Cultural Books

Ms. Himmelfarb remains the current authority on all aspects of Victoriana, with each of her dozen or so books explicating one aspect of Victorian England in great depth. "De-moralization" writes adoringly of Victorian virtues, a set of rigid standards that spanned all classes, genders, economic levels, politics, and religious groups -- her chapter on Victorian Jews is priceless! Heavily documented and written in "textbook" style (many footnotes, a few charts and graphs), Himmelfarb uses her Victorian books as propaganda to show how removed today's "values" are from our ancestor's "virtues." Her weak link here is in documenting the damage such change has wrecked on our current social scene, although she makes brief references. Her idealistic take on the Victorians shows them as models of excellence, charitable, hardworking, bonded, intelligent, and responsible, without dwelling on the negative aspects of industrialism, ethnocentrism, or racial and sexual discrimination. Still, the wealth of facts she has accumulated is invaluable if one does not get caught up in her conservative rantings and broad assumptions. Can we return to the best that the Victorian era offered? Himmelfarb makes it clear that this would be impossible without an organized society and a strong moral leader who could "lay back and think of England!"

Gertrude Himmelfarb provides an interesting and thought-provoking analysis of the Victorian Age. Her formidable logic, study, and sources enable her to break down the stereotypes of Victoria's Britain. In doing so, she constructs a far more realistic, fair, and honest portrayl of Victoria's reign. Do not be fooled, Ms. Himmelfarb does not simply lavish praise on the past and turn her nose up at modern culture; she provides a reasoned and valuable look at the two times.

This book should be read by anyone who seeks to understand where we have been and where we are going.

I was brought up to think of all things Victorian as stuffy, repressed and backward. It was a pleasant surprise to realize that far from being a social wilderness, Victorian England and America had much about them to admire.

The belief in God, country, indisputable truths, and loyalty to family were the hallmarks of the Victorians. It is regrettable that in our own time we have no constant stars to guide us as our recent forbears had.

The advances in medicine and science are all good. But it sad that with all these scientific advances, people feel more isolated and insecure than the erstwhile Victorians encumbered with all the constraints of that age.

At last, a readable, non-revisionist, and quite relevant discussion of the history of our "moral" system. Professor Himmelfarb is an excellent writer who makes history for nonhistorians come alive. I will never again read Keats, Shelley, Wells, or Mill without placing them in the historical context presented in this book. It is a relief to know that some realism remains in the debauched, angst-filled, revisionist halls of modern academia. This is a wonderful book!

Wisdom and temperance are two of the virtues that the author discusses. She says that wisdom is the virtue that most of us would most like to have and temperance is the virtue that is most needed by our society.

This book is a readable and relevant discussion of the history of our moral standards. The author is an excellent writer and she makes history come alive for the reader. She is the current authority on all aspects of the Victorian age. She writes adoringly of Victorian virtues, a set of rigid standards that spanned all classes, genders, economic classes, politics and religious groups.

Mr. Lane has written a persuasive polemic and history about attempts at censorship in the guise of protecting our children or the moral well-being of our culture. He lays out the utter futility of these efforts and reassures the reader who happens to have a more tolerant attitude about free speech. And with the advent of the Internet, activists with more of a puritanical bend are going to be about as effective as trying to stop a massive tidal wave with a fly swatter. A good book to read if you need some reassurance that draconian people such as Anthony Comstock will ultimately never prevail. I sleep better at night.

THE DECENCY WARS: THE CAMPAIGN TO CLEANSE AMERICAN CULTURE doesn't come from a journalist like you'd expect, but from a First Amendment specialist who considers the country's changing attitudes toward decency, using newspaper headlines as a foundation for documenting cultural change. It's inappropriate for the government to regulate morality in this issue, Frederick S. Lane maintains, and his book packs in surveys of decency controversies from past and present years, charting how new media has fostered questionable issues on freedom and also fostered an answering flood of writings on whether decency should be regulated.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Hooray - finally the curtain is pulled back and we can see how neo-conservatives have been playing Christian conservatives like marionettes for years. How else could Republicans get so many ordinary middle and working class people to vote and campaign against their own self interest??? How about . . . pretending that exposed boobs are more important than health care, livable wages, pension benefits and military debacles? Lane tells this story in such a well-researched and humorous manner--it's rare that policy and history is elevated to the level of a laugh-out-loud page turner. Remember Anita Bryant's campaign against gays (and the pie in her face?) Remember the arguments over breast exposure from Jane Mansfield to Farah Fawcett Majors to our own Janet Jackson? Anyone miss Tammy Fay Baker?There are great villains in here, like James Dobson and Raph Reed, and characters like Howard Stern and Bono. Thanks Mr. Lane for an important contribution.

Having been on a bit of a politics jag over the Labor Day weekend (What's the Matter with Kansas; The Republican War on Science), Decency Wars was an obvious next book to read.

I'd seen Frederick Lane on Jon Stewart, and he seemed interesting. I've also been interested in censorship for many years, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Decency Wars turned out to be the best of the three books--not only does it do a fantastic job of covering the history and development of censorship and the concept of "decency" in America (including an overview of the evolution of American-style christianity, starting with Henry VIII!), but it also does an excellent job of bringing together and illuminating many of the elements making up today's political and cultural landscape, and even has some good suggestions for ways to address the problems that we're facing.

It's also very well written and extremely readable, making it a very enjoyable and valuable read.

From the cover and title, I could tell that this book was right up my alley, and it was hard to resist when it came out. The content ranged from historical to current, I learned so much about the history of these "decency wars" that I did not know, and I was refreshed on the incidents I was well aware of. For instance, I had no clue that the Puritan religious culture of our country can actually be traced back to Henry VIII! And of course the wrongs of the religious right are expertly exposed.

When I first started reading this book, my husband noted that the thing he doesn't like about non-fiction books is that they often expose a problem, but not the solution. I read non-fiction a lot, this doesn't bother me, but he is a little bit correct. This is exactly why I was happy that this book devoted the last chapter to a solution for fighting this particular problem. The bullets weren't a stretch to the things I already believe or already do, but what they did do was make me realize that there's more I need to do (without feeling like I wasn't already doing enough).

If you care a lot about anti-censorship, intellectual freedom, and the like, you will certainly enjoy this book.

For those of us who live in tourist towns and see how the incredible number of visitors changes them, this is the book! It looks at a large number of places -- from Santa Fe to Maui, from Las Vegas to Aspen -- and shows in great detail how they change. It reads well too, on a par with better known authors like Robert D. Kaplan and Tim Egan. I heard the author speak here in town--I guess he lives here-- and it made me buy the book. I came away extremely impressed. This is not my usual reading. I'm more a John Grisham type. But this one rang bells for me. After I read this book, I was in Thailand on business and I found myself using Devil's Bargains as a lens for what I was seeing. The comparisons were striking and I wondered if this book might apply to more than the West. Well written and snappy, showing a lot of research, this one is a real winner, especially for anyone in city planning or tourist development.

For discerning travelers planning a western vacation this summer, or for that matter, for anyone curious about the popular allure of the West, Hal K. Rothman's "Devil's Bargains" is a must read. Rothman, a professor of western and environmental history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, provides a richly detailed assessment and critique of the development of tourism as it has evolved from the late nineteenth century to the present in the inter-mountain West. Synthesizing the existing scholarship on tourism, enhanced by wide ranging primary research, Rothman reveals a fascinating, yet disturbing, underside to the glitz and glamour of the tourist economies firmly established in western resort towns from Santa Fe to Las Vegas.

"Devil's Bargains" presents a series of provocative histories recounting the development of resort towns and tourist sites across the inter-mountain West including the Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, Carlsbad Caverns, Steamboat Springs, Aspen, Vail, Sun Valley, and Las Vegas, among others. The book also codifies the history of tourism under a new interpretative framework which divides the development of tourism into three phases: cultural and heritage tourism, recreational tourism, and entertainment tourism. Beginning at the turn of the century with cultural and heritage tourism spawned by the transcontinental railroads seeking to expand passenger traffic, tourism evolved into recreational tourism made possible by the automobile and a growing fascination with exercise and the outdoors in the aftermath of World War I, and culminated after World War II with entertainment tourism dependent on the Jet airplane and the dramatic expansion of widespread prosperity, a leisure ethic, and a pervasive consumer culture. Rothman focuses on the Grand Canyon and Santa Fe to illustrate cultural and heritage tourism; various western ski resorts define recreational tourism; and Las Vegas embodies entertainment tourism. These three phases of tourist development reflect the historical transformation of tourism from an elite pastime to a more individualized, democratic experience, to a mass culture phenomena. They also reveal a process of economic development, reflecting the evolving strategies adopted by western communities to replace tapped out extractive economies.

Defining tourism as the quintessential service economy, the pinnacle of post-industrial capitalism, Rothman argues that the promises of tourist industries have been embraced as a panacea for economic decline in towns throughout the West. However, as his research reveals, locals and even "neonatives" have found tourism to be a bitter pill to swallow. Although the advent of tourist economies in places such as Jackson Hole, Steamboat Springs, and Sun Valley has resulted in phenomenal economic growth, prosperity has come with a price. As the book's title suggests, in the process of reviving the economy, tourism displaces locals with outside capital and corporate control, sapping a place of its soul, and leaving in its stead a facade of hollow images and a service economy manipulated by distant corporations whose only interest is the bottom line. What has emerged in places like Vail and Santa Fe is a two-tiered class system where workers who are predominantly people of color (Hispanic, African, or Filipino) hold low-paying, menial jobs providing for the comfort and amusement of wealthy second home owners and visitors. There is little room for an established community of year-round residents when the bottom line centers on the paying visitor. Las Vegas is the exception. In defining itself as the ultimate themed destination resort constantly reinventing itself to satisfy visitors' desires, Las Vegas remains one of the last places where unskilled workers can earn a middle-class income replete with benefits and job security. Las Vegas alone, according to Rothman, has succeeded at perfecting the service economy, becoming a model of sorts for the rest of the country. "The colony became the colonizer," he writes, exporting a model of entertainment tourism for a nation entranced by the spectacles of multi-media consumer culture.

In detailing the ways in which western communities reinvented themselves as tourist resorts, marketing an idealized western ambiance and a scripted history, and in the process losing control of the very community they sought to promote and preserve, Rothman provides a rich assessment of the social and political impact of tourist-based economies as they evolved from local ventures to corporate productions. But more than that, he presents a thoughtful and disturbing critique of the promises and realities of post-industrial, post modern capitalism as manifested in the twentieth-century tourist's West.

Marguerite S. Shaffer, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina, Wilmington

I read the book as part of a course I took, and I found the book to be too long, and somewhat dry. However, Dr. Rothman, a UNLV history professor, does make a very clear point: that tourists towns or places are dealt a "devil's bargain" in which they lose the authenticity of the place for the funds or profit that is brought in by tourists.

Overall, Dr. ROthman does drive his point home. But the same point is made in 20 different ways.

At once extremely learned and passionately engaged, DEVIL'S BARGAINS puts forward a startling analysis of Western tourism. From Rothman we learn about skiing and much else: the economic and historical forces shaping our sense of place, our connections to nature, and our troubled relationships to one another. A travel book of another sort, it takes the reader to a vantage point from which our Western landscapes can be seen most clearly.

I was born into the park service and lived the tourist experience. This book really helped me form a perspective about my early years growing up in western tourist and resort environments. Western history is fascinating, but this angle on western history really gives another intriguing dimension to america's perception of the mythic frontier.

I just wanted write this message to tell readers that I read The Diaspora and the Lost Tribes of Israel and I really REALLY enjoyed it. I loved this book! I found it to be absolutely fascinating and totally riveting. I was completely engrossed in this book for the past few months. It is easily one of the best books I have read in recent times. The Diaspora and the Lost Tribes of Israel was one of the most interesting books I have ever read actually. It was tremendously well-written and the research Mr Asa-El did on this book was outstanding. Not only was The Diaspora and the Lost Tribes of Israel very informative and educational, it was also really a lot of fun to read. The photographs Mr Asa-El put in this book were stunning and gorgeous. He did a great job teaching people who are interested in the Jewish Diaspora and the Lost Tribes of Israel and did it in a way that was also entertaining. His insight into such a unique subject was also very much appreciated by this reader. I hope to read more of Mr Asa-El's works in the future.

I took the book because of the awesome pictures, but I love the book because of the story the author has given to us. I'm a thirty something Catholic woman from the Midwest. I have had very little encounters with Jewish people. But after reading this book, I have a completely new understanding of what it means to be Jewish and the reasons behind the current conflicts in the Middle East.

The book is broken up into several categories that makes it easier to read and understand. I only wish that they had used maps in the book so I could see where the migrations started and ended. I ended up looking at my historical atlas along with reading the book.

After reading this book, no matter who you are, you will get the bigger picture of what life has been like for the Jewish people for the last 2500 years. These are people who truly have had no home where they could feel safe in for any lengthy period of time. Everywhere they went, they faced the cruelty of the local people and governments.

If you are at all interested in learning about the life of the Jewish people, this is a book you'll want to read.

From Hasaddah Magazine, August-September 2005
By Joan Michel Schwartz

In case you thought the Diaspora started with the Roman conquets of Judea in 70 CE think again. "Jewish communities have for untold centuries been prone to appear, disappear, and reappear almost everyewhere," writes Amotz Asa-El in this magnificent must-have book, "arguably belonging simultaneously everywhere and nowhere."

The intriguing social-political assessment of the Diapsora by the Jerusalem Post's executive editor starts in Israel, goes around the world to the remotest places to track the lost tribes, and returns to Israel, retelling this incredible story.

More than 270 atriking illustrations -- including archival and contemporary photographs -- capture the traditions, rituals anddaily lives of Jews of all colors and shapes in Djerba, Mozambique, Russia, Predborz, Samaria, Tibilisi, Susa, Kaifeng and Uganda, where you see a group of Abudaya Jews in front of a Hadassah infant school.

Jerusalem Post / 21 April 2005
Scattered peoples
By DOUGLAS DAVIS

The Diaspora and The Lost Tribes of Israel
By Amotz Asa-El
Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc
300pp., $60

Jews were globalizers a couple of thousand years before the word was invented. Since the dawn of history, they have traversed countries and continents - sometimes willingly, often not - in search of safety, commerce, scholarship or out of simple curiosity.

Wherever they went they learned to juggle identities. They were loyal to their adoptive lands while retaining a transcendental commitment to their ancient homeland, whether notional or actual. With all this, they maintained an unbreakable tribal/national cohesion that derives from a shared history and heritage. The development of the Diaspora, and its persistence against all odds, is one of the great human dramas in the history of mankind.

In The Diaspora and the Lost Tribes of Israel, Amotz Asa-El shines a piercing light on the Diaspora, from its birth to the present. Appropriately, it is a distinguished journalist (the executive editor of this newspaper) who has chosen to chronicle one of the most important stories of all time. And ironically, it is an Israeli who has brought the story of the Diaspora - and the "lost tribes" - to a worldwide audience.

Through the ages, great empires have risen and fallen, tyrants have come and gone, but the Jewish people have endured. Wherever they settled, they brought with them a cultural ecosystem suffused with morality and imbued with an intellectual energy that transmitted its message far and wide. As Asa-El notes, "Jewish books, ideas, and movements traveled during the Middle Ages through Diaspora communities thousands of miles away from each other and sank roots so deep they still bear fruit today."

These disparate, dispersed Jews have been in the vanguard of innovation in science and the arts, in commerce and philosophy. They were, and are, the cashpoints of kings, the tutors of intellectuals, the ideologues of political movements, the fiddlers of concert halls. In recent history, illustrious names of the Diaspora have, for good and ill, been at the very cutting edge of politics, culture, science and the arts - the Einsteins, Freuds, Mendelssohns, Menuhins, Chagalls, Salks, Marxes and Trotskys, among many others.

But the vast majority of Diaspora Jews have passed their time in quiet, anonymous endeavor. They are the ordinary folk who are now woven into the tapestry of the societies in which they dwell, but have never forgotten who they are.

Along with their intellectual and material treasures, the Jews also gave the world the words to describe the tragedies that have marked their exilic existence: ghetto, holocaust, genocide - and, of course, Diaspora itself. But this account of Jewish wandering is not just a story of destruction; nor is it a tale of mere survival. It is the account of a people that have endured massive oppression but also achieved the ultimate triumph. For despite their trials and tribulations, they proudly retain their ancient identity.

ASA-EL USES a large canvas to trace the routes of the dispersal and to describe the communities of Jews that have grown up around the world. He also takes his readers down a fascinating tributary that follows the claims of the "Lost Tribes" - in Africa, Asia and South America - who observe some Jewish rites and claim Jewish descent. These include Afghan Pathans, who claim lineage from the tribe of Gad, and Afghanistan's largest tribe, the Pashtun, whose origins have been attributed by some to King Saul.

The Diaspora today defines itself largely in terms of its relationship with Israel. While this relationship retains elements of tension, it has matured into an attitude that is, by and large, marked by tolerance, if not actual acceptance, and mutual respect. It is ironic that modern Israel, which Theodor Herzl envisaged as a refuge for the world's scattered, vulnerable Jews, arguably poses greater danger for Jews than much of the Diaspora.

Two millennia after Haman plotted to eliminate the Jews, the people of Persia once again deny Israel's right to exist and direct their nuclear weapons program toward the Jewish state. In this regard, notes Asa-El, the position of Israel's Jews is "much more precarious than that of the rest of the Diaspora, practically all of which lives in predominantly Christian lands."

Asa-El ends his tour de force with two questions that will delineate the contours of the ongoing conversation between Israel and the Diaspora: "Will the future vindicate the classical Zionist view that the Jews' salvation lies in their becoming a normal nation, one that will shed its sprawling Diaspora and thrive in its ancestral home? Or will, perhaps, the Jews manage to prove that a flourishing Jewish state and vibrant Diaspora are not mutually exclusive?" Only time, he says, will tell.

The saga of the Jewish people is told in vivid, elegant prose which derives from Asa-El's profound knowledge of the subject, his understanding of the dramatis personae and his journalistic experience. The sumptuously illustrated result is a magnificent book that is accessible to readers of varied bacggrounds, both Jewish and non-Jewish. To the home library of Jewish families that want to know where they came from and how they got there - Diaspora is an indispensable addition.

The writer, London correspondent for The Jerusalem Post, is co-author, with Helen Davis, of Israel in the World, published in London this month by Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Coffee-table booksd are usually notable for their pictures, and Amotz Asa-El's "The Diaspora and The Lost Tries of Israel" certainly does not disappoint in this regards, filled as it is by nearly 300 pages of photographs of Jewish life spanning six continents. But the accompanying text has a special claim on our attention. Mr. Asa-El, the executive editor of the Jerusalem Post, vividly captures both the creativity and the nomadic quality of the Jewish people. More important, he offers an engaging history of the Jewish experience by tracing he history of the Jewish Diaspora.
Mr. Asa-El's historical narrative begins with the post-biblical wanderings of the Jews from the first exile in 730 B.C.E., when thousands of Jewish refugees were forcibly relocated by ther Assyrians into what is today northeastern Syria. The second exile, some 150 years later, came in the aftermath of the Babylonian conquest of the First Temple. By the time of the Second Temple's destruction by Rome in C.E. 70 and the final rebellion against the Romans in 135-the dates most frequently cited as the beginning of the Diaspora-a majority of Jews were already residing outside the land of Israel.
Mr. Asa-el devotes most of the book to descriptions of individual Jewish communities in the Diaspora. He describes how, throughout the Middle Ages, Jewish merchants brought their traditions to the farthest corners of the world, establishing communities in the most remote parts of Africa and Asia, and also in major European and Middle Eastern countries. He chronicles the various legends and facts surrounding the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, whose communities were as far-flung as Kaifeng, China, and Djerba, an island off the Tunisian mainland. He notes that the greatest cultural and intellectual achievements of the Jewish people-the Babylonian Talmud, the philosophical writings of Maimonides and the biblical commentaries of R ashi-took place in the Diaspora.
As we begin the 21st century, Jews are faced with a situation that they have experienced for only brief periods in their long history-how to reconcile life in the Diaspora with the existence of a sovereign Jewish state. While Israel once against hosts the world's largest Jewish community, after more than two millennia of exile, Diaspora Jews are flourishing as never before. Among much else, the state of Israel and the Diaspora complement each other-with Israel serving not only as a physical refuge for Jews fleeing persecutiion but also, in the words of the early Zionist thinker Ahad Ha-am, as "a spiritual center for the Jews of the world." At the same time, the Diaspora has proved itself to be a durable place of Jewish vitality and accomplishment. [Review written by Jay Lefkowitz for The Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2005, p. D10]

Psychology is ubiquitous in the world of marketing. It has been since marketers fell in love with Freud. This book is a timely reminder that people are first and foremost social beings. It reminds us to look at what we share (language, symbols) and how this might help companies develop better products, or tap into new market opportunities. The authors have first-hand experience into these questions. Most importantly, they provide a stimulating exposition of cultural analysis. This is an essential read for managers who want to go beyond faddish market research tools and explore how to be better understand the world of customers.

During the last 10 years, I've read many books on consumer research and better understanding the consumer's mind. From Freud to Jung, from MacLean to Levy to Zaltman and others, I've read them all. And even after all that, "Doing Anthropology" is the best book I've read on the topic of consumer research.
Authors Sunderland and Denny describe their vivid experiences in the so-called field of Ethnographic Research, a trend that has been gaining popularity in the USA where only "facts," "figures" and "statistical validation" have been the norm. While the mantra in the quantitative research world is "if something exists, it must be measurable" the world that Sunderland and Denny reflect in their book says "if something exists, it must have a meaning."
This book will be very useful for those serious about consumer research. It goes through what ethnography is to the invaluable (and most of the time unseen) world of cultural analysis.
If you are tired of getting the same outcome in your consumer research, "Doing Anthropology" will broaden your scope. The reader will discover a new way of perceiving reality, where the act of consumption is far more than an economic transaction but a symbolic one, where the meaning of things is more important than the things themselves.
"Doing Anthropology" is also a generous act where the authors give us their secrets and share their fears and hopes as they are lived in the exciting world of consumer research. For academically oriented readers, the book is full of notes and sources, making it a great compilation of useful information.
PeccataMinuta: I only wish that the many pictures of the book were in full color. After all, color is a meaning itself, an element that would make Sunderland and Denny's argument more vivid.
Thomas Clayre said: "Indeed, it is well said, in every action there is inexhaustible meaning," and this book will give you a pair of glasses to discover that your brand values less from what it is than from what it means.

This was a grand excursion to say the least, coming from just enough background to THINK I knew anything about what anthropology could be in consumer research, this book made my brain twist and flatten and splinter and weave and jutter and spin itself into a tissy. Not only did I have my pre-conceptions blasted to pieces about exactly what anthropology was and how it related to product development, I left the book with a new view and appreciation for what anthropology actually is, and what enormously important implications it could bring to product development (b/c I dare say it isn't usually this). Inspiring and crucial for anyone one who wants to make relevant things for people.

Doing Anthropology in Consumer Research by Patricia L. Sunderland and Rita M. Denny is a well-written book exploring the boundaries and connections between academic disciplines and interpretive communities. First, Sunderland and Denny examine the interesting similarities (and differences) between consumer research and cultural anthropology. They note that both of these disciplines rely on ethnography as an important method. The book broadly interprets ethnography to include semiotics, deep interviewing, visual and projective techniques, and participant observation. Sunderland and Denny explore their own consulting projects and academic interests with a reflective engaging style with many interesting examples to develop a convincing argument that consumer researchers need to study anthropology to enhance a cultural analysis and anthropologists should not ignore popular culture. Second, they examine the interface between theory and practice suggesting that academic communities often become encapsulated from real-life problems. After spending most of my life in academia I could not agree with them more. Sunderland and Denny's book helped me to reflect on my own projects in new ways, motivating me to step out of the office, take action, and get involved. This book is must reading for students of marketing, consumer behavior, cultural anthropology, and practitioners of marketing and consumer research.

I found this book both academic and much like a diary of personal experiences. The authors' reflections on the problems of conducting studies in the commercial world made this book impossible to put down at times. They take you through multiple layers of personal interaction with subjects' and clients' preconceptions and solve what appear to be insurmountable issues. I never knew you could extract so much detailed information about peoples' likes, dislikes and communication patterns from what appears to be such a small sampling. I found the authors' work fascinating. It made me want to become an anthropologist.

This is a great book to read if you are planning to visit China, It is easy to read with beatiful pictures, a review about modern Chinese society, the good side and the dark side when the Dragon is rising.

Dragon Rising: An Inside Look at China Today comes from a Beijing-based journalist who examines the major issues around China's transition to a global power. His experiences with a wide range of Chinese residents, from urban to rural - and his observations of the different paths the Chinese are choosing on the road to modernity - lends to a blend of powerful images and social observation key to any understanding of Chinese culture. Both general-interest libraries and high school to college-level holdings strong in intercultural understanding will want to consider this introductory review.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

My father will be traveling to China in May for a 3-week trip, to learn more about this fascinating country. I can think of no better book, to prepare him for his travel to Beijing, Shanghai, and the Yangtze River. So, I will be sending him this book immediately.

Following up his well-researched and detailed 600-page "The Chinese" with "Dragon Rising," Becker has given the "China" shelf in the bookstore a book, which it dearly needed. Instead of reading about the Ming Dynasty or Chairman Mao, business travelers and adventure travelers needed a book, which could be easily read in a day, covering the different regions of China (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Yunnan Province, etc.), an explanation of Deng's reforms which were responsible for the China economic miracle, and some hard-hitting truth-telling about the human and environmental impact of China's rush to modernism.

On this point, anyone who has read Becker's "The Chinese" will not be surprised by his honest assessment of this human impact on the Chinese. In the chapter on Beijing, he recounts the developments that led to the Tiananmen Square protests; in the Shanghai chapter, he documents the misery of construction workers building this city of the future and the prostitutes who inhabit it; and in the Pearl River Delta, he puts a face to the cheap labor and goods being sent from China to the rest of the world: the young and petite factory girls recruited from the countryside who live their regulated lives in factory dormitories.

Becker's reportage combines a sense of wonderment and awe about China's rise with a Dickensian sensibility. Becker is terrific at distilling confusing political developments into a language the average reader can understand. But, he is at best when his journalistic instinct kicks in: traveling the country to interview farmers, entrepreneurs, beggars, prostitutes, local party leaders, labor activists, and prostitutes. In a way, the book is a series of fascinating anecdotes strung from one chapter to another.

Finally, I should mention that this is a National Geographic book, so the pictures are tremendously beautiful, even when they focus on the poverty or environmental disasters of the countryside. More of the China books would be much better, if they contained more contemporary pictures!

All in all, this is a well-rounded, very readable book.

China's future impact on world affairs, economies, and raw-material/energy demand is frequently pondered, but with little detail. Becker's "Dragon Rising" brings clear detail and reality to recent accomplishments by China. In addition, the reader also learns interesting tidbits such as China lost Taiwan to Japan in 1895, Tiananmen Square was modeled after Moscow's Red Square, and Deng Xiaoping was the de facto Chinese leader who led China out of Mao's mess and into the modern world (despite being deposed twice, and sentenced to death once for non-conformist actions).

Example of Chinese Urban Renovation: China spent $30 billion from '92 to '99 to rebuild Shanghai's infrastructure. This supported construction of 8,000 high-rises in 15 years (each taller than any building in the area prior to 1980), new steel and car plants, an automated stock exchange, a new airport, and a Maglev train to/from the airport (top speed 269 mph). The bad news is that Shanghai has sunk 8 feet since '21, its population density now exceeds 5,800/square mile (much greater than New York, London, or Paris), many of the new buildings are of poor quality and will require significant repairs in ten years, prices have skyrocketed to as high as $1,250/square foot, many of the buildings are vacant, and the disparity between rich and poor has never been greater.

China has also build underground cities and factories in preparation for nuclear war.

Transitioning the Economy: China had about 300,000 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) with jobs and food originally guaranteed for life; however, with their overheads (about one administrator for every three workers) they were slow-moving, and productivity was poor. Deng began transitioning by changing their focus from military products to civilian, and by the late 1990s, two-thirds were operating in the red.

Glove Company Example: The firm began as a part-time husband/wife activity aimed at adding to their farm income. Success led to adding onto their house, buying a few Japanese machines, and hiring some workers. More success and reinvestment brought new machines made in China (some with computers), and a capacity of a million/year. Large orders were shared with others in the area.

Sales activities took place not only via mobile phones, but at a local market (in this case about a mile long with five floors and 40,000 vendors) - buyers liked it because of the ease in filling a shipping container, even with small purchases from individual vendors. Dongyang focuses on socks (about 9 billion pair/year), and attracts 100,000 buyers at its sock fair.

MBAs are not needed - the average number of employees is 18, and 70% of owners have at best a middle-school education. Profits are reinvested, or put into real-estate or even purchasing jet planes; China has private savings of over $1.4 trillion. Employees work 10-12 hours/day, often for less than minimum wage (many workers are illegal migrants from rural areas - China severely restricts movement to avoid peasants overwhelming cities). The government is trying to crack down on pay violations; other problems include a damaged environment, high-cost healthcare that often is of poor quality, and lack of worker safety standards.

How does this all add up? A Mattel Barbie doll retails for $10 in the U.S., with $1 going for management and shippers in Hong Kong, 65 cents for raw materials, and 35 cents for other factory costs (including labor and equipment). Sophisticated parts are often made outside China and simply assembled; look for this to change soon.

Why do peasants want to move to the cities? Their income has stagnated at low levels (average land farmed is 1.5 acres; title to the land still resides with the government). Regardless, this creates considerable pressure for the government to further increase trade so that they can move off the farm and the land can be consolidated for production efficiencies.

Bottom Line: Becker does not hide the fact that China has a long way to go as far as human rights are concerned. However, it is also clear that the Chinese government is maneuvering carefully, trying to avoid unmeetable expectations and the problems caused by instant transition (eg. Russia, East Germany). Regardless, China's future military, political, economic, and resource impact on the world will be very significant and occur much faster than we probably would have imagined.

Dragon Rising is a very well written book giving the reader an excellent overview of modern China. Its clear from the very beginning (via the introduction) that the author is not a "China cheerleader" and can ask the difficult questions. I think this book balances all the China hype we see and read about it in the economic media with the reality of the the many pressing economic and social problems that are becoming more acute.

This book is very interesting and easy to read and intersperses anecdotes, with history, and facts, as well as colorful photos -all without getting bogged down in minutiae. Probably the best book available for anyone interested in an overview of modern China. I would recommend it for anyone doing business with China or traveling to China, and interested in an overview of modern Chinese society. Not for academic types or someone interested in Chinese history.

I'll admit that any book with the work heresies in the title has an automatic advantage in peaking my interest, but this volume does so much more than merely entice. MacCoun and Reuter have done an amazing job of looking that drug prohibition from a new point of view. Frankly, despite the passage of a few years, I believe that this book is absolute essential if one hopes to really understand the controversy over the War on Drugs.

Rather than attempt a summary of the contents, let me simply point to three specifics as representative of the wealth of insight the reader will encounter. First, MacCoun and Reuter have expanded the typical dichotomous legalization v criminalization perspectives to include depenalization and commercialization. Counter the arguments of drug prohibitionists, depenalization does not seem to be inextricably intertwined with massive increases in the prevalence of drug use as is anticipated with legalization. Also, legalization may have less negative increases in prevalence without the accompaniment of commercialization. By adding these two considerations, MacCoun and Reuter enable expansion of the debate into potentially fertile areas for improving the consequences of prohibition.

Secondly, the careful analysis of the 48 negative consequences of prohibition and the related causal linkage to enforcement, illegal status, and use should be the focus of careful reflection by every reader. In many respects, the damage caused by the War on Drugs is a kind of collateral damage - unintentionally caused by the implementation of US prohibition efforts.

Thirdly, MacCoun & Reuter reconceptualize the total harmfulness of illicit drugs as the interaction of three factors: prevalence, intensity, and micro harm (i.e., user self-damage). Much of the criticism of drug prohibition deals with the extensive micro harm without equal weight being given to the total harmfulness to our society. The negative correlation between prevalence and micro harm is among the more interesting possibilities to consider.

In summary, it is quite difficult to imagine a more sensitive evaluation of drug prohibition that so carefully considers the US case in light of the European context and the historical experience with legal addictive substances (alcohol and tobacco). I cannot recommend this book more highly.

Drug War Heresies may be the best book ever written about modern U.S. drug policy. Written by a psychologist and an economist, the authors draw on attempts to control other substances (such as alcohol prohibition in the U.S.) and exhaustively examine the alternative and experimental European drug policies that most American readers will find particularly useful. The authors are careful to not impose their values and beliefs into their work, instead focusing on the consequences of alternative drug policies. The result is a persuasive case for policy reform in America that is not doctrinaire. Required reading for all who are interested in illicit drug policy in America.

The 'War on Drugs' in the United States grew from a million dollar acorn absentmindedly planted by President Nixon to a thriving 18 billion dollar oak three decades on.

The outcome of the 'war' is not satisfactory. The prevalence of illicit drug use is down but the substances are still readily available for people who really want to use them. The collateral damage is alarming, including one of the highest per capita rates for imprisonment in the world and regular reports of ghastly mistakes by law enforcement officers.

This book presents a massively researched and dispassionate cost/benefit analysis of the likely effects of various forms of legalisation for the major categories of illicit drugs. The subtitle of the book signals that the conceptual framework is enriched by a survey the international experience in the control of prostitution, gambling, alcohol and tobacco as well as the illicit drugs.

Drug War Heresies is a really excellent source for a wide range of literature and for the standard arguments that are likely to be bandied backwards and forwards for some time to come. It is clearly written and it provides a model of policy analysis in a deeply controversial field where the authors articulate a position of their own without apparently biasing the analysis.


The centrepiece of their analysis is the estimation of the Total Harm from a drug as the product of Prevalence (number of users) x Intensity (average number of doses) x Harmfulness (harm caused by each dose). This is a complex equation because the intensity is not uniform in the drug-using population and the harms arising from particular levels of drug use depend on the public health provisions and other policies (such as policing) that are in place.

The highly nuance stance that they adopt calls for modest law reforms that would result in increased prevalence (more users) in conjunction with other policies which would moderate both the intensity of use and the harms that result from drug use. The harms include the cost of crimes to support expensive habits, and other costs that result from policing zero-tolerance prohibition policies.

The analysis is far from complete, partly because the financial costs and benefits cannot be calculated accurately, also because the attractiveness and the political feasibility of the options depends on highly subjective (and widely divergent) appraisals that different people apply to drug use and its consequences.

The authors concluded that there is very little likelihood in the near future for reform, even for cannabis. All the problems in the analysis favour the status quo. So far only one major political figure, the Republican Governor of New Mexico, was prepared to put the ball of reform into play in the political arena and he was rebuffed by the Democratic majority in his legislature. This was a most unfortunate outcome from a scientific point of view because some of the imponderables that dog the cost/benefit analysis might have been illuminated in the light of experience in one state.

After the authors put down their pens both terrorism and Iraq became major issues, hence the prospects for change in drug policy are even more dismal, partly due to the diversion of attention to other areas and partly on account of the deterioration in the civility of public debate in general. This does not detract from the value of this excellent book, merely from the impact that it is likely to have in the short term.

This is one of the most comprehensive, objective or "bi-partisan," and current studies available to the general public. Although it is indeed an academic study and is written to influence policymakers, the educated public can easily follow most of the arguments posited by MacCoun and Reuter. Both thinkers have extensive experience in the area of drug policy, both are senior consultants with RAND (Drug Policy Research Center) and have published a considerable amount of literature on the nature of drugs and drug laws. This dynamic text attempts a comparative analysis of vices, such as gambling and prostitution, with that of recreational drug use, including alcohol and tobacco. The purpose of this study is to research whether or not there are any correlations between vices and, if so - can they assist in our understanding of how to regulate drugs and the desires of individuals for drugs. For example, of the kind of comparisons made, is that of prostitution and gambling. Both are legal in Las Vegas, NV - both are thought to be harmful vices, nevertheless, the law has provided a place for them in a legal context - can the same be done for drugs? The text also evaluates extensively, the European models of drug law enforcement and treatment and compares them to America's own models of law and treatment. The authors do not offer any solutions to the drug problem, but what they have done is contribute a comprehensive study with an extensive and diverse amount of data on the subject, something of which has not been achieved as thoroughly as it has been done in this study. The authors also analyze many of the drug reformer's arguments and parse them for consistencies and/or inconsistencies; in the conclusion, they offer a sympathetic gesture to the reformer's contentions because the authors admit to realizing the inanity and harm current drug laws are causing society, but they do so cautiously. They realize that something "must change," but what? and the future can only hold speculations. This book is highly recommended.

Another interesting companion study is the Consumer Reports study that was released in 1972. It is comprehensive and treats the many aspects of the "drug problem" in America. See:

Breacher, Edward M. et al., Licit and Illicit Drugs: the Consumers Union report on narcotics, stimulants, depressants, inhalants, hallucinogens, and marijuana - including caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol. (Boston: Little Brown, 1972).

"In Drug War Heresies, Robert J. MacCoun and Peter Reuter ask whether drug prohibition makes sense and whether legalization might achieve a better balancing of the costs and benefits associated with drugs and drug policy. They draw on a broad range of social science literature, and they emphasize the lessons provided both by drug prohibition in other places and by prohibitions of other goods, such as alcohol and prostitution. In discussing this evidence, they raise most of the key issues that should be considered in evaluating drug policy. Their book is an excellent starting point for anyone who wishes to understand the debates about prohibition versus legalization.

MacCoun and Reuter make a compelling case that many evils typically attributed to drugs result instead from drug prohibition and its enforcement. According to their analysis, prohibition causes increases in property crime because users face elevated prices; increases in violent crime because traffickers cannot resolve disputes using the courts; diminishments of civil liberties owing to the difficulty of detecting crimes without natural complainants; increases in corruption of police and politicians; disruption of countries that produce coca and opium; diminishments of users' health because of poor quality control; increases in the spread of HIV because of prohibition-induced restrictions on clean needles; excessive restrictions on medical uses of drugs; and reductions in respect for the law bred by widespread violation of prohibition-among other consequences.

And yet the authors do not endorse legalization. They find great fault with the heavy emphasis on criminal sanctions in current U.S. prohibition, and they believe substantial deescalation to, say, the level of enforcement in western Europe, Canada, or Australia would diminish many of the harms of prohibition while causing only small increases in drug use. Still, they do not endorse legalization. Why not?

Their position rests on four arguments: that moving from weak, European-style prohibition to legalization would produce a substantial increase in drug use; that this increase would be a bad thing; that most of the benefits from legalization are achieved simply by deescalating prohibition; and that the effects of legalization are uncertain."

"The authors' basic points move in the right direction. They have done a great service in carefully, honestly, and scientifically considering both theory and evidence on the effects of alternative drug policies. Room remains for reasonable persons to disagree about certain pieces of evidence, but if more persons were to analyze drug policy as dispassionately as MacCoun and Reuter, both drug policy and the country would be in far better shape."

This book exudes what would be the common sense conclusions of many were the problems discussed not so emotionally charged. I strongly recommend that you read this book if you are interested in social justice.

Dr. Sowell earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago, a masters in Economics from Columbia University and a bachelors degree in Economics, magna cum laude from Harvard College.

Perhaps because the subject matter is so emotionally charged, Dr. Sowell has a footnote to references for almost every factual assertion.

His only conclusions with which I disagree are his views on overpopulation. He looks at overpopulation as a global issue that has economic solutions. I tend to look at overpopulation as a local issue whether it presents itself in a family with 12 children when the family could only support two or three or whether it presents itself in a country like Haiti which does not have the population density of many successful countries, but which none the less can't support its population. Dr. Sowell is probably correct that such countries could maintain their populations with sufficient human and economic capital. The problem is that they don't have what it takes to maintain existing populations and are not likely to get what it takes. Population self restraint is an unlikely but more direct solution.

Probably what frustrates those who oppose Dr. Sowell's views is that his facts are well researched and the logic usually irrefutable. Sometimes the truth hurts.

If there is any shortcoming in this book it is that he proposes few concrete solutions to the world problems other than suggesting that we look at what has worked for other oppressed people in the world who have succeeded. You cannot read this book without seeing dozens of solutions that are implied but not enunciated. Perhaps this was his intent.

I rate this book as one of the best books that I have ever read. I am currently reading a re-release of his book "A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles" which also exhibits a profound insight on human nature.

Read this book. You may disagree with many of Dr. Sowell's views, but you will be hard pressed to find good reasons to support your disagreement. If you then want to know why you disagree, read his book A Conflict of Visions.

Jim Fuqua

The message of Thomas Sowell's "The Economics and Politics of Race" is simple and easy to understand: human cultures are not equal and some of them are better than others, their patterns of values having a more decisive role in the social perfomance of their respective members than any alleged, or even real and appaling, discrimination.

Sowell demonstrates that ethnic groups perform differently, even when they are subjected to a similar hostile social condition, like the chinese, the jews or the blacks in the USA, in the beginning of the 20th century.

The reason? A strong commitment, or not, to such values as hardworking, stable family ties and a firm will of improving their own social fate rather than blaming third ones by that same fate.

Similarly, when the pretense source of damage disappears - for example, in societies where certain ethnic groups are largely the majority and "bias" against them is inexistent -, not only their poor social behavior does not vanish, but, contrarily, worsens in a terrible way...

Concluding, culture really matters!

This author is cited by Justice Clarence Thomas as one of the most important intellects of the 20th century. Further, he claims this book more than any other single book was the catalyst which provoked him to throw his hat into the public arena. More attention needs to be paid to this special book

Thomas Sowell has written both about race and economics in other books so it was inteersting to see Sowell combine these tow areas like this. He looks at historical reaosn to look at why certain areas of the world wer bale to acquire wealth while others did not. He looks at how different group's migrations to different parts of the world were similar, similar to the race trilogy. He also looks at the first world and the third world now looking to explain their differences and histories

A wonderfully written comparision of the successes and failures of various races and cultures. Sowell has no problem pointing out how some races have more "human capital" than others and therefore are historically more successful.

Maybe it's because I grew up in Mount Airy (the setting for most of the book) and I take pride in being the product of such a unique place, but I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Interestingly, I saw a news recap of the protest march for the Jena 6 tonight, where well-tanned white anchorman interviewed the highschool football coach, who had no idea that there were ratial tensions in his town - "there's no rule that says they can't go to our church, they just don't want to" - RIGHT... This book touches on the ingrained bigotry of white suburbia in the 50's (not that it's come so far) and the tenssions in more-urban Philadelphia surrounding the process of "white flight," which was occuring in urban communities nation-wide. It's notable however that this story probably would never have been written if the author had moved even a few miles away to west Philadelphia where the racial make-up of the neighborhoods were almost completely turned over (and where another turnover has been ongoing for a decade or so). It is a testament, not only to the author but many of her neighbors who chose to stay that Mount Airy is considered one of the first successfully integrated communities in America, having been noted for this in Oprah's magazine (bette late than never) and US News & Word Report. Anyone interested in learning about mid-century "white flight" and the undercurrent oooof racism in America in general will find this book and the community described to be a welcome stand-out.

Lois Stalvey came from a middle-class white Midwestern background in the 1950s-60s. She was ignorant of racial problems. She thought that outright racism never occurred in her community. That perception was changed when she made friends with an African-American doctor who was trying to buy a house. She then discovered the substantial vein of racism running through her community, in her friends and neighbors. She was ostracized and shunned for trying to help out this black family. She then continually got more and more involved in fighting for civil rights for black people. This is her story. An excellent introduction to race relations for Midwestern/ rural whites like me who saw few black people when we were growing up. Also the book gives a glimpse into racial attitudes of middle-class whites in the Midwest in the 1950s and 60s.

I read this book for a Diversity in the Workplace class I took at college. I can never tell you how much it opened my eyes. Being married to a black man and having bi-racial children didn't teach me as much as this book did. If you have the time and the inclination, please read this book. The only draw back is the price. Using it for a textbook has given the sellers a license to charge as much as they can on it. And it is a shame because more people should read this but they can't afford to buy it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it led me to understand some of the truths of society that I had somehow ignored and denied. This book will cause you to examine yourself and the society you live in in an entirely new light. It changed my outlook on my life dramatically.

I worked in the library in college and happened on this book in the stacks. I had started a group to end white racism but never found another resouce to help me with this process. I read this book cover to cover, send it to the elders of my church, gave copies to friends...spent all my money buying copies so this womens journey from a total unconsciousness about white racism grew and grew and grew, She didn't know, she didn't understand but when she did, she did something about it. Not only in the midwest, but after encountering more"subtle" racism when she moved East to Philadephia. I loved this book. Still give it away. Admire her courage and her journey and her willingness not only to change but to do something to change the injustcie she learned about around her.

The heart-breaking story of the Kogi indians of Colombia, who believe that their divine purpose is safeguarding the planet from the ecological holocaust caused by modern civilization. The description of the elderly shaman and the young boy, secluded in a cave high in the Andes as they enact ancient rituals in a desperate attempt to save the world, is one of the most mind-blowing passages I have ever read. A gut-wrenching, haunting, and ultimately terrifying book, the message of the Kogi people could very well contain the key to our survival as a species.

Several years ago I saw the documentary "From the Heart Of the World." I never forgot it and thought about these wise and wonderful people, the "elder brothers," many times and wished always to know more. One day I googled in "Elder Brothers" and found to my joy that a few used volumes of a book I had never known about were listed on amazon.com. Now I own one slim book, worth its weight in gold with which I will never part.

The Elder brothers, the Kogis, are a tribe of South American Indians living high in the mountains of Columbia. Having avoided extinction by the early Spanish explorers, they found refuge where others could not follow. There they have survived for centuries, living in harmony with nature and resisting outside influences. It was only because they knew in their own unique way that the outside world was destroying the earth that they permitted Alan Ereira to travel to their sanctuaries and create the film as a warning to their "younger brothers." The book tells the story of Ereira's friendship with these highly intelligent and spiritually evolved people and how the film came to be made. Ereira shares with the reader glimpses into the Kogi way of life, their customs, their government and the spiritual philosophy they have lived by in peace and brotherhood for so many centuries. The book, currently out of print, should be republished and read by all who care anything about our ravaged earth for its message has never been more urgent.

The Elder Brothers are the last surviving high civilization of pre-conquest America. They live in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta...the highest coastal mountain in the world...19,000 feet above the sea and only 26 miles inland. The mountains gradually rise from the Caribbean beaches and burning desert at the base to eternal snows at the top. It is the land of the Kogi...the special Indian people who consider themselves the Elder Brothers of humanity.

From the start, author/film maker Alan Ereira did not want to make a film about the Kogi...he wanted to make a film with them. His willingness to allow the Kogi to tell their story rather than dictate to them...lead the Elder Brothers to break centuries of suspicion and secrecy. This wonderful book is about how Ereira managed to make his documentary film. The author is careful to explain that the Kogi Elder Brothers offer us a way of understanding our own past. The Elder Brothers believe that they are the guardians to life on earth. The Kogi are not a violent people but like all indigenous people of America who were hospitable...they have learned that hospitality is the most dangerous virtue on earth. Hence, now that they have given Ereira the message...they want to be left alone again.

The Kogi have a powerful message...true "words of wisdom" that can help mankind. The Elder Brothers look on us as children, dangerous, irrational and essentially helpless. They call us, the "Younger Brothers." They also see as moral idiots, greedy beyond all understanding. Over and over Ereira informs us that the Kogi speak of us sacking, looting the planet, tearing at is flesh without respect. If we fail to respond...the Elder Brothers say all life will be destroyed.

This book will certainly shake your soul. The Kogi are intelligent but an understanding of their world requires profound understanding and deep thought, according to the author. The Kogi are balanced...in harmony with mother nature and hope that we will listen to them and change our ways. They know that the "Younger Brother" has a butterfly mind which has paid no attention to mother nature's teaching. At the beginning the Kogi had a garden of Eden...but it was all destroyed with the arrival of the brutal Spanish conquistadors who sought gold and killed all who did not obey.

In order to understand the significance of the Elder Brothers I must borrow the words of one scholar in this marvelous book who documents his comments in the "Journal of Latin American Lore." The scholar states, "I truly believe that the Kogi can greatly contribute to a better understanding and handling of some of our modern dilemmas and that we should consider ourselves fortunate to be contemporaries of a people who perhaps can teach us to achieve a measure of balance...My appeal is to humanists, to psychologists and philosophers, to historians and to the community of international planning experts who, I am afraid, are far removed from the Magna Mater of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta." Highly, highly recommended.

Bert Ruiz

Very moving account of what is happening to the Kogi-Indians in Colombia. Makes you think about what the "white brothers" did to indigenous people in America.

This book should be required reading in order to qualify for participation in the human race. WHY IS IT OUT OF PRINT??? This book is an eye-opener to the tragic environmental destruction we all are causing to the Earth. I have no doubt that we could make miraculous healing changes to the world environment if everyone read a copy. It not only features an incredibly important environmental message, it is a great read! The reader is invited into the world of the Kogi of Colombia and blessed with the opportunity to perceive the world through their eyes. This book is a rare jewel, one does not often find a recounting this valuable and moving. After reading it, I gathered my children and talked about the impact we all make on the global environment every day. We went through our home to find ways to improve and change as much as one family can. This book will prove to be an epiphany to anyone fortunate enough to read it. It is startling that the "younger brothers" have gutted the Earth, burnt the sky, poisoned the sea and are now working on the extinction of human life.