Book Description
About national and international power in the "modern" or Post Renaissance period. Explains how the various powers have risen and fallen over the 5 centuries since the formation of the "new monarchies" in W. Europe.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
American Decline - War Spending.......2007-08-31
An absolutely indispensible source book to understand the deline of America to a second rate ex empire. Well written, and loaded with facts of production and distributiion, this is a somewhat "heavy text". Although America's future is not discussed per se, you reach the unavoidable conclusion that our nation, like all failed states in the past, declines and falls when it wastes its production of wealth on war. So it has ever been.
Well argued thesis, although subject to question.......2007-07-03
As Kennedy puts it in his "Introduction," "This is a book about national and international power in the "modern"--that is, post-Renaissance--period. It seeks to trace and to explain how the various great powers have risen and fallen. . . ." And, on the same page:
"The `military conflict' referred to in the book's subtitle is therefore always examined in the context of `economic change.' The triumph of any one Great Power in this period, or the collapse of another, has usually been the consequence of lengthy fighting by its armed forces; but it has also been the consequence of the more or less efficient utilization of the state's productive resources in wartime, and, further in the background, of the way in which that state's economy has been rising or falling, relative to the other leading nations. . . ."
He examines a variety of historical instances in which empires or countries spend more on their empires or expansion than they can afford. Too much expenditure on defense and the military drains the national treasure and wealth and can lead to an erosion in the vitality and power of that society.
Earlier examples of imperial overreach or overstretch include the Hapsburg Empire (1519-1659). From 1660-1815, other examples are adduced. So, too, periods such as 1815-1885, 1885-1918, 1919-1942.
He goes on to examine the bipolar world after World War II (the United States versus the Soviet Union) and the time there following. He is pessimistic about the United States maintaining its dominance. Two decades after the book was written, that fear has not come about. On the other hand, the Soviet Union did suffer from its "overreach" and has not survived as a major power in a bipolar system. Today's Russia is simply not a superpower anymore. Thus, his fear for the American future has not yet come about. Will it? If he is right and the United States overreaches, then we would expect decline. If his view is correct, there is a challenge to American decision makers to make sure that this does not happen. Are they up to the task? As historians might note, we must wait until the future to know.
Thus, while some of his forecasts clearly have not yet come about, he does produce a rich historical analysis of the relationship between the internal characteristics of a society, the international context, and ultimate success or failure. This book is well worth grappling with. . . .
The right idea but..........2007-06-15
A good book for anyone interested in an overview of nation-state history spanning the past 500 years. While definitely taking a macro approach to world history (which any attempt at a world history must take), Kennedy does a very good job in examining two of the very prominent factors that lead to rise of some powers and the subsequent decline of others. These two factors are military, i.e. how various wars and military developments shaped the destines of certain nation-states, and economic, i.e. how trade, manufacturing, and finance all form a base for what a state can and cannot do militarily. The attention given to both these areas is comprehensive and thorough, while at the same the reader is not weighed down by endless statistics, dates, or other numbers. I personally found the economic analysis to be the most insightful part of the book, allowing the lay reader to become acquainted with the complex world of monies that is essential to a complete understanding of the time period and subject covered.
Unfortunately, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers does not provide enough information to cover the presumptuous title of the book. What is lacking is any kind of social analysis of the various situations that existed in the different nation-states examined. To ignore the underlying social forces in any one nation-state is to ignore the lives and experiences of the people who allowed the states to work, for without the cooperation of the people in fighting the wars, manufacturing the goods, and providing the labor, no state could rise to the status of world power. This is a particularly glaring omission because it is during this period that capitalism develops out of feudalism and becomes the driving force and engine of modern Europe. This economic development and the drastic changes it brought to all aspects of the different societies under examination seems to me to be a crucial factor. Without it we lack an understanding of how the inner mechanics of the societies were changed and used to the governments advantage in acquiring wealth and hence power.
To the authors' credit, he has no illusions about the scope of is book. Indeed his goal is to focus on the two aforementioned areas and leave the others factors for other authors to investigate. Even with this acknowledgement I still felt he book to come up short. The perspective was too telescoped at the apex of power in governments, financial, and trading industries. It must be taken in to account that power was and is acquired from the labor of the people, especially so in the years covered in this book.
All in all, this book provides a good starting point for anyone interested in the subject matter. Although it is a bit dated, published 1987, it has an interesting final chapter concerning the future and the role of the current powers, their decline, and the subsequent rise of new powers to take their place. Hint, hint, the USA is not one of the rising ones. Its always fun to see whether or not an authors forecasts for the future come true. The final chapter may indeed turn out to be the best section given a few decades.
Eye opening take on economic motivations behind the history.......2007-04-03
Guns or Butter is an age old un-attributed quote, but in "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" author Paul Kennedy seeks to explore that maxim on a massive scale from 1500 to 2000. Equally massive is the resulting tome which seeks to explore the connection between economic power and military power and the resultant effect upon the growth, maintenance, or decline of a nation's power. In Kennedy's hypothesis military and economic power go hand in hand, making or breaking a nation's ability to project power and in the few instances to become Great Powers. Kennedy analyses what it is that takes a nation to the status of Great Power and, ultimately, what is their undoing. Kennedy sees a direct correlation between Great Powers who overextend themselves, politically, militarily or economically and in some cases both, and the resultant decline in cases of over-reach or in the face of serious threats they may have underestimated. When it comes to Great Power status Kennedy is more concerned with dimensions of power than the spatial dimensions or status dimensions sometimes used to define Great Power status.
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" was a fascinating read, especially to help better understand some of the economic reasons for the failures of Great Powers in the 20th Century and to gain greater insight into what sometimes motivated leaders to make the choices they did. I found it difficult to put down at times as most histories on this era look strictly at the political considerations for particular courses of action rather than the economic concerns. Indeed often times it seems as though most histories are written by political scientists than by economists. Adding this book to the repertoire helps to balance that situation rather smartly, although it does beg the question of why histories incorporate so little economic information.
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" is indeed the tour de force that many of the reviews heralded it as being. Economics is frequently labeled the "dismal science" but when written as well as Kennedy does, it is a gripping and engaging read. In his effort to determine if states can have guns and butter or if it is an either-or proposition the answer is resoundingly clear.
Overtaken By Events.......2007-03-06
"The Rise And Fall Of The Great Powers" by Paul Kennedy. Random House, New York, 1987.
It was 1987, twenty years ago, when this book was first published. I used this book when I was working on my MA in History. The central thesis of Kennedy's book is portrayed explicitly by the book's dust jacket. On that dust jacket, the United Kingdom, represented by John Bull, carrying a Union Jack, is stepping down from the "top of the world", and he is looking back at those who are following. Uncle Sam, carrying the Stars and Stripes, is just about to step down, following John Bull. Directly behind Uncle Sam is a thin, bespectacled fellow in a three piece suit. Since this fellow is carrying the Rising Sun, it is obvious that Mr. Kennedy is proposing the heir-apparent, Japan, for world-dominance.
World events have overtaken Kennedy's book, and these events include, just to mention a few: Einheit Day, the day of unification of Germany, October 3 1990, the demise of communism in Europe and the splintering of the Soviet Union. We have had not one, but two wars in Iraq, and NATO troops are controlling Afghanistan. Today, former members of the communistic empire are clamoring to join the European Union. It has been fifty years since the Treaty of Rome (1957) which is generally recognized as the inception of the European Union. Europe has become the crucible of political and economic change, and is therefore challenging the United States and the economically quiescent Japan for leadership of the world. It is time to revise the "Rise And Fall", and the author should be careful to consider the building of submarine fleets, not only by China, but also by Iran.
Customer Reviews:
Eye opening view of the economics behind the history.......2007-04-03
Guns or Butter is an age old un-attributed quote, but in "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" author Paul Kennedy seeks to explore that maxim on a massive scale from 1500 to 2000. Equally massive is the resulting tome which seeks to explore the connection between economic power and military power and the resultant effect upon the growth, maintenance, or decline of a nation's power. In Kennedy's hypothesis military and economic power go hand in hand, making or breaking a nation's ability to project power and in the few instances to become Great Powers. Kennedy analyses what it is that takes a nation to the status of Great Power and, ultimately, what is their undoing. Kennedy sees a direct correlation between Great Powers who overextend themselves, politically, militarily or economically and in some cases both, and the resultant decline in cases of over-reach or in the face of serious threats they may have underestimated. When it comes to Great Power status Kennedy is more concerned with dimensions of power than the spatial dimensions or status dimensions sometimes used to define Great Power status.
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" was a fascinating read, especially to help better understand some of the economic reasons for the failures of Great Powers in the 20th Century and to gain greater insight into what sometimes motivated leaders to make the choices they did. I found it difficult to put down at times as most histories on this era look strictly at the political considerations for particular courses of action rather than the economic concerns. Indeed often times it seems as though most histories are written by political scientists than by economists. Adding this book to the repertoire helps to balance that situation rather smartly, although it does beg the question of why histories incorporate so little economic information.
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" is indeed the tour de force that many of the reviews heralded it as being. Economics is frequently labeled the "dismal science" but when written as well as Kennedy does, it is a gripping and engaging read. In his effort to determine if states can have guns and butter or if it is an either-or proposition the answer is resoundingly clear.
Customer Reviews:
Eye opening take on economic motivations behind the history.......2007-04-03
Guns or Butter is an age old un-attributed quote, but in "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" author Paul Kennedy seeks to explore that maxim on a massive scale from 1500 to 2000. Equally massive is the resulting tome which seeks to explore the connection between economic power and military power and the resultant effect upon the growth, maintenance, or decline of a nation's power. In Kennedy's hypothesis military and economic power go hand in hand, making or breaking a nation's ability to project power and in the few instances to become Great Powers. Kennedy analyses what it is that takes a nation to the status of Great Power and, ultimately, what is their undoing. Kennedy sees a direct correlation between Great Powers who overextend themselves, politically, militarily or economically and in some cases both, and the resultant decline in cases of over-reach or in the face of serious threats they may have underestimated. When it comes to Great Power status Kennedy is more concerned with dimensions of power than the spatial dimensions or status dimensions sometimes used to define Great Power status.
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" was a fascinating read, especially to help better understand some of the economic reasons for the failures of Great Powers in the 20th Century and to gain greater insight into what sometimes motivated leaders to make the choices they did. I found it difficult to put down at times as most histories on this era look strictly at the political considerations for particular courses of action rather than the economic concerns. Indeed often times it seems as though most histories are written by political scientists than by economists. Adding this book to the repertoire helps to balance that situation rather smartly, although it does beg the question of why histories incorporate so little economic information.
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" is indeed the tour de force that many of the reviews heralded it as being. Economics is frequently labeled the "dismal science" but when written as well as Kennedy does, it is a gripping and engaging read. In his effort to determine if states can have guns and butter or if it is an either-or proposition the answer is resoundingly clear.
Customer Reviews:
Eye opening take on economic motivations behind the history.......2007-04-03
Guns or Butter is an age old un-attributed quote, but in "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" author Paul Kennedy seeks to explore that maxim on a massive scale from 1500 to 2000. Equally massive is the resulting tome which seeks to explore the connection between economic power and military power and the resultant effect upon the growth, maintenance, or decline of a nation's power. In Kennedy's hypothesis military and economic power go hand in hand, making or breaking a nation's ability to project power and in the few instances to become Great Powers. Kennedy analyses what it is that takes a nation to the status of Great Power and, ultimately, what is their undoing. Kennedy sees a direct correlation between Great Powers who overextend themselves, politically, militarily or economically and in some cases both, and the resultant decline in cases of over-reach or in the face of serious threats they may have underestimated. When it comes to Great Power status Kennedy is more concerned with dimensions of power than the spatial dimensions or status dimensions sometimes used to define Great Power status.
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" was a fascinating read, especially to help better understand some of the economic reasons for the failures of Great Powers in the 20th Century and to gain greater insight into what sometimes motivated leaders to make the choices they did. I found it difficult to put down at times as most histories on this era look strictly at the political considerations for particular courses of action rather than the economic concerns. Indeed often times it seems as though most histories are written by political scientists than by economists. Adding this book to the repertoire helps to balance that situation rather smartly, although it does beg the question of why histories incorporate so little economic information.
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" is indeed the tour de force that many of the reviews heralded it as being. Economics is frequently labeled the "dismal science" but when written as well as Kennedy does, it is a gripping and engaging read. In his effort to determine if states can have guns and butter or if it is an either-or proposition the answer is resoundingly clear.
Customer Reviews:
Eye opening take on economic motivations behind the history.......2007-04-03
Guns or Butter is an age old un-attributed quote, but in "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" author Paul Kennedy seeks to explore that maxim on a massive scale from 1500 to 2000. Equally massive is the resulting tome which seeks to explore the connection between economic power and military power and the resultant effect upon the growth, maintenance, or decline of a nation's power. In Kennedy's hypothesis military and economic power go hand in hand, making or breaking a nation's ability to project power and in the few instances to become Great Powers. Kennedy analyses what it is that takes a nation to the status of Great Power and, ultimately, what is their undoing. Kennedy sees a direct correlation between Great Powers who overextend themselves, politically, militarily or economically and in some cases both, and the resultant decline in cases of over-reach or in the face of serious threats they may have underestimated. When it comes to Great Power status Kennedy is more concerned with dimensions of power than the spatial dimensions or status dimensions sometimes used to define Great Power status.
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" was a fascinating read, especially to help better understand some of the economic reasons for the failures of Great Powers in the 20th Century and to gain greater insight into what sometimes motivated leaders to make the choices they did. I found it difficult to put down at times as most histories on this era look strictly at the political considerations for particular courses of action rather than the economic concerns. Indeed often times it seems as though most histories are written by political scientists than by economists. Adding this book to the repertoire helps to balance that situation rather smartly, although it does beg the question of why histories incorporate so little economic information.
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" is indeed the tour de force that many of the reviews heralded it as being. Economics is frequently labeled the "dismal science" but when written as well as Kennedy does, it is a gripping and engaging read. In his effort to determine if states can have guns and butter or if it is an either-or proposition the answer is resoundingly clear.
Customer Reviews:
Eye opening take on economic motivations behind the history.......2007-04-03
Guns or Butter is an age old un-attributed quote, but in "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" author Paul Kennedy seeks to explore that maxim on a massive scale from 1500 to 2000. Equally massive is the resulting tome which seeks to explore the connection between economic power and military power and the resultant effect upon the growth, maintenance, or decline of a nation's power. In Kennedy's hypothesis military and economic power go hand in hand, making or breaking a nation's ability to project power and in the few instances to become Great Powers. Kennedy analyses what it is that takes a nation to the status of Great Power and, ultimately, what is their undoing. Kennedy sees a direct correlation between Great Powers who overextend themselves, politically, militarily or economically and in some cases both, and the resultant decline in cases of over-reach or in the face of serious threats they may have underestimated. When it comes to Great Power status Kennedy is more concerned with dimensions of power than the spatial dimensions or status dimensions sometimes used to define Great Power status.
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" was a fascinating read, especially to help better understand some of the economic reasons for the failures of Great Powers in the 20th Century and to gain greater insight into what sometimes motivated leaders to make the choices they did. I found it difficult to put down at times as most histories on this era look strictly at the political considerations for particular courses of action rather than the economic concerns. Indeed often times it seems as though most histories are written by political scientists than by economists. Adding this book to the repertoire helps to balance that situation rather smartly, although it does beg the question of why histories incorporate so little economic information.
"The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" is indeed the tour de force that many of the reviews heralded it as being. Economics is frequently labeled the "dismal science" but when written as well as Kennedy does, it is a gripping and engaging read. In his effort to determine if states can have guns and butter or if it is an either-or proposition the answer is resoundingly clear.
Average customer rating:
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The vanished worlds of Jewry
Raphael Patai
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The Vanished Worlds of Jewry
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Average customer rating:
- dumbed down technical info.
- See the future today--- bandwidth-- replaces plastic as word
- ranges from compulsively readable to mind numbingly annoying
- Must I say, a few incandescent fish in a wide prolix sea...
- Must I say, a few incandescent fish in a wide prolix sea...
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TELECOSM: How Infinite Bandwidth will Revolutionize Our World
George Gilder
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Telecosm: The World After Bandwidth Abundance
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Amazon.com
And he said, "Let the computer age be over."
And so it was.
George Gilder, the tech-friendly author of the well-received chip treatise, The Meaning of the Microcosm, and publisher of the Gilder Technology Report, has brought forth Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World, another work of technical prose that's sure to appeal to both techheads and nontechnical folks alike.
Telecosm predicts a revolutionary new era of unlimited bandwidth: it describes how the "age of the microchip"--dubbed the "microcosm"--is ending and leaving in its wake a new era--the "telecosm," or "the world enabled and defined by new communications technology."
Speaking like a prophet of the bandwidth deity, Brother Gilder lays down the telecosmic commandments--the Law of the Telecosm, Gilder's Law, the Black Box Law, and so on. He describes the gaggle of industry players--from cable and satellite to telephone and computer--who populate the telecosm arena.
Books about telecommunications rarely are quotable, but Telecosm at times is a brilliant example of magical and (believe it or not) mystical prose. Gilder's philo-techno perspective makes for interesting and thought-provoking musings: "Wrought of sand, oxygen, and aluminum, the three most common substances in the Earth's crust, the microprocessor distills ideas as complex as a street map of America onto a sliver of silicon the size of a thumbnail. This gift of the quantum is a miracle of compression." And, finally, he describes precisely what the telecosm will create among its congregation: "The gift of the telecosm is a miracle of expansion: grains of sand spun into crystalline fibers and woven into worldwide webs."
What happens when we become blessed with the miracle of infinite bandwidth? Gilder writes, "You can replace the seven-layer smart network with a much faster, dumber, unlayered one. Let all messages careen around on their own. Let the end-user machines take responsibility for them. Amid the oceans of abundant bandwidth, anyone who wants to drink just needs to invent the right kind of cup." And what of unlimited bandwidth? No mere contradiction in terms, unlimited bandwidth is what we strive for--"we" meaning those of us who suffer bravely through the contradictions of Moore's Law and Metcalfe's Law, as we increase our RAM and decrease our Net access time.
While it seems too simple to describe Telecosm as a telescopically written book of cosmic proportions, it is that and more. Gilder's political rants and raves for infinite bandwidth boldly foretell the age of the telecosm and its dramatic impact on all of us--of our metamorphosis from users who found ourselves bound by the limits of our networks to "bandwidth angels" who compute in the "Promethean light." --E. Brooke Gilbert
Book Description
The computer age is over.
After a cataclysmic global run of thirty years, it has given birth to the age of the telecosm -- the world enabled and defined by new communications technology. Chips and software will continue to make great contributions to our lives, but the action is elsewhere. To seek the key to great wealth and to understand the bewildering ways that high tech is restructuring our lives, look not to chip speed but to communication power, or bandwidth. Bandwidth is exploding, and its abundance is the most important social and economic fact of our time.
George Gilder is one of the great technological visionaries, and "the man who put the 's' in 'telecosm'" (Telephony magazine). He is equally famous for understanding and predicting the nuts and bolts of complex technologies, and for putting it all together in a soaring view of why things change, and what it means for our daily lives. His track record of futurist predictions is one of the best, often proving to be right even when initially opposed by mighty corporations and governments. He foresaw the power of fiber and wireless optics, the decline of the telephone regime, and the explosion of handheld computers, among many trends. His list of favored companies outpaced even the soaring Nasdaq in 1999 by more than double.
His long-awaited Telecosm is a bible of the new age of communications. Equal parts science story, business history, social analysis, and prediction, it is the one book you need to make sense of the titanic changes underway in our lives. Whether you surf the net constantly or not at all, whether you live on your cell phone or hate it for its invasion of private life, you need this book. It has been less than two decades since the introduction of the IBM personal computer, and yet the enormous changes wrought in our lives by the computer will pale beside the changes of the telecosm. Gilder explains why computers will "empty out," with their components migrating to the net; why hundreds of low-flying satellites will enable hand-held computers and communicators to become ubiquitous; why television will die; why newspapers and magazines will revive; why advertising will become less obnoxious; and why companies will never be able to waste your time again.
Along the way you will meet the movers and shakers who have made the telecosm possible. From Charles Townes and Gordon Gould, who invented the laser, to the story of JDS Uniphase, "the Intel of the Telecosm," to the birthing of fiberless optics pioneer TeraBeam, here are the inventors and entrepreneurs who will be hailed as the next Edison or Gates. From hardware to software to chips to storage, here are the technologies that will soon be as basic as the air we breathe.
Customer Reviews:
dumbed down technical info........2005-03-31
If science and technology aren't your thing, but your curious, this is a good book. Besides the telecom lesson, the book offers advice on how to invest in telecom stocks.
The book talks about abundance of supply, so the Internet bubble had to burst according to the book.
See the future today--- bandwidth-- replaces plastic as word.......2005-03-07
Dustin Hoffman was told that PLASTICS was the word for the future-- for our generation it is all about the BANDWIDTH-- Gilder knows this and as an industry guru, he went out on the infinite limb to project how telephony, cable and more converge together to demand bigger pipes to our homes, businesses and schools and lead to ubiquitous computing. One of my top 10 books on my Listmania to read if you want to know about the Wireless World.
ranges from compulsively readable to mind numbingly annoying.......2003-12-12
Gilder's writing style is verbiose and lively. He poetically waxes mad philosophical luminescence, resonating and pontificating over the coming harmonies of bandwidth abundance, the ascendant technologies that act as its conduits, and wives thereof, to be grossly humane.
It was cool at first to read such a colorful account of hi-tech, but over the course of the book his manic style wore on me a bit. Towards the end there was a lack of solid material and everything started to sound repetitive and overwrought. Still, this is a fast read, and even though it's a bit dated in the short term, over the long term a lot of his predictions will probably turn out to be true. And although none of his predictions are *that* earth-shattering, this is still an interesting account of what the future world of telecommunications will look like.
Must I say, a few incandescent fish in a wide prolix sea..........2003-04-14
Ah. The language of Gilder! In a typically verbose, self-confessed 'prophetic mode of the inspired historian' he makes the reader wade through an egotistical, occasionally insightful and entertaining, but mostly an annoyingly predictable view of the future of the networked world that he believes is no less consequential than the most important breakthroughs in physics.
Expect to work through pseudo-erudite stuff ("Beyond the copper cages of existing communications, the telecosm dissolves the topography of old limits and brings technology into a boundless, elastic new universe, fashioned from incandescent oceans of bits on the electromagnetic spectrum.") as a perfectly ho-hum notion that bandwidth will revolutionize our world, surprise surprise, is fleshed out into 20 putative laws of the telecosm that provide provocative rules to live by. Some of Gilder's reasoning is tenuous, and many of his conclusions are obvious. For instance, the Law of Instantaneous Information builds on the fact that the speed of light is immutable and that our life spans are limited. Combining those facts, Gilder grapples to arrive at the terribly simple idea that companies should strive to save time for their customers. Uh huh.
The flow of the book can be as daunting as the prose. Essentially this is 4 books in 1 --
1. An investment guide, which really should be skipped for your own good. For instance, we were convinced over a span of dozen pages that JDS Uniphase would be the Intel of the networking world. The equity, at that time US$ 20 a share, now gets by at $3.
2. A look at the world that infinite bandwidth is creating, which you most likely already know much more about than to subject yourself to this verbiage.
3. A history of scientific discovery. Ironically, this is the only section with pockets of amusing anecdotal material, particularly a section on the development of science where he tells gossipy tales that show how entrepreneurs developed the technologies that are forming the telecosm.
4. A textbook at the end, with a glossary that you could lay end on end from Tokyo to Tanzania.
If you really must read this supposedly epic effort, this last section (the textbook section) is where you could consider starting off your equally monumental effort to read it. You'll find a handy compendium of the 20 laws and their underlying assumptions.
Otherwise, rest assured that this is not in the same league as vintage Gilder. If you are like me, you'll move on without any guilt to expend your scarce time resources on more relevant, accessible material on the telecom industry instead.
Must I say, a few incandescent fish in a wide prolix sea..........2003-04-14
Ah. The language of Gilder! In a typically verbose, self-confessed 'prophetic mode of the inspired historian' he makes the reader wade through an egotistical, occasionally insightful and entertaining, and at times even annoyingly predictable view of the future of the networked world that he believes is no less consequential than the most important breakthroughs in physics.
Expect to work through stuff like: "Beyond the copper cages of existing communications, the telecosm dissolves the topography of old limits and brings technology into a boundless, elastic new universe, fashioned from incandescent oceans of bits on the electromagnetic spectrum."
A perfectly predictable notion that bandwidth will revolutionize our world (what a surprise!) is fleshed out into 20 putative laws of the telecosm that provide provocative rules to live by. Some of Gilder's reasoning is tenuous, and many of his conclusions are obvious. For instance, the Law of Instantaneous Information builds on the fact that the speed of light is immutable and that our life spans are limited. Combining those facts, Gilder grapples to arrive at the terribly simple idea that companies should strive to save time for their customers. Uh huh.
The flow of the book can be as daunting as the prose. Essentially this is 4 books in 1 --
1. An investment guide, which really should be skipped for your own good. For instance, we were convinced over a span of dozen pages that JDS Uniphase would be the Intel of the networking world. The equity, at that time US$ 20 a share, now gets by at $3.
2. A look at the world that infinite bandwidth is creating, which you most likely already know much more about than to subject yourself to this verbiage.
3. A history of scientific discovery. Ironically, this is the only section with pockets of amusing anecdotal material, particularly a section on the development of science where he tells gossipy tales that show how entrepreneurs developed the technologies that are forming the telecosm.
4. A textbook at the end, with a glossary that you could lay end on end from Tokyo to Tanzania.
If you really must read this supposedly epic effort, this last section (the textbook section) is where you could consider starting off your equally monumental effort to read it. You'll find a handy compendium of the 20 laws and their underlying assumptions.
Otherwise you can pretty much pass this by, assured that you haven't really missed a lot that you haven't already read in the WSJ, Economist, Forbes, BW etc.
Book Description
How the Buenos Aires Ranch became not only a rallying point for multiple agendas in the "rangeland conflict" after its conversion to a wildlife refuge but also an expression of the larger shift from agricultural to urban economies in the Southwest. Sayre evaluates both sides of the controversy--from ranching's impact on the environment to environmentalism's sometimes misguided efforts at restoration--to address the complex and contradictory roles of ranching, endangered species conservation, and urbanization in the social and environmental transformation of the West.
Customer Reviews:
An intriguing and ground-breaking book.......2005-04-02
Sayre's book on ranching and endangered species uses a compact study area, the Altar Valley of Southern Arizona, to analyze various forms of human and 'natural capital.' The book is deep in the area's history, ecology and current resource management practices, and yet also steeped in theoretical arguments that make perfect sense given his overall argument. The Bobwhite Quail plays a central role in producing a landscape of "Nature" (big "N") that becomes the pivot-point for contemporary rural politics between ranchers, environmentalists, and federal agency workers. Really good research, and still accessible; kudos to the author.
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