Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
Average customer rating:

Required reading

Great bookI

A pleasant read

A must for anyone developing products

2107: "You People Lived in Filth!" - A sort of book review of Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart's Cradle to Cradle

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
William McDonough , and Michael Braungart
Manufacturer: North Point Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0865475873

Amazon.com

Paper or plastic? Neither, say William McDonough and Michael Braungart. Why settle for the least harmful alternative when we could have something that is better--say, edible grocery bags! In Cradle to Cradle, the authors present a manifesto calling for a new industrial revolution, one that would render both traditional manufacturing and traditional environmentalism obsolete. Recycling, for instance, is actually "downcycling," creating hybrids of biological and technical "nutrients" which are then unrecoverable and unusable. The authors, an architect and a chemist, want to eliminate the concept of waste altogether, while preserving commerce and allowing for human nature. They offer several compelling examples of corporations that are not just doing less harm--they're actually doing some good for the environment and their neighborhoods, and making more money in the process. Cradle to Cradle is a refreshing change from the intractable environmental conflicts that dominate headlines. It's a handbook for 21st-century innovation and should be required reading for business hotshots and environmental activists. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

A manifesto for a radically different philosophy and practice of manufacture and environmentalism

"Reduce, reuse, recycle" urge environmentalists; in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. As William McDonough and Michael Braungart argue in their provocative, visionary book, however, this approach perpetuates a one-way, "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that dates to the Industrial Revolution and casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world, they ask.

In fact, why not take nature itself as our model? A tree produces thousands of blossoms in order to create another tree, yet we do not consider its abundance wasteful but safe, beautiful, and highly effective; hence, "waste equals food" is the first principle the book sets forth. Products might be designed so that, after their useful life, they provide nourishment for something new-either as "biological nutrients" that safely re-enter the environment or as "technical nutrients" that circulate within closed-loop industrial cycles, without being "downcycled" into low-grade uses (as most "recyclables" now are).

Elaborating their principles from experience (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, the authors make an exciting and viable case for change.

Customer Reviews:

Required reading.......2007-10-11

This book should be required reading by all CEOs, and all engineering, architecture and design students. (I read it as a class assignment in Sustainable Interior Design). The author dismisses the idea that "ecological" has to equal "sacrifice" and points out that our problems will require more than band-aid type fixes. He proposes a radical rethinking of the way we approach design and manufacturing and backs it up with rational thought and real world examples. Despite its heft (literally, it weighs a ton because of the unusual paper stock), it's not a "heavy" read. It's very engaging and thought provoking. Highly recommended.

Additional recommendations: watch the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car"

Great bookI.......2007-10-09

I'm a student so it's really hard for me to find time to read books that aren't required for a class. No time! Anyway, great book, easy to read and compelling ideas. Definitely recommended.

A pleasant read.......2007-09-24

Definitely would recommend this to anyone who would like to learn about how societies will/should change to conform to the processes of nature. Significant change need to occur to shape a planet where humans can survive for a longer duration (than the current forecast). This means alleviating environmental threats that were initially caused by our own doing.

A must for anyone developing products.......2007-09-19

This book put a new light on the manufacturing process. I am currently studying to be an engineer, and upon reading this book, I feel I have gained important insight into how to ethically create products. The focus of the book is to show that being "less bad", as the current way of thinking promotes, is not the right mentality to have. Instead the book proposes that products need to be looked at in a renewable sense, that is, how can it be completely reused to make something new when its useful life has been spent (hence Cradle to Cradle and not Cradle to Grave). I found the book to be very inspirational and look forward to applying its ideas in my career.

2107: "You People Lived in Filth!" - A sort of book review of Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart's Cradle to Cradle.......2007-08-18

One hundred years isn't a long time. Yet, in the last one hundred years we can account for radical changes in the expectations that we - in the West at least - have concerning the standards of the food we eat and the conditions that we live in. We readily expect that our waste will neatly leave our homes, our malls, our schools, workplaces, and public spots en route to some place where it disappears from sight and smell forever. In fact, we rarely think about whether our waste ends up burnt, buried, or recycled, nor whether the food we dine on is thoroughly inspected and safe. We can think back to 1907 as a period in which there was nothing in the way of food safety standards (though a movement in that direction was initiated as a result of Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle, which was published that same year). Nor was there any notion of labor rights, environmental protection, and many of the sanitation procedures that we often take for granted nowadays.

Looking back through history ever further, to the crowded city streets of Paris, London, or Rome in the 17th and 18th century, reveals a more distasteful reality of how people lived. The blood of slaughtered animals, along with human excrement and other waste flowed through the sewers of these magnificent cities. "How did people live like this?" we might wonder. We shutter to think about living in such conditions, which allowed for the rapid spread of pestilence and sickness, not to mention unthinkable stench. While this may still be the experience of too many in the developing world, a signal of the progress and greatness of the modernized West has been our ability to escape the condition of living in our own waste.

Yet I've wondered recently how those living in 2107 will look upon the collective condition of the world as it stands today? Will they think that we live in filth? Despite the fact that we can split atoms, fly space crafts around the solar system, cure many illnesses, make electricity from the sun's rays, and communicate with each other in a myriad of digital ways, I wonder if they will ask why we still chose to live in our waste? I think that they will find it extremely perplexing that a society as developed as ours, who has the self awareness and knowledge about the harm that we inflict on ourselves and for posterity - not to mention the multitude of living systems that we are embedded in - refused to develop a different course for humanity.

When I say that we live in filth I mean that we continue to choke on unsafe air from the cars we drive and the outdated and dangerous ways that we engage in mass industrialization. I mean that we continue to produce millions and millions of consumable products made from an array of unsafe chemicals that we know little about and which we simply burn or bury after we use them one or two times. I find it so perplexing that industry continues to spends so much time and energy developing products that will only be used for a small fraction of time by consumers, yet will spend hundreds of years in landfills (I'm thinking especially of the enormous amount of plastic packaging that most products come in, only to be discarded immediately).

We dump many of the items that we have no more use for into ever expanding landfills that are getting closer and closer to the places we live and the sources of water we eventually come to drink. We are, in effect, living in our own waste. We put zero amount of effort into thinking of ways to design the same products that we rely on daily so that they are not harmful for humans or the environments in which we live. Scratch that, we have the technology and the know how for making safer and better products, however we lack leaders (both political & business) with the will, courage, and vision to bring humanity into the next industrial revolution. The first industrial revolution centered on extracting resources from the Earth (with little thought of replacing them) and putting these resources through production processes that have amounted to harming both human and non-human life for many years to come. The next industrial revolution will be about reengineering the production of consumer goods so that the stuff we make is in accordance with our natural environment. It will be about plastics that are biodegradable and the eradication of materials that are not. It will be about more intelligent approaches to designing buildings, which will utilize natural light, wind patterns, and the surrounding ecosphere to produce happier places to work and live, and which no longer rely on burning fossil fuels for cooling, heating, and sanitation. It will be about re-conceptualizing how we design, plan, and imagine the cities that most of humanity has come to chose to live in.

I'm currently drinking a soda out of a plastic bottle made from polymers derived from petroleum. This bottle, which not only is derived from the most contested resource of our time (though clean water is quickly taking its place) will be intact for those living in 2107 to view and touch as an artifact of an era which may be known in the future as one of reckless disregard, ignorance, and waste. Even the popular notion of recycling many of the products that we use only serves to slow down the rate in which we are harming ourselves. Recycling for many products is really a process of downcycling - a term coined by Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart in their book Cradle to Cradle. The process of recycling a product essentially causes it to loose its quality each time it is put through the recycling process (assuming that individuals keep recycling each new plastic reincarnate). Even though I will recycle this bottle, and it will become another plastic product again, it will eventually have to be disregarded after going through a few recycles. Alas, we are really just slowing down the rate by which synthetics eventually reach our waste graveyards or incinerators. In addition, while it is thought to be a socially responsible activity, the process of recycling releases into the atmosphere dangerous toxins emitted by the burning of plastics during the recycling process.

What is radically different about the world from 1907, or 17th century European cities, is that we fully understand the consequences of continuing down the path we are on. Furthermore, we have the knowledge and creative ideas of how to alter that path. What we lack, sadly, is the will to cause massive social change in how we consume and live. McDonough and Braungart's text urges product designers, city planners, and architects to approach their designs with the future of humanity in mind. Interestingly, they are not saying that we need to save the planet, for the planet will still be here long after homo sapiens has expired. Their message is that we need to save ourselves from the harm we are inflicting on ourselves. Their cradle-to-cradle philosophy urges designers to make products that can easily be disassembled after their use and put back into the production cycle as something else. In this sense, products should have an immense shelf life, being able to become that same product again or easily transformed into some other consumer product. The idea is to rid ourselves of the current approach to production which is based on a cradle-to-grave approach: extract resources from the Earth to make consumer products which are then discarded (thrown away) into landfills or burnt up in incinerators, expelling unknown synthetic chemicals into the ecosphere which we rely on for life.

It's time for us to recognize that the approach to mass production and living brought on by the industrial revolution is antiquated. If anything, it's insulting that humanity has yet to update itself from what seems to be such an archaic paradigm of not only how we make things, but what are relationship ought to be with the multitude of living systems that we are embedded in. All other living species exist in an interdependent cyclical system in which their "wastes equals food" for some other set of beings. It's high time that we apply this age old and ubiquitous principle to how we manufacture and produce all the things that we need to live as well.

Empty Cradle, Broken Heart: Surviving the Death of Your Baby

Average customer rating:

Highly recommend
A good resource for grieving family members and friends.
Good Book
solace in knowing you're not alone. or crazy.
Reommended Resource for Grieving Grandparents

Empty Cradle, Broken Heart: Surviving the Death of Your Baby
Deborah L. Davis
Manufacturer: FULCRUM PUBLISHING
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Mommy, Please Don't Cry: There Are No Tears in Heaven

ASIN: 1555913024

Customer Reviews:

Highly recommend.......2007-10-03

This book was recommended to me over a year ago when I lost my daughter. It has taken me that long to get around to ordering it, I wish I had of much earlier. Fantastic book.

A good resource for grieving family members and friends........2007-03-11

After the stillbirth of our first and only child, we bought or were given a raft of books relating to infant death and stillbirth. Of these, Empty Cradle is probably the best known.

I found it comprehensive and extremely focused on affirming the emotional journey of the parents. For me, it was perhaps a little bit too affirming. I found that in the end I preferred the more matter of fact tone in a book like A Silent Sorrow than the more emotional point of view in Empty Cradle. Still, it is one of the better books on the topic, and would be particularly valuable to people who are really struggling with what emotions they should be feeling at a time of loss.

I also really appreciated the comprehensive and categorized bibliography that Davis included with the book.

Good Book.......2007-02-04

This book has lots of good info in it. I read it following the passing of my 24 week olddaughter back in 2005.

solace in knowing you're not alone. or crazy........2007-01-06

i wish this book never needed to be written, and never needed to be read. but as tragic as it may be, babies do die, and parents do need to learn to live with it. if you are expecting any answers, you are looking in the wrong place. and if you do find the right place, please let me know. as far as i have learned, there are no answers. there is only an endless pain that we try to alleviate by sharing with each other, so that we do not feel too alone in this. and that's exactly what this book does. it helps you feel less alone. the garbled thoughts and feelings, the phantom pains and sounds, the guilt and the anger, the endless loss and the irrational fears. the fear that you are going insane. sadly, it is shared by all, and can thus be termed as "normal". whatever that is.

Reommended Resource for Grieving Grandparents.......2007-01-03

Davis gently offers information surrounding the concerns Mothers and Fathers have about the loss of their baby. Most importantly Davis gives accurate use of the term Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and the differences between this medical mystery and other infant deaths. It is a great resource for parents of adult children and grandparents because it gives insight into what the parents are going through, as well as it explains how to tell children about death. Grandparents will also learn how to support their children through the grief process, knowing we all go down this path of grief together, yet it is a uniquely personal journey.

The Cradle King: The Life of James VI and I, the First Monarch of a United Great Britain

Average customer rating:

The Scottish take over
The first ruler of Britain, almost a capable plotter

The Cradle King: The Life of James VI and I, the First Monarch of a United Great Britain

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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King James

ASIN: 0312274882

Book Description

As the son of Mary Queen of Scots, born into her 'bloody nest,' James had the most precarious of childhoods. Even before his birth, his life was threatened: it was rumored that his father, Henry, had tried to make the pregnant Mary miscarraige by forcing her to witness the assasination of her supposed lover, David Riccio. By the time James was a one-year-old, Henry was murdered, possibly with the connivance of his mother, Mary was in exile in England and he was King of Scotland. By the age of five, he had experienced three different regents as the ancient dynasties of Scotland battled for power and made him a virtual prisoner in Stirling Castle. In fact, James did not set foot outside the confines of Stirling until he was eleven, when he took control of the country. But even with power in his hands, he would never feel safe. For the rest of his life, he could be caught up in bitter struggles between the warring political and religious factions who fought for control over his mind and body.

Customer Reviews:

The Scottish take over .......2007-06-17

Often books about European royalty are so complex that the reader needs to have a finger forever on family trees as he/she wades though the chapters. This book about a critical leader in our Anglo-Saxon past is very easy to read and provides some important new information and highlights the critical bonds between England and Scotland at the end of the Tudor era. I highly recommend this very readable book

The first ruler of Britain, almost a capable plotter.......2006-01-20

What machinations! The court of the Tudors and Stuarts in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century were not easy places to navigate. For a young boy left by his mother to the in-fighting of Lairds and nobles it was an even more difficult place. It would be considered tragic now, that a boy like James should be used as a pawn for others gains, but for his time it was simply a game, and a game with huge wins and losses.

Alan Stewarts book is almost very very good but I felt it fell short on many points. It is a highly readable work, and it covers some excellent matieral I had never read about before - the plotting and constant scheming of the courts. It also, to my relief, treated the issues in context to the time. There was no moralising about what happened, but it was very much presentation of the facts and their consequences.

James VI of Scotland had grown up literally an orphan with his mother imprisoned in England and then beheaded. While he managed to manipulate the Scottish court, the intricacies of the British Court escaped him and his ability to rule England was often compromised. Perhaps too, in comparison to Elizabeth I he paled in significance in all aspects.

This is a pretty good presentation of the first of the Stuart Kings who lasted little more than a century - but in that time managed a huge amount of upheaval to the British landscape and temperament.

When the Cradle Is Empty (Focus on the Family Presents.)

Average customer rating:

I agree with some points....
Wonderful And Comforting
Useful Christian resource for infertility
When the Cradle is Empty-Answering Tough Questions about Infertility
A Must Have

When the Cradle Is Empty (Focus on the Family Presents.)
John Van Regenmorter , Sylvia Van Regenmorter , John Van Regenmorter , and Sylvia Van Regenmorter
Manufacturer: Tyndale House Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Family Health | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1589971574

Book Description

Having a child is a cherished dream for most of us. But what happens when nothing happens--or a pregnancy ends in tragedy? Authors John and Sylvia Van Regenmorter share their own experience in When the Cradle Is Empty: Answering Tough Questions about Infertility. With wisdom, compassion, and sound biblical advice, this comprehensive guide helps couples explore their options, get the medical help they need, deal with pressures from family and friends, and protect their marriage.

Customer Reviews:

I agree with some points...........2006-03-06

I was expecting a little more from the book than what was offered. I felt as if I were being told how to feel rather than being comforted with words. Perhaps I mustn't be so senstive. Infertility is not an easy subjet to discuss and hurt feelings are bound to arise. I didn't seek medical help until my husband and I tried for three years. According to this book, that's a huge no-no and I was almost frightened that there might be absolutely no hope since we delayed our trip to the doctor.
Try to keep an open mind when reading this book.

Wonderful And Comforting.......2006-01-21

We received this book as a gift while dealing with our long infertility journey. It was such a blessing to have the compassion and reassurance this book provided during a time of our lives that was so hard and lonely (lonely because unless you have gone through it, you can't really understand it). After God blessed us with a child I passed this book on to another friend who was dealing with infertility as well. She was so pleased and relieved to get this book once she opened the pages and began to also receive it's reassurance and support.

Useful Christian resource for infertility.......2005-08-02

I was so pleased to finally be able to read this book. It was great to hear about infertility from both the husband's and wife's points of view. I felt like my struggles with infertility were validated and discovered that there are others feeling the same things as I do. This book does take a Christian perspective to infertility, which I appreciated. While the authors do give some perspective on assisted reproductive technologies, I would also recommend speaking with your pastor or spiritual advisor to find out what your church group thinks, as I have discovered it varies some between denominations. I appreciated all the great web links and other resources the authors outlined in the book as well. A read well worth it.

When the Cradle is Empty-Answering Tough Questions about Infertility.......2005-07-19

Nice to have both spouses experiences with infertility expressed.
I did not agree with everything written in the book regarding assisted reproductive technology. I believe the Catholic understanding of always keeping the unitive and procreative aspects of the marital union intact. The end never justifies the means. Other than that, I was encouraged by the book.

A Must Have.......2005-04-26

I was sceptical about buying another book to "help" me through my struggles with infertility, but once I began to read this book I wished that I had purchased it much earlier. This book gives advice as well as reason why you may be asking hard questions about what you are doing wrong in your life to have to go through this. Because of reading this book I am strongly considering starting a support group in my area. I am very thankful that I was able to take the time to read this book.

From the cradle to the cave;: The life story of "Dad" Truitt, "Cave Man of the Ozarks."

Average customer rating:

From the cradle to the cave;: The life story of "Dad" Truitt, "Cave Man of the Ozarks."
Mary R Pinkham
Manufacturer: McDonald County Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Cradle of Life: The Discovery of Earth's Earliest Fossils

Average customer rating:

A thorough grounding in the state of the field
Enthralling
Surpised about how much new information has been learned.
Resolving Darwin's Dilemma
Very Interesting

Cradle of Life: The Discovery of Earth's Earliest Fossils
J. William Schopf
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691088640

Amazon.com

What if U.S. history began in 1963, and everything that happened before that year was shrouded in mystery? There would be plenty of events to study, but we wouldn't have a complete picture of the country's past. This is the analogy that paleomicrobiologist J. William Schopf uses to describe the long-missing 85 percent of earth's early fossil record (the puzzle of the missing fossils was known as Darwin's Dilemma). Not until the 1960s did paleobiologists using pickaxes and microscopes find evidence that life began much earlier than previously theorized and that microorganisms were the planet's only inhabitants for most of its existence. And Schopf himself discovered the oldest Precambrian fossils known to science in 1993. Why did it take so long to find these critters?

Though the puzzle of the "missing" early fossil record lived on for more than a hundred years, its solution is now so obvious as to be mundane. The Precambrian world did indeed swarm with living creatures, but until near the close of this vast eon these were microbes and microalgal cells so tiny and fragile that they would never have been unearthed by conventional fossil hunting.

Cradle of Life is a great primer for those interested in the fossil record and its relation to evolutionary theory. Profusely illustrated, this chronicle of amazing discoveries and bizarre questions covers wide ground, including the basics of cell biology and microevolution as well as the careers of the big-name scientists who have set the fossil record straight. And the search continues for the origins of life on earth, as well as the hints of it elsewhere. In a terrifically enlightening epilogue, Schopf shows how even the best scientists have been fooled by geological artifacts that resemble true fossils (as happened with the infamous Martian meteorite "bacteria") and by their own desires to confirm their theories and beliefs about the origins of life. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

One of the greatest mysteries in reconstructing the history of life on Earth has been the apparent absence of fossils dating back more than 550 million years. We have long known that fossils of sophisticated marine life-forms existed at the dawn of the Cambrian Period, but until recently scientists had found no traces of Precambrian fossils. The quest to find such traces began in earnest in the mid-1960s and culminated in one dramatic moment in 1993 when William Schopf identified fossilized microorganisms three and a half billion years old. This startling find opened up a vast period of time--some eighty-five percent of Earth's history--to new research and new ideas about life's beginnings. In this book, William Schopf, a pioneer of modern paleobiology, tells for the first time the exciting and fascinating story of the origins and earliest evolution of life and how that story has been unearthed.

Gracefully blending his personal story of discovery with the basics needed to understand the astonishing science he describes, Schopf has produced an introduction to paleobiology for the interested reader as well as a primer for beginning students in the field. He considers such questions as how did primitive bacteria, pond scum, evolve into the complex life-forms found at the beginning of the Cambrian Period? How do scientists identify ancient microbes and what do these tiny creatures tell us about the environment of the early Earth? (And, in a related chapter, Schopf discusses his role in the controversy that swirls around recent claims of fossils in the famed meteorite from Mars.) Like all great teachers, Schopf teaches the non-specialist enough about his subject along the way that we can easily follow his descriptions of the geology, biology, and chemistry behind these discoveries. Anyone interested in the intriguing questions of the origins of life on Earth and how those origins have been discovered will find this story the best place to start.

Customer Reviews:

A thorough grounding in the state of the field.......2006-07-11

This is a great overview of the development and current state of the study of how life developed before the Cambrian period. The book is well-written and easy to read for a literate layperson. Schopf explains key scientific concepts well and blends this with narrative on the history of the field as well as some personal experiences. The pictures and illustrations are very helpful. The book communicates the excitement and challenge that is part of doing science.

Enthralling.......2005-10-08

Other reviewers have covered the facts about this book. I would like to ditto what they have said, and say that this is one of the best books I've read; fiction, non-fiction, Science, History, etc.
Highly recommended.

Surpised about how much new information has been learned........2004-01-28

Wow. I am surprised at how much has been learned about the early phases of life's development since I last formally studied paleontology. One of my favorite areas of study was invertebrate and early life forms. At the time only a modest amount was known about stromatalites and cyanobacteria. The trace fossils of the soft bodied, multicellular, Ediacaran fauna were known but were considered "late" in geologic and biologic terms. The Burgess Shale community, made famous by Gould's "Wonderful Life" in the late '80s, was known, but the organisms were confusing and many have since been restudied and reclassified. Having been a leading actor in the field of microfossils and early bacterial life forms, Schopf puts everything into perspective in his book, making it virtually a history of research into the topic of life's beginnings.

Cradle of Life begins, as such books so often do, with a brief synopsis of Darwin and his theory of evolution, including most critically, its early problems. Thereafter Schopf begins a veritable "who's who" of early paleontology, giving short professional biographies of those who worked in the field as early as the 19th century. He points out where promising leads were suppressed by virtue of the lesser standing of the individual proposing them, and misleading theories given credence because they were proposed by someone of powerful academic credentials. Some of the tales are impressive object lessons in how things can go wrong for human reasons and why science ultimately "gets it right in the end."

One of the more interesting topics the author confronts is how our recent advances in the field of paleontology might help determine whether life exists or has ever existed elsewhere. The author provides an interesting perspective on the Mars meteorite "life forms" that shows how easily it is to be lead astray by high hopes, and how space research scientists can benefit by a familiarity with modern precepts applicable to early life studies on this planet.

The book goes into great detail about the discovery of early life, what forms evidence takes, how it can be mistaken, what information is derived from study of the remains, and what indirect evidence tells us about the early earth. It also discusses how life might have evolved from non-life, how it managed to get started so early, how the atmosphere changed and how that change affected the diversity of earth's biomass. For those who are only casually interested in the topic of fossils, this book might be a little too much information. I love this kind of stuff, but I could certainly see how others might find it incredibly boring. I doubt that those in junior high would find it rewarding, but those in senior high might have enough science background to understand and enjoy it. Certainly for anyone fascinated with science and by how paleontology works, this book will be right up your alley.

FOR THOSE WRITING PAPERS: in paleontology, biochemistry, biology, evolution, and history of science, this book would make an excellent bibliographic entry as well as a good source of topics. One might discuss how science works, how "authority figures" can derail even the best ideas, how science like other human endeavors are affected by culture, expectations, what is "known" already, etc., how progress in technology has allowed us to learn more about the distant past, how the tendency to specialize can delay progress, how a recent trend toward consilience (for which see Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge by E. O. Wilson) might lead to more rapid advances in science. One might compare the work by Nick Lane (see Oxygen: The Molecule that made the World) or by G. Cairns-Smith (Seven Clues to the Origin of Life) to this one to see how their perspectives are the same and how they differ. What do you believe is ultimately supported by the data?

Resolving Darwin's Dilemma.......2002-12-30

Schopf escorts us into the realm of deep time, introducing us to our earliest microbe ancestors found locked away in ancient rocks. The path is often vague and indistinct, but Schopf is a sure and eloquent guide. Not only has he traversed the route before, but he's helped select and clear the track. This fine book reflects Schop's lighthearted "trailside" manner. He fully enjoys scrutinising the rocks for early lifeforms, and the enjoyment is infectious. It's a pleasure to accompany him on this journey.

Of all the ideas of the origins of life, none proved more exciting than the experiments of Harold Urey and Stanley Miller. Their zapping of elemental chemicals to produce amino acids seemed the final answer to how it all began. Years of criticism of their work and assumptions led to the acclaim fading, but Schopf here attempts to resurrect its primacy. His argument relies on his findings of evidence of wide-ranging shallow seas - Darwin's famous "warm, shallow pond" as the place of life's origins. Schopf argues these seas were present at the same time simple life-forms emerged. In Darwin's time, the techniques for analysing the early rocks were limited. Today, as Schopf demonstrates, looking in the right place with the proper tools brings rich paleontological rewards.

After tracing the histories of several researchers in Pre-Cambrian fossils, Schopf goes on to illustrate the most recent finds and their significance. Some of the finds are beyond the realm of the rocks alone. His description of the process of polymer formation illustrates the beginning of complex chemistry leading from non-life to life. The distinction, as he notes, has become vague as research from many disciplines has been applied to evolutionary studies. As life progressed, it developed such talents as use of light energy, self-perpetuating activities, and the emergence of metabolism. He explains these processes in quite readable prose, but also depicts them with fine illustrations. It's a rare combination of multi-level presentation.

Schopf's tour takes us not only into deep time, but deep space. At the end of the book he examines the issues surrounding the "Martian meteorite" which was suspected to contain remnants of life on that planet. Schopf was the lone dissenter in NASA's presentation of the likely presence of micro-organism fossils. His disappointment in the presentation and the hype surrounding the proposal is keenly expressed. One of his proposals in this book is the universality of life's roots. Lifeforms of some level are almost inevitable on other worlds, given the necessary conditions. He argues the components are available throughout the cosmos, needing only the proper environment to start evolving. It would be exciting to detect evidence of past life on Mars, but meteorite ALH80001 didn't provide it.

Very Interesting.......2002-07-12

I don't really like biology. There is too much memorizing, and not enough math for my tastes. When I picked up this book, I figured I'd give it a try anyway. I had read Richard Fortey's book _Life_ (a good intro to the history of life) and wanted a little more depth. Boy did I get it.

This is a well written book. The first section is about the history of the quest to find these early fossils and the different theories. I found the stories interesting and fascinating, especially the encounter with Salvador Dali.

I don't want to give away any of the suprises. I found that he explained everything very well. I was able to follow the biological ideas and I have only had one class in college biology. I think if you have not had ANY biology knowledge you probably should get the basics down before reading this book.

But that shouldn't stop you from reading it. If you have any interest in how life started on Earth you have to read this book.

Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines
Average customer rating:

balanced and broadly relevant portrayal of conflict in an American industry

Essential overview of "Copper Country" history.

Very readable and well-balanced

Students Perspective

A Copper Country students must read

Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines
Larry Lankton
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Beyond the Boundaries: Life and Landscape at the Lake Superior Copper Mines, 1840-1875 (Michigan)

Strangers and Sojourners: A History of Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula (Great Lakes Books)

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ASIN: 0195083571

Book Description

Concentrating on technology, economics, labor, and social history, Cradle to Grave documents the full life cycle of one of America's great mineral ranges from the 1840s to the 1960s. Lankton examines the workers' world underground, but is equally concerned with the mining communities on the surface. For the first fifty years of development, these mining communities remained remarkably harmonious, even while new, large companies obliterated traditional forms of organization and work within the industry. By 1890, however, the Lake Superior copper industry of upper Michigan started facing many challenges, including strong economic competition and a declining profit margin; growing worker dissatisfaction with both living and working conditions; and erosion of the companies' hegemony in a district they once controlled. Lankton traces technological changes within the mines and provides a thorough investigation of mine accidents and safety. He then focuses on social and labor history, dealing especially with the issue of how company paternalism exerted social control over the work force. A social history of technology, Cradle to Grave will appeal to labor, social and business historians.

Customer Reviews:

balanced and broadly relevant portrayal of conflict in an American industry.......2007-05-23

While tracing my ancestry back to Polish copper miners in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, I picked this book up simply to help me learn more about life in those times. Though I was looking for something lighter than this scholarly work, I was captivated nonetheless. The relevance of this work extends far beyond just copper mining, and describes conflict between labor and management on several fronts- finding balance between social welfare vs. social control; technological innovation vs. resistance to change, improved efficiency vs. diminishing resources, and the ultimate labor union vs. management showdown.

Without wholly casting management as a villain, this book uncovers some raw truths by delving into management correspondence. Everything's under a microscope- the management's fear of lawsuits from injured workers, resistance to conceding an eight hour work day, resistance to development of a railroad (a threat to facilitate striking?!), spying on suspected union activists, and surreptitious infiltration of the Finnish press to manipulate employee morale. At the same time, management is often portrayed for being humane- sparing jobs for the men with the largest families, providing decent housing for most employees, and giving back to the community during economic depressions. Lankton perhaps best acknowledges the double-edged sword of corporate paternalism in the closing chapter - "paternalism was not only a means of social welfare, but a means of social control, and the companies had no intentions whatsoever of sharing control with their men."

Unfortunately, we get much more of a glimpse of the internal conflicts of management rather than the day-to-day life of the miners, presumably because management correspondence is much better documented.

The only other criticism I have of this book, which is common to most other works of its type, is its often thoughtless avalanche of statistics. Lankton description of costs of mining equipment, wages, numbers of injuries and deaths, etc. isn't put into context by displaying overall rates and dollar figures adjusted by inflation. So the Quincy mining company spent $26,557 on rock-drill equipment in 1872-73... what does that mean in today's dollars? So what if "In 1906, men took 24,675 baths courtesy of their company"... how many is that per person? Some tables and charts would also help illustrate statistical trends, but there's not a one in this book.

But that doesn't even put a dent in the value of this sweeping review of technology in society.

Essential overview of "Copper Country" history........2002-08-15

I found this book tremendous in explaining why people first came to such a cold and snowy land and why there are all these rotting hulks of machines and buildings everywhere. My father and grandfathers worked in the iron mines of Michigan's Marquette Range, but on it there is much less physical evidence of the mining that occurred. Mr. Lankton's book is facinating in it's exploration of so many facets of life in the Copper Country and life's rise and fall when tied to one industry. I hope to find a book like this about the Marquette Iron Range.

Very readable and well-balanced.......2001-10-09

Lankton's book is a welcome change from so many modern histories crammed with academic jargon. It is concise, easy to read, and chock-full of excellent primary source material. Lankton gives the reader a real feel for the place and period, and paints a balanced picture both of mine workers and management. All of the conflicting and complimentary motivations and incentives come out well, in one of the few works on American mine labor that look fairly at both sides and don't read like an IWW tract. Actually hard to put down - not something you can say often about a labor history book! Great work.

Really gave me a feel for my Finnish ancestors, who worked the mines from turn of the century until the Big Strike. A great documentation of a period whose physical remnants are fast disappearing.

Students Perspective.......2000-03-12

In my senior year at Michigan Tech, I was forced into the reality that I couldn't take only engineering and science class's. I reluctantly signed up for Mr. Lanktons class and subsequently read the course text, "Cradle to Grave". This book was outstanding in it's detail of the area during the mining boom and it's decline. It gives a great account of the miner and the miner's family. What it means to be "owned by the company store". To get all of these accounts was very interesting having done plenty of "exploration" in the Keweenaw on my own. In my professional life Larry's book has proven a valuble refrence for understanding the difficulties in introducing new technology into a heavy labor-intensive industry.

A Copper Country students must read.......1999-12-29

Having first encountered both Mr. Lankton and this book while a student at Michigan Technological University, I found the book both engrossing as well as informative, which made taking the classs that much easier. Not overly techincal, but just enough to keep the reader informed. This is a must read for anyone interested in the history of the Copper Country. It is also a good source of information on pre-WWII mining practices, including paternalism and labor strife. It also includes details of life outside of the copper mines. Enjoy

Average customer rating:

Solid complex murder mystery

Witch Cradle
Kathleen Hills
Manufacturer: Poisoned Pen Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1590582543

Book Description

January, 1951, while the country is in the grip of war in Korea, the threat of nuclear annihilation, and Senator Joe McCarthy, the residents of St. Adele, Michigan are more concerned with staying warm and shoveling snow, until a bizarre ice storm brings down a towering pine. Entangled in its roots is evidence that leads Constable John McIntire to the abandoned farmstead of a young couple who had supposedly left the community years before, part of an exodus of Finnish-Americans gone off to build a workers' Utopia in the Soviet republic of Karelia. McIntire's fears are realized when he discovers two bodies, buried sixteen years in an unused cistern.

In his zeal to uncover the truth, McIntire brings the scrutiny--and the suspicion--of a Red-hunting government agent upon his neighbors and himself. It is only the beginning of his mis-calculations. Each step in investigating the deaths seems only to bring more misery to the living. Old wounds are opened, old terrors rekindled, and old wrongs exposed. McIntire himself is not immune. He struggles to solve the two-decades old murders, while a part of the past he hoped to bury forever threatens to destroy his new life.

Customer Reviews:

Solid complex murder mystery.......2006-04-29

Author Kathleen Hills has a history with regions of the northern United States, and although the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is separate and distinct, from, say Montana or Northern Wisconsin, there are certainly similarities. In this third outing for the author's protagonist, the reluctant constable of St. Adele, John McIntire, comes across evidence that two former neighbors had not emigrated to the Soviet Union, as was supposed by pretty much everybody in the region.

In the early 1930's this country was in the grip of a serious depression and there was more than a little unrest. Some people organized a sort of mass emigration by mostly poor or disaffected people to a place in the Soviet Union called Karelia. Karelia was touted as the people's Eden, a place where everyone would be well-housed, properly fed and would find useful work, according to their needs. Karelia was advertised as sort of the penultimate socialist community. In reality, a lot of people who went, disappeared and were never heard from again. What was their fate in Stalinist Russia?

WITCH CRADLE, is set in the early fifties, a time when suspicion of that great evil, Communism, also known as the Soviet Union, was rampant in this country. It was the time of Roy Cohen and Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. It was a time of black listing and anxiety. And while the people of the Upper Peninsula were relatively isolated from most of the excesses of that time, there were those who would take advantage of the circumstances. Bringing those national concerns down to the individual and very personal concerns of the people of St. Adele is a feat worth reading about, especially in the careful and adept hands of author Kathleen Hills.

Many questions rise. What is the FBI doing hanging around this isolated area? What exactly was Constable McIntire doing during his time away from St. Adele, the time he refuses to talk about? What exactly did happen to the people who went to the Soviet Union? And if some of the former residents of the area never made it to Karelia, what happened to them and why? This is a moving, solid work about people we all can relate to, in one form or another.

Average customer rating:

wonderful

Come to the Cradle
Michael Card
Manufacturer: Chordant Distribution
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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Come to the Cradle

ASIN: 0917143248

Customer Reviews:

wonderful.......2004-04-11

This is a book you will want to give....or to keep. For it touches within the adult heart that wonder filled mystery - the spiritual paradox of being both parent and child.

Scottish Customs: From The Cradle To The Grave

Average customer rating:

What a relief!

Scottish Customs: From The Cradle To The Grave
Margaret Bennett
Manufacturer: Birlinn Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Customs & Traditions | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 184158293X

Book Description

A highly readable and absorbing collection of traditions surrounding rites of passage, drawing upon a broad range of literary and oral sources from the sixteenth century to the present day.

Customer Reviews:

What a relief!.......2001-05-10

As someone of Scottish descent and a student of Anthropology and History, I really appreciated this text. There are a myriad of books available that purport to tell about Scottish customs, or focus on some narrow aspect of Scottish life, such as clan associations. This book, however, addresses the whole gamet of life of the Scottish folk, from motherhood and child-rearing, through the rites of passage into adulthood, and finally the passage from life into eternal life. Bennett draws upon a wide selection of historical sources, disparite in both locale and time period. Relying not only upon the historical record, but utilizing her expertise as a folklorist, Bennett elicits ethnogrpahic data which she presents and uses to draw her conclusions. She paints a vivid picture of life in Scotland that offers new and insightful ways in which to look at Scottish cultural practices. I highly recommend this lucid, yet academic and well-researched book regarding Scottish customs to anyone wishing to get beyond the surface aspects of the fascinating and vibrant traditional Scottish cultural patterns.

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