Book Description
An award-winning journalist breaks through the wall of secrecy to reveal the many astonishing ways Wal-Mart's power affects our lives and reaches all around the world.
The Wal-Mart Effect: The overwhelming impact of the world's largest company--due to its relentless pursuit of low prices--on retailers and manufacturers, wages and jobs, the culture of shopping, the shape of our communities, and the environment; a global force of unprecedented nature. Wal-Mart is not only the world's largest company; it is also the largest company in the history of the world. Americans spend $26 million every hour at Wal-Mart, twenty-four hours of every day, every day of the year. Is the company a good thing or a bad thing? On the one hand, market guru Warren Buffett estimates that the company's low prices save American consumers $10 billion a year. On the other, the behemoth is the #1 employer in thirty-seven of the fifty states yet has never let a union in the door.
Though 70 percent of Americans now live within a fifteen-minute drive of a Wal-Mart store, we have not even begun to understand the true power of the company and the many ways it is shaping American life. We know about the lawsuits and the labor protests, but what we don't know is how profoundly the "Wal-Mart effect" is shaping our lives.
Fast Company senior editor Fishman, whose revelatory cover story on Wal-Mart generated the strongest reader response in the history of the magazine, takes us on an unprecedented behind-the-scenes investigative expedition deep inside the many worlds of Wal-Mart. He reveals the radical ways in which the company is transforming America's economy, our workforce, our communities, and our environment. Fishman penetrated the secrecy of Wal-Mart headquarters, interviewing twenty-five high-level ex-executives; he journeyed into the world of a host of Wal-Mart's suppliers to uncover how the company strong-arms even the most established brands; and journeyed to the ports and factories, the fields and forests where Wal-Mart's power is warping the very structure of the world's market for goods. Wal-Mart is not just a retailer anymore, Fishman argues. It has become a kind of economic ecosystem, and anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping our world today must understand the company's hidden reach.
Customer Reviews:
Good read about off shoring and big business.......2007-10-22
This is a great book about how Walmart works with some good examples of the good and the bad. The stories about certain companies and products that walmart deals with gives a good example of some of the effects of off shoring on quality and our own health. Good look at the effects of our drive for bargains and the true cost.
Walmart at it's best and worse!!.......2007-10-11
Amazing writting! Very informative as well as entertaining!
The author covers all the ends. I recommend this book 100%.
You won't see this book selling in Wal-mart any time soon!
Good cover of the topic.......2007-10-06
Provides a good coverage of a subject which is not obvious to the naked eye. May attenuate your shopping habits and the way you define a good deal. A must read for americans
Impact beyond price.......2007-09-24
Having spent the past 18 months researching and writing on the negative impact on the economy of poor customer service, go to ACSI research at University of Michigan School of Business, I have found that Wal-Mart's fanitical focus on price, and consumers that focus only on price are having a very negative impact on our country and society. Of all of the books I have read on Wal-Mart, Fishman presents the most detailed factual and insightful information on which to base an opinion on the impact Wal-Mart has made on our communities.
Balanced & Comprehenisve .......2007-09-17
Like many, I begrudgingly shop at Wal-Mart familiar with the arguments of it's negative impact on locally owned business's, and it's poor wages and benefits--------trying in vain to strike a balance between social responsibility and self-interest. It's always struck me as large version of the beloved "five and dime" where I bought my baseball cards growing up. I marvel at the low prices, and the sheer variety of merchandise. Fishman has permanently purged me of the that nostalgia. His backstory on Wal-Mart is utterly convincing in it's pernicious effect on our economy. He ably tells the story of Wal-Mart's rise with it's hyperfocus on pricing. But he's after something bigger here, and that's corporate secrecy. Like many large corporations, Wal-Mart is a closed and secret society. Consumers are robbed of the information that would assist them in identifying the true cost of consumption. Fishman is saying that the rise of the mega-corporation, with their ability to dominate a whole sector of the economy, is both anti-free market and anti-consumer. Though vague, he argues that we must consider stronger governance and regulation. This is where his book left me wanting. I wanted to know what exactly that would look like. That said, this is a well-researched, balanced and important book for our times.
Book Description
The Bush Agenda is the first book to expose the Bush Administration's radical economic agenda for global domination, a plan more extreme, unilateral and audacious than any of his predecessors, a plan that has created the greatest level of violent opposition to America and Americans in recent history.
The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time explores the Bush Administration's plan to invade the world through a corporate globalization agenda, first in Iraq, then the Middle East with the proposed U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Area, and ultimately as a cornerstone to the global Bush Doctrine of Pax Americana. What is Bush's "free trade?" It's an economic model that argues that by removing restrictions on multinational corporations, these companies will be freed to become engines of economic growth in countries around the world, but in fact bring vast wealth of a small number of global elites while entire populations suffer dislocation, poverty and violence, creating a perfect Petri dish for breeding terrorists. The instruments for this takeover include such corporations as Bechtel, Lockheed Martin, ChevronTexaco, Halliburton, and many others.
This book addresses the history of U.S. economic relations throughout the world over the past 25 years, the key role of U.S. corporations, and the larger Bush economic agenda and what the potential impact of this agenda will be on the United States and the world. It concludes with specific alternatives to guide the U.S. on a more peaceful and sustainable course in the future. Using Naomi Klein's No Logo and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation as models, The Bush Agenda is based on hard analytic fact and presented so that it will not only be persuasive, but highly engaging and entertaining to a broad audience.
Customer Reviews:
Meticulous documentation of the progress of Cartel economics and empire.......2007-05-23
"Once you've got Baghdad it's not clear what you do with it. It's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there. How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the US military.... I think to have American military engaged in a civil war inside Iraq would fit the definition of a quagmire, and we have absolutely no desire to get bogged down in that fashion."--(page 174) Dick Cheney, April 1991, explaining why Bush the First did not take Baghdad after Gulf War I
Antonia Juhasz has performed a major public service in exposing the history, players, and motivations behind the second Iraqi war and occupation. "It's about the oil, silly."
Actually, not totally about the oil but for the material benefit of several industries to which access to petroleum-based energy is a key contributor. She does not mention the Carlyle Group[1], instead focusing on four top bananas: Bechtel, Chevron, Halliburton, and Lockheed Martin. The individual histories and blatant aggression of these companies, each largest in its field, are truly eye-opening.
Agenda is primarily documentation of the relationships between the war and energy corporations and the Bush dynasty...
For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]
Brian Wright
Copyright 2007
Essential Reading.......2007-05-11
Bush agenda is absolutely essential to understanding the unfolding story in the Middle East. Turning each page was like opening a new door of insight.
Here's Why the US is in an Endless War!.......2007-05-07
Antonia Juhasz has assembled expertly the pieces of the puzzle. Readers of "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World One Economy at a Time" will have it all put together by the time they finish reading this well-documented expose. It is so important that I have given copies to three brothers and five children I love.
The World Should Wake Up.......2007-05-06
If you want to have an understanding of how the Bush Administration is pushing their ongoing agenda/policy for globalization and corporatization of our world (with the help of a handful of elitists) this is a must read. What frightens me about the future of our world is that this book illustrates that those in power have no interest in the protection of the average person or our planet, it's about controlling resources, i.e. oil, water and food, using any method necessary,including military to further their own agenda...greed and power.
The Juhasz Agenda: Depriving The World Of Oil, One Combustion Engine at a Time.......2007-04-28
Juhasz zeal and fanaticism against anyone or anything that engages in oil exploration or consumption makes Ed Begley Jr look like the equivalent of a one man Exxon Valdeze.
The author is of course not a journalist, or a reporter, or even a fair minded observer, but rather a far left activist with many axes to grind. Her total disdain for oil, whether refined or crude, extends to her personal ownership of any transportation that uses the pernicious benzene. What is Juhasz's stated reason for this life long eschewing of the automobile? "I refuse to give money to evil gas companies," says this holder of Public Policy degrees. One has to wonder if Juhasz was frightened by a car backfire in her cradle.
I guess Juhasz's abhorrence of lining the pockets of oil company ceo's only extends to paying at the pump as she isn't as persnickety when it comes to flying to all her public speaking engagements around the country.
Juhasz is a member of International Forum on Globalization and Oil Change International whose ideology and purpose is conveyed in this synopsis:
"We focus on the oil industry because we understand and view the oil industry as a source of global warming, human rights abuses, war, national security concerns, corporate globalization, poverty, and addiction. We also see their interests behind every major political barrier to a clean energy transition."
This intransigent position seems at odds with the purpose of a public policy masters degree that is supposed provide the candidate with analysis of the political, economic, quantitative, organizational, and normative aspects of complex problems. Juhasz has distilled all historical and current complex geopolitical issues and events down to three grimy letters: oil. She is the Freud of the anti-industrial revolution set. Even though both are not mutually exclusive, Juhasz substitutes oil for sex as the motivation for all human endeavor.
Let's examine Juhasz's rational for Bush's continued secret ulterior motives for remaining in Iraq.
"The process of securing this access involves three steps. The first, put into motion with the December 15, 2005, election, is the formation a legitimate Iraqi government with the authority to, among other things, sign contracts with foreign oil companies. The second step is the completion and passage of a new national oil law that is set to conclude at the start of 2006. The third, having enough security on the ground for U.S. oil companies to get to work, is uncertain, and therefore the time line for full U.S. troop withdrawal remains unknown."
Well, this "secret" Bush master plan must have been kept a secret from Rumsfeld since Bush approved the number of troops used in the initial Iraq invasion and subsequent mop up. If securing the all the oil producing fields, as well as Baghdad, was the intended goal after taking out Saddam, why didn't Bush accept Gen. Eric K. Shinseki's estimate that several hundred thousand troops would be needed in postwar Iraq?
Surely Juhasz isn't advocating Iraq oil only for Iraqis? It would seem antithetical to Juhasez's extremist views on petroleum; that any country's petroleum should be taken out of the ground, refined, and used to power evil machines belching toxic fumes.
What is Juhasz's position on nuclear energy? Never mind. I'm sure there are dastardly robber barons who also enjoy a monopoly over the power of the atom. But how would Antonia achieve martyr status if she merely eschewed atomic submarines and nuclear powered aircraft carriers as modes of transportation?
Average customer rating:
- The Entire Scope of the Space Age
- It is no wonder that McDougall won a Pulitzer Prize!
- Thorough and Easy to Follow
- Up, up and beyond
- Insightful, Revealing and Ahead of its Time
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...the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age
Walter A. McDougall
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Similar Items:
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This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age (Modern Library Paperbacks)
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Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America's Space Espionage
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Understanding Space
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The Soviet Space Race With Apollo
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Neither Star Wars nor Sanctuary: Constraining the Military Uses of Space
ASIN: 0801857481 |
Book Description
This highly acclaimed study approaches the space race as a problem in comparative public policy. Drawing on published literature, archival sources in both the United States and Europe, interviews with many of the key participants, and important declassified material, such as the National Security Council's first policy paper on space, McDougall examines U.S., European, and Soviet space programs and their politics. Opening with a short account of Nikolai Kibalchich, a late nineteenth-century Russian rocketry theoretician, McDougall argues that the Soviet Union made its way into space first because it was the world's first "technocracy" -- which he defines as "the institutionalization of technological change for state purpose." He also explores the growth of a political economy of technology in both the Soviet Union and the United States.
"Once every decade or so, a book comes along that stands by itself as a remarkable contribution to the literature of a field. Such a work is Walter A. McDougall's... the Heavens and the Earth." -- Technology and Culture
"[A] boldly conceived, elegantly written, and unfailingly provocative history of the new age of space." -- Science
"[An] immensely readable and elegant book" -- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Customer Reviews:
The Entire Scope of the Space Age.......2007-05-22
Phenomenal! McDougall covers the full breadth of the most influential factors, giving insight to the obvious, and depth to the obscure but important forces moving the space age forward.
It is no wonder that McDougall won a Pulitzer Prize!.......2007-01-08
Being a so-called 'Child of Apollo.' I read this book expecting few new insights to the space program's formulative period. Gee, was I ever wrong! This book is filled with nuggests of historic information that provides the reader with greater context and historic analysis than any other book on the topic I have yet to read. Any student of history, political science, or space advocate should read this book carefully to be well-grounded in the Apollo Era. McDougall did an outstanding job in relating to the reader details of the context of the American and Soviet space programs throughout the 50's and 60's. Knowledge of the space age would be totally incomplete without having read this book! I highly recommend it. It is no wonder that this book won McDougall the 1986 Pulitzer Prize.
Thorough and Easy to Follow.......2006-12-24
This book is fantastic. The book studies, in depth, the the reasons and processes that led to and the decisions that were made during that time. This author does a terrific job of holding the readers attention while explaining the detailed history. I highly recommend this book to anyone.
Up, up and beyond.......2006-03-22
The Cold War between the US and USSR was fought on multiple fronts. One of the most exciting was the Space Race; first to space, first man in space, first woman in space, and of course, the race to the moon. This is the subject of this book. Unlike other books on the similar topic, the emphasis here is on the internal politics within each nation that occurred as a result of this competition. Due to the lack of availability of data from the USSR, this book focuses on the US side, and examines the politics of the Eisenhower, Kennedy and later administrations.
The book examines the various facets of the US space program, touching on subjects such as the formation of NASA, the space shuttle program, the battle between those who wanted to spend money on NASA and those who did not, the doling out of pork-barrel projects as part of funding for NASA, and the dichotomy between military and civilian control and influence. Overall, a great story book and a great textbook for use in history classes.
Insightful, Revealing and Ahead of its Time.......2006-03-08
I purchased this book when it first came out 20 years ago. At the time, it was very controversial. Author McDougall suggested that President Eisenhower actually wanted the Soviet Union to be the first to launch an earth satellite because that would establish the legal principle of "freedom of space." This principle was vital for the interests of the United States, which at the time was moving full speed ahead to develop reconnaissance satellites. Allowing the Soviets to go first would solidify the idea that one nation's satellites could freely pass through the skies of another nation. If the Soviets established such a principle, they would be unlikely to protest when OUR satellites began to overfly their territory. As later books based on newly declassified sources have confirmed, McDougall's analysis of Eisenhower's motives turned out to be right on target. The only thing the President underestimated was the intensity of the American public's reaction to the Soviet's "Sputnik I." Detailed and comprehensive, this book remains one of the best single-volume histories of the early years of the Space Age.
Average customer rating:
- Unique observations of life as an undocumented worker
- Coyotes: a borderlands journey by a journalist & now professor
- An often unseen vantage point
- Outstanding book
- Outstanding glimpse into the lives of undocumented Mexicans
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Coyotes: A Journey Through the Secret World of America's Illegal Aliens
Ted Conover
Manufacturer: Vintage
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Enrique's Journey
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Dead in Their Tracks: Crossing America's Desert Borderlands
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Across the Wire: Life and Hard Times on the Mexican Border
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The Devil's Highway: A True Story
ASIN: 0394755189
Release Date: 1987-08-12 |
Customer Reviews:
Unique observations of life as an undocumented worker.......2007-03-21
This is one of a handful of books recently written where the author joins a group of undocumented workers crossing the border in attempt to gain employment in the United States. The interesting twist here is that the author, though apparently fluent in Spanish, is white. He also attempts to work in the fields himself, as opposed to simply observing and writing about the work of others. This leads to a number of unique experiences and observations on race relations that are rarely discussed in this context. It also allows the reader to better understand what life is like for many undocumented workers in this country. Kudos to Ted Conover for making a sincere effort to better understand the lives of those that would not otherwise be recorded.
Coyotes: a borderlands journey by a journalist & now professor.......2007-01-10
This story rivets the reader to the writer's acceptance (guarded) by poor Hispanics as he seeks to be an Imbed with them when they cross the border at a couple of different sites. There was the interception by Mexican border police and their payoff; then life beyond the border on the way to nearby farms serviced by Coyotes (travel guides and job finders) and potato fields of Idaho (serviced by the same dependable families year after year).
It gives many glimpses of that struggle to pass on a better life to the kids.
The writer may influence many who would become investigative reporters.
An often unseen vantage point.......2006-09-30
This is an important book, particularly in today's charged political climate. It is very easy to deal in absolutes when one deals with abstract ideas, but what Conover does well, is to humanize those ideas. While many speak of illegal imigration, Conover speaks of specific imigrants. He shares their perspectives,not condemning them, not glorifying them, but merely letting them tell their stories.
Aditionally Conover is remarkable for the amount of energy he put into getting to know his subject. Half of the worth of the book is the story of the migrants, the other half certainly is Conover's own story.
Outstanding book.......2006-08-31
I live in Southern California, and work with and around illegal aliens (or undocumented workers) on a daily basis. This is one of the best works written by an Anglo-American on the subject I have read. Conover took the time to really get to know these people, and not just from an investigative point of view. He worked the fields with these men, lived as they did and currently do, and even took a beating for it. Actually knowing and physically feeling what these migrants do gives him credibility far beyond other reporters/journalists who ask only questions, and feel that they are "in depth" after spending a week with their "subjects". Conover makes his experience personal, and the reader feels like this is a story told over dinner. The next time you are at the grocery store, after reading this book, you'll have a greater appreciation for the bag of oranges you are buying, and the story behind them.
Outstanding glimpse into the lives of undocumented Mexicans.......2006-06-26
Written all the way back in the mid-1980s, long before all the heated rhetoric about illegal immigration going on in the US today, this book has turned out to be amazingly prescient. I feel like I would have had a much better understanding of this subject (not to mention appreciation of the people involved) had I discovered it a long time ago, but I suppose late is better than never.
Ted Conover did what I don't imagine very many other Americans would have the courage to do: Cross illegally from Mexico into the US with Mexicans doing the same thing. In doing so, he gives readers incredible insight into what compels some Mexicans to make that journey (i.e what life is like where they come from), what the journey is like, and what awaits them on this side of the border. I found myself exceedingly grateful for having been born American and simply in awe of the Mexicans who live such vastly disparate lives from their privileged neighbors to the north.
Conover simply relates his experiences to readers without the kind of ideological commentary or other editorializing that can get in the way of the facts surrounding the contentious issues involved. Coyotes is a well-written, touching, informative, and inspiring book that should be required reading for all Americans before they open their mouths about illegal immigration.
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The Next Cold War?: American Alternatives for the Twenty-First Century
Jim Hanson
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
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ASIN: 0275954730 |
Book Description
The Next Cold War? sounds a warning: the United States may be contributing to another cold war through its competitive unilateral and regional economic policies. Whereas wars of the past usually resulted from political conflict, Hanson warns that a new cold war may result from economic conflict. This raises important questions for American policymakers. Will the United States be a world leader that promotes cooperation and unity, or will it seek to create competition and division? Will the United States address the basic problems of population, environmental deterioration, and economic stagnation in concert with other nations, or will it pursue narrow geopolitical and geoeconomic power strategies? This fascinating work explores both sides of these questions and poses alternatives that will promote world cooperation and unity.
Book Description
An original and compelling portrait of how four determined men ascended to unrivaled wealth, productivity, and world dominance after the Civil WarWhat we think of as the modern American economy was the creation of four men: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. They were the giants of the Gilded Age, and lived at a moment of riotous growth-and real violence-that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet. They are, quite literally, the founding fathers of our economy-and, thus, of modern America.Acclaimed author and journalist Charles R. Morris vividly brings these four men to life. On one side are Carnegie, the ruthless competitor; Gould, the provocateur in the shadows; and Rockefeller, the visionary who understood how to manage sprawling empires. These three were obsessed with progress, experiment, and speed. In steel, railroads, oil, and money markets, they rallied behind a single-minded code: bigger, cheaper, faster. And then there was Morgan, the gentleman businessman, who fought, instead, for a global trust in American business. Through their competition over the last decades of the nineteenth century, they built a powerful nation populated with consumers as well as producers, fostering the growth of the middle class. The Tycoons tells the incredible story of how four determined men wrenched the economy into the modern age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined only a few decades earlier.
Customer Reviews:
Great summary of Economic History.......2006-12-22
This is a great book for looking at the economic history of the United States. It covers mostly the four mentioned in the title but what was really fantastic and what deserves that extra star is that it covers the economic developments on the side. It looks at how our economy outpace Europe and the shift to make America that extra superpower. WE also have a look at how our ability to move west gave us an added advantage and that we did not have to resort to colonies. While we exported much we still made tremendous gains in internal improvements. He also grasp how the development of the coronation as an institution led to the rise of clerical and accounting positions creating hundreds of service jobs. This book is incredibly well written and really holds your interest. It offered the best explanation of Gould's attempt to corner the gold market I have ever read. It is very well researched and makes references to the top economic historians out there. A must read for anyone who wants to understand how the United States developed economically
PRESENT AT THE BIRTH.......2006-09-11
I picked up "The Tycoons" to read, in one place, a chatty summation of recent research about Rockefeller, Gould, Carnegie, and Morgan, but instead found myself pulled through a keyhole onto a vast landscape new to me: how America invented mass-market manufacturing. We were the first country to figure out how to make two rifles so exactly alike that their components could be mixed and matched on the battlefield. The Silicon Valley of this period was the Connecticut River, navigable down to New York with access, via the Erie Canal, to the midwest markets. This river was the site of all the key water-powered factories where early automation and assembly lines created the first mass-produced items for daily life. Besides famous tycoons, we meet the forgotten engineers and efficiency experts who invented modern manufacturing and then spread its gospel to Europe. Through this book you are present at the birth of American economic dynamism. A readable and fascinating survey.
Nothing new, but a good review of the period.......2006-07-11
Charles Morris's "The Tycoons" is a good summation of the Industrial Revolution but is almost certainly poorly sub-titled with "How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould and J.P. Morgan Invented the Supereconomy". The New York Times did a review on October 2, 2005 and Todd Buchholtz hit the nail on the head writing "The Tycoons is not a path-breaking work of scholarship, testing new hypotheses against freshly uncovered facts." In fact a good part of Morris's book has nothing to do with these four very important men of commerce influenced anything. Rather he does show what the principal drivers behind such an economic explosion were. His writings on the four are based upon good, but not really extensive, research. For instance, much of his writing on Morgan is attributable to the best seller by Ron Chernow, The House of Morgan. While this was certainly a terrific book, to have it as THE principal souce or one of your main topics, is to short change any serious effort at research.
He manages to get a plug on the book by I.W. Brands of the University of Texas, one of our most well respected historians on the period. Perhaps Professor Brands saw something I did not. That said, it is a quick read and a rather fun one. A bit more organization would have gone a long way.
A decent account of the story of the rise of American capitalism.......2006-04-20
MY RATING SYSTEM:
* - if you have to chose between torture and reading this book, then you might want to consider reading the book - although it depends on just how severe the torture would be.
** - if you've lost your job and have quite a bit of free time on your hands, and don't have anything else better to do, then you might want to consider reading this book; don't expect to learn much or really be entertained. It will however, help you pass the time until your death.
*** - meh...I'm indifferent. Reading this book will not alter your life in any significant way, yet it is not so horrendously dreadful that your taking the time to read it will be a complete waste of time.
**** - Good book to great book zone here. You should probably read this book if you have some spare time. This book could be interesting, entertaining, or informative.
***** - Outstanding book! Make time to read this book - you'll learn or be entertained or intrigued. The book might even be good enough to provide original or helpful insights into the world that we live in.
REVIEW:
I purchased this book expecting to read four independent stories relating to each of Jay Gould, JP Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and JD Rockefeller. I was surprised to find that this was not what this book was about at all. Instead, The Tycoons nests the stories of each of these American capitalists within a detailed account of the rise of American industry. In one sense, this was a disappointment, in another a blessing.
Much of the discussion in the book is focused on the technological developments that facilitated American industrialism as well as the political and economic environment in which these four legendary capitalists built their empires. Rather than independently address each of the four subjects of the book, The Tycoons presents an account that enmeshes the stories of each. At times the 'background' stories get boring, but nonetheless, their existence in the book is important in ensuring a basic understanding of the world in which these individuals operated.
Being poorly read in the area of business history, I found this book to be a decent introduction into the development of American capitalism, although at times it seemed to drag.
America's Modernization.......2005-12-15
Ever wonder when and how America modernized, when we stopped making our own soap at home and started buying it in the department stores, or when the department stores started? More importantly, do you know when America went from the land of the artisan to mass production and fulfillment of the market needs of the many, with less regard for quality than for quantity? Even if you do not need those questions answered, you ought to read this gem of a book to understand how American genius in management and technology turned our country from a broken victim of the Civil War to the world's most productive and rich nation in less than 35 years. It will make you wonder about the cycle we are currently in and whether those who make dire predictions about our economy in view of a robust China have thought through the changes that count. Morris does not lead you in that direction, but your inquiring mind will be thinking of the lessons to be learned from this highly readable and thoughtful mix of history, commerce and economics.
Book Description
Nature's Economy is a wide-ranging investigation of ecology's past. It traces the origins of the concept, discusses the thinkers who have shaped it, and shows how it in turn has shaped the modern perception of our place in nature. The book includes portraits of Linnaeus, Gilbert White, Darwin, Thoreau, and such key twentieth-century ecologists as Rachel Carson, Frederic Clements, Aldo Leopold, James Lovelock, and Eugene Odum. It concludes with a new Part VI, which looks at the directions ecology has taken most recently.
Customer Reviews:
Engrossing and enlightening.......2005-11-23
I used to muse on the subject of environmentalism and why two seemingly opposed camps ("pro-environment" and "anti-environment"--though "anti-environment" could more fairly be termed "pro-development") think the way they do. This book answered many of my questions and started me thinking about more in-depth issues of environmentalism. The history presented is fascinating and, in some cases, appalling. I found myself thinking, "how could these people so eagerly destroy the environment that sustains them?", but at the same time the logic was right in front of me. I may not have agreed with it, but there it was.
The book is divided into six sections, which explore environmental thinking in chronological order: 1) Two Roads Diverged: Ecology in the Eighteenth Century; 2) The Subversive Science: Thoreau's Romantic Ecology; 3) The Dismal Science: Darwinian Ecology; 4) O Pioneers: Ecology on the Frontier; 5) The Morals of a Science: Ethics, Economics, and Ecology; 6) The Age of Ecology: Science and the Fate of the Earth.
This book was required reading for an environmental ethics class (something I think every college student should take), and I enjoyed reading it. We were asked to think about the points in the book in the context of 6 different frameworks: morals and ethics, religion, capitalism, the commons, science, and wilderness. I recommend that other readers do the same. Thinking about environmentalism from these different viewpoints gives it a different spin every time.
I never really considered myself an environmentalist, although I am all for living sustainably on the earth (within reason--some sustainability viewpoints are admittedly extreme). However, this book definitely shifted my opinions to those of a more environmentalist-like identity than I had before.
This review refers to the Second Edition (1994).
solid, informative, and clearly written........2004-03-26
This comment of Worster's from page 433 pretty much sums it all up:
"Whether we choose to learn from the past or not, the past is our most reliable instructor in reality."
He presents the supporting material for his case just as elegantly and firmly, throughout the book.
Good structure, sloppy execution.......1999-05-05
Donald Worster has written a gem of a book. It's too bad that he gets lost in his own selfconceit. Worster merely wants to say that all other ecological ideas are products of cultural conditions. Howver, his ideas are not. Worster is a master at structuring his points, and he is colorful at times. My favorite part, however (other than the connection of interdependncy to fascism) was when he misused his "In the begining was The Word" quote. "The Word," in the original Greek text of the bible, is actually "logos," not literal words of creeation. I had a hard time buying his schtick after reading that line.
Book Description
What are the key foreign economic policy issues facing the United States in the second half of this decade? How can the administration and Congress meet the economic challenges that lie ahead? This new book analyzes the dramatic importance of the world economy to both the domestic prosperity and overall foreign policy of the United States, describes the new global environment (e.g., the rise of China as a global economic superpower and the completion of European unification) in which US policy must operate, and proposes major US initiatives on a wide range of international economic issues, including correction of the huge current account deficit, new trade negotiations, and energy. Individual chapters by senior staff of the Institute on each of the key topics are included.
Customer Reviews:
What America needs to do both at home and abroad.......2005-06-05
The director of the Institute for International Economics presents The United States and the World Economy: Foreign Economic Policy for the Next Decade, a scholarly and extensively researched but nonetheless emphatic treatise concerning what America needs to do both at home and abroad to adapt and profit from the ongoing transformations of an increasingly global economy. From stressing the urgency to reduce the budget deficit - a problem that has America dependent on foreign investments that are at risk of being pulled - to the need to persuade China and other Asian countries to stop blocking currency realignment, to the need to sell off oil reserves as needed and implement a substantial gasoline tax to force a reduction of US energy demand, and much more, The United Stats and the World Economy does not shy from presenting difficult yet possible solutions to highly complex problems. An absolute "must-read" for economists; regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the recommendations proffered, the current and impending troubles of adapting to globalization are unquestionably real and can be ignored only at America's peril.
Book Description
What are the relative merits of the American and European socioeconomic systems? Longstanding debates have heated up in recent years with the expansion of the European Union and increasingly sharp political and cultural differences between the United States and Europe. In Inequality and Prosperity, Jonas Pontusson provides a comparative overview of the two major models of labor markets and welfare systems in the advanced industrial world: the "liberal capitalist" system of the United States and Britain, and the "social market" capitalism of northern Europe. These two models balance concerns of efficiency and equity in fundamentally different ways. In the 1990s the much-heralded forces of globalization (together with demographic changes and attendant political pressures) seemed to threaten the very existence of the social-market economies of Europe. Were the social compacts of Sweden and Germany outmoded? Would varieties of capitalism remain possible, or were labor-market and social-welfare arrangements converging on the U.S. norm?
Pontusson opposes the notion of inevitable convergence: he believes that social-market economies can survive and indeed flourish in the contemporary world economy. He bases his argument on an enormous amount of highly specialized research on eighteen countries, using national-level data for the last thirty years. Among the areas he explores are labor-market dynamics, income distribution, employment performance, wage bargaining, firm-level performance, and the changing possibilities for the welfare state.
Book Description
Anti-Americanism has been the subject of much commentary but little serious research. In response, Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane have assembled a distinguished group of experts, including historians, polling-data analysts, political scientists, anthropologists, and sociologists, to explore anti-Americanism in depth, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The result is a book that probes deeply a central aspect of world politics that is frequently noted yet rarely understood.
Katzenstein and Keohane identify several quite different anti-Americanisms-liberal, social, sovereign-nationalist, and radical. Some forms of anti-Americanism respond merely to what the United States does, and could change when U.S. policies change. Other forms are reactions to what the United States is, and involve greater bias and distrust. The complexity of anti-Americanism, they argue, reflects the cultural and political complexities of American society. The analysis in this book leads to a surprising discovery: there are as many ways to be anti-American as there are ways to be American.
Customer Reviews:
Good but it should talk about power and American hegemony.......2007-04-18
Anti-Americanisms in World Politics an edited volume by Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane is an excellent contribution to the debate on global anti-American attitudes. Despite the breadth and depth of this work, it fails to consider American hegemony and military power as a cause of anti-American sentiment. In framing the work, the authors distinguish between "what the United States is" and "what the United States does" but this general dichotomy does not account for the effects of American hard power preeminence. By its very nature, power is threatening to other nations regardless of its form as either an untapped or actualized asset of statecraft. Although the authors suggest that "sovereign-nationalist Anti-Americanism" is one of the four causes for anti-American attitudes, the authors frame this hostility primarily as a challenge to national identity rather than a manifestation of hard power or security competition. Although this identity-based framework is plausible, it is not sufficient to explain foreign responses to American power. In chapter 4 of the work Chiozza conducts an empirical study of the causes for anti-Americanism and finds that U.S. troop presence is not a significant factor contributing to negative attitudes towards the United States. Although this lack of significant correlation could be interpreted as evidence that American military power does not provoke anti-Americanism, such a conclusion is not warranted. In the absence of a positive finding, the opposite conclusion that troop levels do not matter is equally plausible. Unlike armies of the past, the American military does not necessarily need to have a "boots on the ground" footprint to exercise its power. Power projection and long-range strike capabilities make such traditional metrics irrelevant and unrepresentative for American power and may heighten foreign resentment of American power disparity. Clearly, a more finely honed quantitative study of this phenomenon that accounts for factors such as proximity to the United States, alliance patters, recent wars, types of forces, size and quality of the host nation's armed forces, and the duration of troop deployments is needed to quantify such a proposition. Until such a model is perfected, responses to power are still an intriguing and parsimonious independent variable to describe and predict anti-Americanism. Such a prediction that power and power disparities are a driving force behind anti-American attitudes is consistent with both realist predictions and historical models. As realists predict, power creates uncertainties and insecurities and ultimately threatens the existence of states. Assuming this level of intense security competition, it is only reasonable to expect anti-Americanism as a response to U.S. power. This model is supported by historical examples such as Rome, Ancient China, and Imperial Britain where weaker powers have reviled the predominant power and influence of stronger states. Although such a power-centric explanation for anti-Americanism may appear repugnant or overly simplistic, it does have theoretical and historical relevance and is worthy of additional study and inclusion in Katzenstein and Keohane's otherwise impressive work.
The types of Anti-Americanism.......2007-01-16
The central idea of this book is that there is not one all encompassing type of anti- Americanism but rather a number of different kinds, each of which has its own causes and dangers. Neil Gross in the 'Boston Globe' summarizes the four major types of Anti- Americanisms presented in this book as follows:
"The first, liberal anti-Americanism, appears in democracies like France or England. Here opposition to American policies often involves the charge that the United States is being hypocritical by not living up to its professed values and ideals -- values its critics share. When Europeans express outrage over the treatment of prisoners by US military personnel in Guantanamo Bay, or in secret detention centers abroad, these are examples of liberal anti-Americanism. How can a country that says it stands for freedom condone such obvious abuses of human rights?
The second strain, social anti-Americanism, comes from critics of the United States who are staunch supporters of the social welfare state, and thus oppose American economic policy because it promotes laissez-faire ideals and erodes welfare state protections. Social anti-Americanism is at play when Bolivian President Evo Morales, for example, rails against American-led globalization on the grounds that, among other things, it exposes people to the vicissitudes of the market.
More dangerous, according to the editors, are the two remaining strains. Sovereign-nationalist anti-Americanism, which may be found in parts of Latin America and Asia, involves opposition to American geopolitical and cultural dominance on the grounds that they are threats to national identity and strategic interests, as can be seen in Chinese saber-rattling over Taiwan. Radical anti-Americanism, meanwhile, of the kind typically associated with Islamic fundamentalism, holds, according to Katzenstein and Keohane, that "America's identity" must be "transformed, either from within or without."
Each of these types of Anti- Americanism is considered within the context of a different society. The experts that Katzenstein and Keohane include are as follows:John Bowen, Washington University in St. Louis
Giacomo Chiozza, University of California, Berkeley Pierangelo Isernia, University of Siena Alastair Iain Johnston, Harvard University
Peter J. Katzenstein, Cornell University David M. Kennedy, Stanford UniversityRobert O. Keohane, Princeton University Marc Lynch, Williams College Doug McAdam, Stanford University Sophie Meunier, Princeton University Daniela Stockmann, University of Michigan
The inclusion of such a rich variety of scholars covering so many different areas helps provide a general overall sense of the varieties of Anti- Americanism. Their work also enables a dispelling of the illusion that Anti-Americanism is a new phenomenom and not one with its own long and varied history.
However it seems to me that the fourth type of Anti-Americanism the kind which aims at erasing American social and cultural identity, and which is deeply connected with the 'backwardness' of the hating- societies presents a dimension of the phenomenom America has not faced to the same extent in the past.
In this regard Anti- Americanism is not merely an attitude or set of opinions to be contended with through media means, but the embodiment of an overall aggressive effort to undermine the values and character of American society.
In this sense this particular kind of Anti- Americanism seems at present at the heart of the struggle to preserve not simply the land of the free and home of the brave, but all societies in which individuals are valued as individuals, and human dignity is inherently bound up with freedoms the Closed Societies of the world would deny.
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- Understanding Global Cultures: Metaphorical Journeys Through 28 Nations, Clusters of Nations, and Continents
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