Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee ISBN: 0-374-51431-3 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 1977 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (21 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Arguably McPhee's finest book
Comment: As the other reviewers here have noted, this is John McPhee's superb recounting of three episodes in the life of famous environmental activist David Brower. The three people he encounters are a geologist, a land developer, and a dam builder. The structure of the book allows a revealing contrast between one of America's greatest environmental activists on three key issues. These are: 1) the desirability and advisability of exploring and mining for ore and minerals in protected wilderness areas, 2) whether it is preferable to develop land on the Atlantic Coast or allow it to be developed, and 3) the desirability of damming major rivers in the Southwest.
My favorite portion of the book featured Brower's encounter with the fascinating Charles Fraser, one of America's greatest and most gifted land developers. At debate was whether to develop Cumberland Island as a recreational and residential area, or whether to leave it wild and protect it as a National Seashore. The editorial reviewer inaccurately stated that Fraser was successful in his goal to develop it. He was not. Today Cumberland Island is a designated National Seashore. Fraser had hoped to develop Cumberland much as he had Hilton Head. What is compelling about Fraser is his desire to develop land on the one hand, with an intent to respect the physical surroundings to the greatest possible degree. Brower himself says in the book that while he is opposed to developing Cumberland Island, if anyone were to develop it, he would want Fraser to be that person.
The section of the book in which Brower and dam builder Floyd Dominy discuss a wide range of issues is fascinating not just in contrasting two fundamentally opposed viewpoints, but in bringing out both Brower's most conspicuous success and failure. The success was his leading the Sierra Club in opposing building a dam in the Grand Canyon. The tragedy was that in focusing on opposing the Grand Canyon, Brower and the Sierra Club were unable to fight the building of the Glen Canyon River Dam, for environmentalists and conservationists perhaps the single greatest tragedy since the building of the Hetch Hetchy Dam early in the 20th century. In building this dam, the ironically named Lake Powell was created. Many environmentalists refer to his as Lake Foul. The irony stems from the fact that it was named in "honor" of John Wesley Powell, who led the first expedition of Europeans to explore the entirety of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. Powell was deeply opposed to the development of the American West beyond the ability of the water supply to support the local population. He would, therefore, have been horrified to find such an anti-monument as this lake bearing his name. Edward Abbey's books are filled with vituperative attacks on the devastation wrought by the building of the Glen Canyon River Dam. There are several organizations that continue calling for the draining of Lake Powell.
Why is there so much outrage at this dam? In creating Lake Powell, the water covered some of the most excruciatingly beautiful landscape not only in the United States but the world. Just before the dam was completed and the waters filled the area, photographer Eliot Porter took a number of remarkable photographs chronicling the magnificence of what was lost. Instead of being covered with water, the area should have been declared a national park. The poignancy of the final section of McPhee's book is the since of the tragedy of the dam, and the two who struggled over its building, meet and talk.
Rating: 5
Summary: Another great book by John McPhee
Comment: A collection of 3 narratives, these are stories of the interactions between David Brower, a militant environmentalist and former head of the Sierra Club, and three of his natural enemies from the worlds of engineering, government, and real estate development. McPhee does a brilliant job of getting the reader into the hearts and minds of these people without taking sides, and you won't look at environmental issues quite the same again. I was especially impressed with McPhee's exploration of Floyd Dominy, a builder of monumental dams and the man behind the notorious Glen Danyon dam. I couldn't put this book down. John McPhee is an amazing writer who has tackled just about every subject. I think it's much easier to shop McPhee in an online setting like Amazon.com than to try to locate him at your local bookstore. He has covered so many topics that no one really knows where to shelve his books, and used book dealers have an especially hard time of it. Southern California readers will enjoy his book "The Control of Nature" if only for his wonderful piece entitled "Los Angeles against the Mountains." You cannot go wrong with John McPhee!
Rating: 2
Summary: too many dam dams
Comment: It made me want to hike the Sierra Nevada mountains. The cover of the book enticed me to read this book. The book was very informational about David Brower's life. It was good how the book was divided into three parts to makea it more interesting. John McPhee did a good job of describing how the mountains looked. It helped show how nature is affected by humans and how we shouldn't interfere with it. It was very interesting to see the differemt views of a conservationist verses a copper miner or a developer. Overall, this story has enlightened all of its readers to the effects of human growth and industrialization in the wilderness.
 |
Title: The Control of Nature by John McPhee ISBN: 0374522596 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1990 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: The Crofter and the Laird by John McPhee ISBN: 0374514658 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 1992 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: The Pine Barrens by John McPhee, James Graves ISBN: 0374514429 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1978 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: Annals of the Former World by John McPhee ISBN: 0374518734 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 15 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
 |
Title: Coming into the Country by John McPhee ISBN: 0374522871 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1991 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
