though most of those making decisions about their fates do not have deal with them day to day (another interesting side-subject which Quammen calls "the muskrat conundrum" where the poorest people live in dangerous proximity to these animals). And perhaps this is Quammen's point and question, that the "wild" is disappearing and without it or the actual remaining beasts that have formed a vital component of our mythology, history, and psychology what happens to us? Will we remain respectful, reverential human beings? Or become something else, something worse than a beast when our only fears are each other and sci-fi horror movies?
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Something to chew on.(Conservation)(Book Review): An article from: American Scientist
Manufacturer: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
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ASIN: B0008GE21E
Release Date: 2005-07-31 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from American Scholar, published by Phi Beta Kappa Society on September 22, 2003. The length of the article is 1425 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: Tooth and Claw.(Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind)(Book Review)
Author: Jonathan Cook
Publication:
American Scholar (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2003
Publisher: Phi Beta Kappa Society
Volume: 72
Issue: 4
Page: 144(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from OnEarth, published by Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. on September 22, 2003. The length of the article is 965 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: Where the wild things are: as the world's big predators slip toward extinction, we're learning that it's lonely at the top.(Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind)(Book Review)
Author: Tim Folger
Publication:
OnEarth (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2003
Publisher: Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
Volume: 25
Issue: 3
Page: 38(2)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Beyond Sun And Sand: Caribbean Environmentalisms
Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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The Inheritance of Loss
ASIN: 0813536545 |
Book Description
"This original and innovative book presents the research findings and conceptualizations of an international group of talented scholars who explore the interrelationship between development, environmentalism, and social movements in the Caribbean. This book will be an important addition to the literature on the Caribbean in the world system that will be used in college classrooms and cited by scholars for its valuable contributions to the field."—Pedro Cabán, author of Constructing a Colonial People: Puerto Rico and the United States 1898-1932 Filtered through the lens of the North American and European media, the Caribbean appears to be a series of idyllic landscapes—sanctuaries designed for sailing, diving, and basking in the sun on endless white sandy beaches. Conservation literature paints a similarly enticing portrait, describing the region as a habitat for endangered coral reefs and their denizens, parrots, butterflies, turtles, snails, and a myriad of plant species.
In both versions, the image of the exotic landscape overshadows the rich island cultures that are both linguistically and politically diverse, but trapped in a global economy that offers few options for development. Popular depictions also overlook the reality that the region is fraught with environmental problems, including water and air pollution, solid waste mismanagement, destruction of ecosystems, deforestation, and the transition from agriculture to ranching.
Bringing together ten essays by social scientists and activists, Beyond Sun and Sand provides the most comprehensive exploration to date of the range of environmental issues facing the region and the social movements that have developed to deal with them. The authors consider the role that global and regional political economies play in this process and provide valuable insight into Caribbean environmentalism. Many of the essays by prominent Caribbean analysts are made available for the first time in English.
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