Series in Growth
Books in Growth
Agrarianism and the Good Society: Land, Culture, Conflict, and Hope
Every society expresses its fundamental values and hopes in the ways it inhabits its landscapes. In this literate and wide-ranging exploration, Eric T. Freyfogle raises difficult questions about America's core values while illuminating the social origins of urban sprawl, dwindling wildlife habitats, and over-engineered rivers. These and other land-use crises, he contends, arise mostly because of cultural attitudes that made sense on the American frontier but now threaten the land's ecological fabric. To support and sustain healthy communities, profound adjustments will be required. Freyfogle's search leads him down unusual paths. He probes Charles Frazier's novel Cold Mountain for insights on the healing power of nature and tests the wisdom in Wendell Berry's fiction. He challenges journalists writing about environmental issues to get beyond well-worn rhetoric and explain the true choices that Americans face. In an imaginary job advertisement, he issues a call for a national environmental leader, identifying the skills and knowledge required, taking note of cultural obstacles, and looking critically at supposed allies. Examining recent federal elections, he largely blames the conservation cause and its inattention to cultural issues for the diminished status of the environment as a decisive issue. Agrarianism and the Good Society identifies the social, historical, political, and cultural obstacles to humans' harmony with nature and advocates a new orientation, one that begins with healthy land and that better reflects our utter dependence on it. In all, Agrarianism and the Good Society offers a critical yet hopeful guide for cultural change, essential for anyone interested in the benefits and creative possibilities of responsible land use.
Agrarianism and the Good Society: Land, Culture, Conflict, and Hope
Every society expresses its fundamental values and hopes in the ways it inhabits its landscapes. In this literate and wide-ranging exploration, Eric T. Freyfogle raises difficult questions about America's core values while illuminating the social origins of urban sprawl, dwindling wildlife habitats, and over-engineered rivers. These and other land-use crises, he contends, arise mostly because of cultural attitudes that made sense on the American frontier but now threaten the land's ecological fabric. To support and sustain healthy communities, profound adjustments will be required. Freyfogle's search leads him down unusual paths. He probes Charles Frazier's novel Cold Mountain for insights on the healing power of nature and tests the wisdom in Wendell Berry's fiction. He challenges journalists writing about environmental issues to get beyond well-worn rhetoric and explain the true choices that Americans face. In an imaginary job advertisement, he issues a call for a national environmental leader, identifying the skills and knowledge required, taking note of cultural obstacles, and looking critically at supposed allies. Examining recent federal elections, he largely blames the conservation cause and its inattention to cultural issues for the diminished status of the environment as a decisive issue. Agrarianism and the Good Society identifies the social, historical, political, and cultural obstacles to humans' harmony with nature and advocates a new orientation, one that begins with healthy land and that better reflects our utter dependence on it. In all, Agrarianism and the Good Society offers a critical yet hopeful guide for cultural change, essential for anyone interested in the benefits and creative possibilities of responsible land use.
Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
From one of the world's leading experts on the history of energy, a rigorous examination of the transitions that structure our modern world--and the environmental reckoning that will mark its success or failure. What makes the modern world work? The answer to this deceptively simple question lies in four "grand transitions" of civilization--in populations, agriculture, energy, and economics--which have transformed the way we live. Societies that have undergone all four transitions emerge into an era of radically different population dynamics, food surpluses (and waste), abundant energy use, and expanding economic opportunities. Simultaneously, in other parts of the world, hundreds of millions remain largely untouched by these developments. Through erudite storytelling, Vaclav Smil investigates the fascinating and complex interactions of these transitions. He argues that the moral imperative to share modernity's benefits has become more acute with increasing economic inequality, but addressing this imbalance would make it exceedingly difficult to implement the changes necessary for the long-term preservation of the environment. Thus, managing the fifth transition--environmental changes from natural-resource depletion, biodiversity loss, and global warming--will determine the success or eventual failure of the grand transitions that have made the world we live in today.
Last Bridge Home
He was a dangerously seductive stranger . . . Jon Sandell. Confident, controlled, a man with many secrets—and one remarkable power: the ability to read a woman's mind, to touch her soul, to know her every waking desire. Who rocked her world . . . Now he's on a vital mission: to rescue a woman who doesn't even know she's in danger from the ruthless agents who wish her harm. But who will protect her from him? With breathless intrigue . . . Alone in her ivy-covered cottage, Elizabeth Ramsey welcomes Jon's sudden appearance, for he is a link to the husband she loved and tragically lost. Until this mesmerizing stranger reveals his true intentions: to lure her from her ordered home and into his violent, passionate, precarious world. . . . And desperate desire. . . . Soon, alone in a secluded mountain lodge, Elizabeth will walk a glittering tightrope between fear and fascination, unable to tell friend from foe, lover from enemy. Caught in a sensual game of love and lies, she must find the truth before she loses her life.
Lords of Poverty
Lords of Poverty is a case study in betrayals of a public trust. The shortcomings of aid are numerous, and serious enough to raise questions about the viability of the practice at its most fundamental levels. Hancockâ s report is thorough, deeply shocking, and certain to cause critical reevaluationof the governmentâ s motives in giving foreign aid, and of the true needs of our intended beneficiaries.
Paper and Iron
Few economic events have had the impact of German hyperinflation in 1923, still remembered as a root cause of Hitler's rise to power; yet in recent years historians have defended the inflationary policies adopted after 1918. Niall Ferguson takes a different view. He argues that inflation was an economic and political disaster, and that alternative economic policies could have stabilized the German currency in 1920. To explain why these were not adopted, he points to long-term defects in the political institutions of the Reich from the 1890s. The book therefore not only reveals the Wilhelmine origins of Weimar's failure: it also casts new light on the origins of the Third Reich.
The Last Bridge Home
He was a dangerously seductive stranger . . . Jon Sandell. Confident, controlled, a man with many secrets—and one remarkable power: the ability to read a woman's mind, to touch her soul, to know her every waking desire. Who rocked her world . . . Now he's on a vital mission: to rescue a woman who doesn't even know she's in danger from the ruthless agents who wish her harm. But who will protect her from him? With breathless intrigue . . . Alone in her ivy-covered cottage, Elizabeth Ramsey welcomes Jon's sudden appearance, for he is a link to the husband she loved and tragically lost. Until this mesmerizing stranger reveals his true intentions: to lure her from her ordered home and into his violent, passionate, precarious world. . . . And desperate desire. . . . Soon, alone in a secluded mountain lodge, Elizabeth will walk a glittering tightrope between fear and fascination, unable to tell friend from foe, lover from enemy. Caught in a sensual game of love and lies, she must find the truth before she loses her life.