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by Erik Reece
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover (2006-02-02)
ISBN: 1594489084
EAN: 9781594489082
Dewy Decimal #: 622.2920974
Hardcover: 272 pages
SKU: 081808010
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No noticeable Underlining or Highlighting...light shelf wear on dustjacket
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
A groundbreaking work of literary nonfiction that exposes how radical strip mining is destroying one of America's most precious natural resources and the communities that depend on it.
The mountains of Appalachia are home to one of the great forests of the world-they predate the Ice Age and scientists refer to them as the "rainforests" of North America for their remarkable density and species diversity. These mountains also hold the mother lode of American coal, and the coalmining industry has long been the economic backbone for families in a region hard-pressed for other job opportunities. But recently, a new type of mining has been introduced-"radical strip mining," aka "mountaintop removal"-in which a team employing no more than ten men and some heavy machinery literally blast off the top of a mountain, dump it in the valley below, and scoop out the coal.
Erik Reece chronicles the year he spent witnessing the systematic decimation of a single mountain, aptly named "Lost Mountain." A native Kentuckian and the son of a coal worker, Reece makes it clear that strip mining is neither a local concern nor a radical contention, but a mainstream crisis that encompasses every hot-button issue-from corporate hubris and government neglect, to class conflict and poisoned groundwater, to irrevocable species extinction and landscape destruction. Published excerpts of Lost Mountain are already driving headlines and legislative action in Kentucky.
In Erik Reece, the mountains of Kentucky have found an eloquent and powerful spokesman in the tradition of Edward Abbey, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, and Henry David Thoreau. Like the work of those writers before him, Lost Mountain will stand as a landmark defense of a natural treasure-and a core part of our national identity-on the verge of extinction, and as the introduction of a mighty new literary voice.
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Customer Reviews
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Appalachians Vanishing
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-11-20
Erik Reece has written a heart gripping story of our beloved mountains that are being destroyed by the major powerful coal companies. It's heart breaking to read of Ollie Combs being hauled off her land by her arms and legs.
Erik chronicles the year he spent witnessing and observing the decimation of Lost Mountain in Perry County, Kentucky.
It takes no more than ten men and some heavy machinery to blast off a top of the mountain, dump it in the valleys, scoop out the coal and the environmental results are devastating on a unprecedented scale.
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A Mixed Bag with some Good Points
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-11-09
"Lost Mountain" is a rather interesting book in the fact it deals with my own native region. Erik Reese displays talented penmanship and gives readers the feel of being there to see the events taking place. And Reese does have some good points to make. The coal industry has certainly commited abuses as is evidenced by a major coal slurry spill near Wolf Creek a number of years back. Eastern Kentucky is on average a poorer region than many others in the United States (though this had sadly led to many exaggerated sterotypes and "documentaries" which tell only a segment of the story while excluding the bigger picture). Reese also provides interesting descriptions of wildlife in our beautiful mixed mesophylic forests.
Regretfully, I can not bring myself to give Reese's book a completely positive review for a number of reasons. First of all, I would caution readers that Reese presents a largely one sided view of the story and they should also seek out opposing viewpoints for balance. I believe that the environment needs to be protected, but there are both good and bad points to mountaintop removal. I type this review in a house likely built upon formally mined land. A certain amount of tradeoff must be made until coal can realistically be replaced as a major energy source (hopefully sooner in my view rather than later). Likewise, I have heard an acquiatance of mine who formally worked in the coal industry criticise Reese's criticism of how earth is packed. Also I feel Reese's apparent allegations of political corruption need more evidence behind them. Those points don't make Reese's book worthless. He has some good points as well. In fact I have seen in particular one location in which orangish water (possibly from mines) has surfaced.
Also, I found Reese's occasional jabs at religion annoying and thought his pantheistic/agnostic philosphical musings did nothing to further his points. Judging from an essay of his dealing with the "Gospel of Thomas" and the "Jefferson Bible" I skimmed over, this book isn't alone in mainly telling a one sided view. In all fairness though, this book likely has considerably more merit than the previously mentioned essay which uses a generally recognized late document (with possibly a few useful pieces or very possibly none for first century A.D. (C.E.) research) to support Reese's own views of Yeshua.
Some of Reese's information is dated as well. For instance, a company he mentions leaving Perry County for Latin America has since returned. I could mention a few other points but I'll let this suffice for now.
Over all, an informative and well-written book about an important subject but also a one sided work with a number of problems.
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Lost Mountain
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-02-22
Erik Reece's "Lost Mountain" is a metaphor as well as the actual name of a mountain. This is his story for a year in eastern Kentucky as the mountain "is removed."
This is not just another tale of woe about Big Coal, about coal mining or about mining in general. Reece knows that mining is here to stay, whether it is coal, copper, iron, nickel or bauxite.
The focus here is on a special type of mining: mountaintop removal and valley fills. This type of mining came into being in the early 1990's when massive, powerful equipment and the technology to support it made this type of mining possible.
This type of mining has the capability to destroy the topography of planet Earth. Our descendants, hundreds and thousands of years from now will still be living with the effects of mountain top removal and valley fills.
The fact that the central and southern Appalachian Mountains are for now, the mountain range most affected by this type of mining holds a special irony. The Appalachians are one of the oldest mountain ranges on earth. The mix of flora and fauna has evolved over a long period of time. A rich mix of species includes more species of salamander, more species of bats, birds, butterflies, fish than any other place in the United States.
Mountain top removal and valley fills destroy the land. Trees and vegetation get stripped and removed. The rich,layered soil gets dumped, along with broken-up rock into ravines and valleys where it blocks springs, intermittent streams, vernal pools and bogs. Watersheds and drainage patterns are destroyed. The complex ecological structure that took so long to evolve and which provides different ecological niches that support many different species can be destroyed after a day of mountain top removal.
It will take centuries and millenia for land so damaged to emerge. Until then, only the very roughest species of flora and fauna can tolerate such poor conditions, a much-narrowed spectrum of life-forms.
Read Erik Reece's book and get mad. And then do something about it. This type of mining needs to be stopped.
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Enjoyable, but not the best.
Rating (3)
Date: 2008-02-08
4 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
I am graduate engineer with three decades experience in the Eastern Appalachian Coal Fields. I have managed both surface and underground mines; I have inspected impoundments, designed hundreds of ponds and roads, and helped assemble a hundred environmental permits. I occasionally try to read a few "green" books about my region and my career/profession. I think it's interesting to entertain different opinions and gain different perspectives in life. So this is not a glowing review given just because I believe in the author's view point. There are several problems with the story and several misconceptions.
As usual in these type books, a basic tenant of our history, government, and way of life is forgotten: The right to own property and to do with as they please (with in reason). The land companies, coal companies, private citizens, and others own the right to mine these reserves. As noted in the book, it has taken time to define the extent of each party's rights but no permits are granted until the mining company proves they have the legal right to enter the property. Unlike the author who acknowledges trespassing and illegally entering private property. It can be argued that he only put himself at risk but what if he had been hurt or killed. The blame would have been placed on the blaster and the mine managers. They would have suffered potential civil and criminal penalties and most likely sleepless nights over someone's death.
Most of the mining references, terms, technical references, and descriptions of what the author observed are at best..... not too far off but mostly wrong. The author does acknowledge a complete lack of technical training and background and offers to address any technical errors........I wonder where? In a public notice in the local paper to run for four weeks to allow for 60 days of public comment by any interested party, just like every coal operator is required to do with every permit application.
Regarding the property rights issue....as already discovered by the Black Mountain protests in the mid 90s, the property owners have the rights to recover lost opportunities and lost profits. Want to really hurt Kentucky's poor? Take away the mining generated jobs, tax payments to the state and federal coffers, and make the public, i.e. us....... Pay the millions of dollars due the land owners for a taking of their property rights, investments and anticipated profits.
"Night Comes to The Cumberland's" is mentioned here and in every other environmentally themed Appalachian book that reaches for greatness. The problem is Yes.....as driven home by NCTC, conditions were bad and some things were grossly unjust during that time, but who built the railroads, the roads, the towns, the homes, the stores, the theaters, the schools, the golf courses? The land companies, the coal companies, and the private investors did.
Coal mining reclamation is a relatively new science and will continue to change, evolve, and get better. The early days of black locust and lespedeza grasses are long gone. Arch, the enemy, brought elk back to eastern Kentucky, nobody else. ARRI as mentioned in the book's conclusion is a new idea. Contrary to the author's belief, this new direction in reforestation is being funded and promoted in part by .....omg......coal companies. One villain in particular TECO Coal, has taken a lead in eastern Kentucky along with industry from Virginia and West Virginia. The author infers that the industry is slow to change, just try and get a bureaucrat to change.
In one instance the author does present new thoughts and covers new ground for the outside non coal world. The amount of coal generated taxes and government revenue is staggering. Of all the proposed indignities, suffering, and immoral actions put forward in this book the uneven distribution of this revenue stream is unforgivable. A look at OSM's website indicates that the US coal industry has generated over 7 billon dollars (2005). Of that almost 2 billion is being held by the government. Wise use of resources........NO!
The author also seems to understand the paradox we are caught in. America's greatness is partially driven by cheap energy. This relatively cheap economic cost is supported by abundant natural resources and a relentless drive to make productivity gains. Few will go back to using wood and corn shucks to heat their homes, willing anyway.
This leads to the final weak part of the book. Give global warming a rest. Science has almost caught up with the media frenzy. At some point in the next decade we will decide what we can do to live and adapt with global warming. It's not all bad. It's happened before and at some point temperatures will cycle up and down again. Despite our best intentions. We need to quit pissing money away on political knee jerk reactions. These economic costs and actions will hurt the poor folk that the author wants to save more than anybody. Solar, wind, or thermal will not provide the amount of energy required. They cost too much and the technology is not there. Like it or not coal power is here to stay unless the country makes a huge paradigm shift. Then in about a century we will be forced to embrace nuclear power again until finally at some point in the future one of our great great great great great grandkids will come up with a solution to provide cheap safe energy. Most likely, the future Einstein will be an engineer, not a biologist.
As I said in the title, good but not great. Certainly an enjoyable book. It was fun to see friends quoted, even if they begrudgingly appear.
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a call to action
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-02-06
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Erik Reece's Lost Mountain is a classic of beautifully written, heartfelt reporting that calls on all American citizens to confront the outrage of mountaintop removal. His book demonstrates, once again, how corporate power will destroy people, nature, culture and the hope of the future for the sake of short term profits. Reece equally indicts the complacency and complicity of a larger culture (all of us) which accepts a lifestyle built on such insane, literally, destruction. Mountaintop removal is the ultimate price that people pay when they believe that the reality of their their lives and their values are found in economy rather than in nature. This great book should be required reading for every American, and then every American should demand an end to mountaintop removal and demand an economy based in conservation and renewable energy.
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by Arthur R. Upgren
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Rutgers University Press (2005-01-20)
ISBN: 0813535123
EAN: 9780813535128
Dewy Decimal #: 523.2
Hardcover: 198 pages
SKU: 042508020
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No Underlining or Highlighting...shelf wear on dustjacket
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Product Description
What if Earth had several moons or massive rings like Saturn? What if the Sun were but one star in a double-star or triple-star system? What if Earth were the only planet circling the Sun? These and other imaginative scenarios are the subject of Arthur Upgren's inventive book Many Skies: Alternative Histories of the Sun, Moon, Planets, and Stars. Although the night sky as we know it seems eternal and inevitable, Upgren reminds us that, just as easily, it could have been very different. Had the solar system happened to be in the midst of a star cluster, we might have many more bright stars in the sky. Yet had it been located beyond the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, we may have no stars at all. If Venus or Mars had a moon as large as ours, we would be able to view it easily with the unaided eye. Given these or other alternative skies, what might Ptolemy or Copernicus have concluded about the center of the solar system and the Sun? This book not only examines the changes in science that these alternative solar, stellar, and galactic arrangements would have brought; it explores the different theologies, astrologies, and methods of tracking time that would have developed to reflect them. Our perception of our surroundings, the number of gods we worship, the symbols we use in art and literature, even the way we form nations and empires are all closely tied to our particular (and accidental) placement in the universe. Many Skies, however, is not merely a fanciful play on what might have been. Upgren also explores the actual ways that human interferences such as light pollution are changing the night sky. Our atmosphere, he warns, would appear very different if we had a belt of debris circlingthe globe and blotting out the stars, as will happen if advertisers one day pollute space with brilliant satellites displaying their products. From fanciful to foreboding, the scenarios in Many Skies will both delight and inspire reflection, reminding us that ours is but one of many worldviews based on our experience of a universe that is as much a product of accident as it is of intention.
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Customer Reviews
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Thought provoking work of alternate astronomy
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-03-20
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Alternate history has become a popular subject in recent years, both in terms of fiction and also in non-fiction, exploring such ideas as what would have happened if Napoleon had not been defeated at Waterloo or if the South had won the Civil War. Upgren in _Many Skies_, explored alternate solar, stellar, and galactic systems and arrangements and what effects these might have had on the history of the world.
Upgren divided the book into four sections, chapters in each section either exploring an alternate universe where the sky as it appears on Earth is different or discussing some aspect of astronomy as set-up to an idea for an alternate universe in a following chapter. The chapters described the different sky, why it was different, how this sky could have come to exist, what it would look like to an observer on Earth, and then what effects this might have had on the history of science and the history of the world in general. Often times the discussion of the effects were just questions the author would raise though in several cases he went into more detail. There were many diagrams and charts to help illustrate his points and Upgren did a good job of explaining astronomical terms such as proper motion, retrograde motion, and globular clusters when needed.
Part one looked at different systems and arrangements for our Sun and Moon. What if the Earth had three moons? What if the Earth had not one Sun but three? What if the Earth were alone in space with the Sun, with no Moon or other planets, comets, or asteroids?
Part two looked at alternate planets in our solar system, including our own. What if the Earth had rings? What if Jupiter existed in the orbit of our Venus? What if a bright planet, known to the ancients, orbited the Sun outside of the primary plane of the solar system, going far to the north or the south of the ecliptic? What if very bright comets were more frequent? What if Mars or Venus had a moon the size of our Moon (if Mars or Venus had a satellite as large and as bright as our Moon it would easily be seen by the unaided eye; if the Moon was seen from Venus when Venus is at its closest, about 26 million miles away, it would outshine all but the Sun and the Earth)?
Part three looked at alternate stellar and galactic systems and arrangements. What if a star close to the Earth became a supernova? What if the Pleiades Cluster was about as close as the Hyades is now, not thousands of light years away but instead only a hundred light years away, with its stars visible in the daytime? What if the solar system were above the galactic plane, perhaps well outside and to the north of it, with the northern sky completely black and empty to the naked eye?
Part four didn't really delve as much into different skies but touched on other topics, including issues of light pollution and astronomical causes of mass extinction on Earth.
Not surprisingly, many of the various scenarios dealt primarily with alternate histories of science (particularly astronomy) as a result of these different skies. In some cases these alternate skies were beneficial to science. If the Earth had more than one Sun and/or had more than one Moon, or if Jupiter or Venus had satellites visible to the naked eye it would have been possible that the heliocentric model of the solar system would have been adapted centuries earlier, perhaps in the days of the Roman Empire, as it would have been apparent to ancient astronomers that not every object orbited the Earth. Similarly, in an alternate universe with a closer Jupiter (in the orbit of Venus perhaps), close enough that the unaided eye could detect a disk; it would have been possible to see a full set of phases and lead the intelligent observer to conclude it orbited the Sun and not the Earth.
In other cases these alternate skies would not have helped the advancement of science. In an alternate universe where the Earth had rings, the only fully dark skies would exist near the poles, where the rings, lying on the equatorial plane, would be below the horizon and thus not visible. At lower latitudes the sky would always be too bright for the observation of faint objects and it is very likely that as a result the development of stellar astronomy would have been severely retarded. In a system with only the Sun and the Moon (no planets, comets, or asteroids), the issue of whether or not the Sun revolves around the Earth would likely not have been solved until the 18th or 19th centuries when the aberration of starlight and direct measure of stellar parallax could be accomplished with better instrumentation, Kepler's Laws of planetary motion could not have been devised, nor probably either Newton's laws of motion (or at least both would have been devised much later in history). Additionally, no concept of a week or a month would have suggested itself, producing perhaps changes in timekeeping.
Changes to world history would of course not be limited to just astronomy and Upgren does explore that as well. He suggested that if the Earth had had more than one Sun and/or Moon, it is possible that monotheistic religious would not have arisen at all or have arisen later in world history and perhaps in the present polytheistic religious would still be quite common and widespread. In an alternate universe where the northern sky is pure black (due to the solar system being well above the galactic plane), astrology would not have developed and many world mythologies would have been less rich.
An interesting and thought provoking book, my only complaints are that I would have liked more development of non-science-related historical topics as well as alternate evolutionary histories of life on Earth.
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A vivid and contemplative account
Rating (5)
Date: 2005-03-11
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
Emeritus astronomy professor Arthur Upgren presents Many Skies: Alternative Histories Of The Sun, Moon, Planets And Stars, an imaginative discussion of how bodies in the night sky could just as easily have been arranged in very different ways. Exploring scenarios such as if the Earth had multiple moons, or rings like Saturn, or if the Sun were a double-star or triple-star system, Many Skies contemplates how different theologies, astrologies, and methods of tracking time would have evolved. Many Skies also scrutinizes how human interferences such as light pollution is changing the night sky, and warns that increased satellites displaying products will change the appearance of Earth's atmosphere. A vivid and contemplative account, as appealing, understandable, and enjoyable for lay readers as for experts in the field.
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by Dennis Bila, Ralph Bottorff, Paul Merritt, Donald Ross
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Instructional Technologies (1985-07)
ISBN: 0935115021
EAN: 9780935115024
Paperback
SKU: 041208009
Condition: Used: Acceptable
Comments: This book is in good condition. Shows the normal wear due to handling and being read.
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Customer Reviews
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Mathematics for Technical Occupations ( Grade 10-12)
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-08-24
I realy liked this book because it was written to allow you to teach your self. It was written in an easy to follow format using everyday language.
The only thing I didn't like about it was that it starts off with fractions instead of starting off with whole numbers.
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by Lee A Segel
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Macmillan (1977)
ISBN: 0024087009
EAN: 9780024087003
Paperback: 590 pages
SKU: 092208034
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No noticeable Underlining or Highlighting...minor wear on cover
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Product Description
This modern classic analyzes continuum models of fluid flow and solid deformation, examining problems in continuum mechanics, water waves, extremum principles and much more. For upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of applied mathematics, science and engineering.
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Customer Reviews
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Classic
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-08-12
0 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
It's a classic, according to a professor/acquaintance at the University of Washington. Plus, it looks great on my bookshelf. Classy. Smart.
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Good for the price, but often confusing wrt notation
Rating (3)
Date: 2006-10-23
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
Dover publications is famous for low price academic books, and this one is no exception. It retails for around $14, so beware of marketplace sellers charging more. The book is good value for the money and goes into great detail about the mathematics. There are also lots of examples (and some but only some even have hints). If I were to *really* factor price into my rating, I'd give it one star more.
The two areas where this book could have been better is (1) It does not explain the physical significance of the things it discusses: this is nitpicking at best coz the book is clearly slanted towards mathematics, not physics. (2) The notation is confusing. This is perhaps the only book in the world which uses U for Airy stress function. In other places, U is displacement, so we are not even consistent. I dislike authors changing notation on us, especially when there's not even a list of symbols page. They assume the book is being read from start to finish, which for an academic book is a lousy assumption to make.
I will point out that I have read this book very selectively: mostly the first 4 chapters (intro, tensors, cfd, elasticity) and part of the variational methods section (which is clearly inferior to Gelfand and Fomin). The section on waves might be stellar but I havent read it at all.
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by Lee A Segel
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Macmillan (1977)
ISBN: 0024087009
EAN: 9780024087003
Paperback: 590 pages
SKU: 092208034
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No noticeable Underlining or Highlighting...minor wear on cover
More Product Infomation
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
This modern classic analyzes continuum models of fluid flow and solid deformation, examining problems in continuum mechanics, water waves, extremum principles and much more. For upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of applied mathematics, science and engineering.
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Customer Reviews
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Classic
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-08-12
0 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
It's a classic, according to a professor/acquaintance at the University of Washington. Plus, it looks great on my bookshelf. Classy. Smart.
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Good for the price, but often confusing wrt notation
Rating (3)
Date: 2006-10-23
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
Dover publications is famous for low price academic books, and this one is no exception. It retails for around $14, so beware of marketplace sellers charging more. The book is good value for the money and goes into great detail about the mathematics. There are also lots of examples (and some but only some even have hints). If I were to *really* factor price into my rating, I'd give it one star more.
The two areas where this book could have been better is (1) It does not explain the physical significance of the things it discusses: this is nitpicking at best coz the book is clearly slanted towards mathematics, not physics. (2) The notation is confusing. This is perhaps the only book in the world which uses U for Airy stress function. In other places, U is displacement, so we are not even consistent. I dislike authors changing notation on us, especially when there's not even a list of symbols page. They assume the book is being read from start to finish, which for an academic book is a lousy assumption to make.
I will point out that I have read this book very selectively: mostly the first 4 chapters (intro, tensors, cfd, elasticity) and part of the variational methods section (which is clearly inferior to Gelfand and Fomin). The section on waves might be stellar but I havent read it at all.
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by Lee A Segel
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Macmillan (1977)
ISBN: 0024087009
EAN: 9780024087003
Paperback: 590 pages
SKU: 092208034
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No noticeable Underlining or Highlighting...minor wear on cover
More Product Infomation
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
This modern classic analyzes continuum models of fluid flow and solid deformation, examining problems in continuum mechanics, water waves, extremum principles and much more. For upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of applied mathematics, science and engineering.
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Customer Reviews
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Classic
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-08-12
0 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
It's a classic, according to a professor/acquaintance at the University of Washington. Plus, it looks great on my bookshelf. Classy. Smart.
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Good for the price, but often confusing wrt notation
Rating (3)
Date: 2006-10-23
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
Dover publications is famous for low price academic books, and this one is no exception. It retails for around $14, so beware of marketplace sellers charging more. The book is good value for the money and goes into great detail about the mathematics. There are also lots of examples (and some but only some even have hints). If I were to *really* factor price into my rating, I'd give it one star more.
The two areas where this book could have been better is (1) It does not explain the physical significance of the things it discusses: this is nitpicking at best coz the book is clearly slanted towards mathematics, not physics. (2) The notation is confusing. This is perhaps the only book in the world which uses U for Airy stress function. In other places, U is displacement, so we are not even consistent. I dislike authors changing notation on us, especially when there's not even a list of symbols page. They assume the book is being read from start to finish, which for an academic book is a lousy assumption to make.
I will point out that I have read this book very selectively: mostly the first 4 chapters (intro, tensors, cfd, elasticity) and part of the variational methods section (which is clearly inferior to Gelfand and Fomin). The section on waves might be stellar but I havent read it at all.
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by Charles Kittel, Walter D. Knight, Malvin A. Ruderman, A. Carl Helmholz, Burton J. Moyer
Product Group: Book
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Book Company (1973-04-01)
ISBN: 0070048800
EAN: 9780070048805
Dewy Decimal #: 530.08
Hardcover: 426 pages
Edition: 2nd
SKU: 091608016
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No noticeable Underlining or Highlighting...edge wear on cover
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by Charles Kittel, Walter D. Knight, Malvin A. Ruderman, A. Carl Helmholz, Burton J. Moyer
Product Group: Book
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Book Company (1973-04-01)
ISBN: 0070048800
EAN: 9780070048805
Dewy Decimal #: 530.08
Hardcover: 426 pages
Edition: 2nd
SKU: 091608016
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No noticeable Underlining or Highlighting...edge wear on cover
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by D. R. Nielsen
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Academic Pr (1978-04)
ISBN: 0125184026
EAN: 9780125184021
Hardcover: 541 pages
SKU: 053108003
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: june...No noticeable Underlining or Highlighting..no dust jacket.
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by Dorion Sagan
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing (2007-09-27)
ISBN: 1933392320
EAN: 9781933392325
Dewy Decimal #: 500
Paperback: 224 pages
SKU: 072308010
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: ...No noticeable Underlining or Highlighting...light shelf wear on cover
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
In a thought-provoking, humorous, and engaging style, Dorion Sagan combines philosophy, science, and an understanding of illusion to probe the deep questions of existence.
Operating on the precept that the universe is far weirder than we might imagine, Sagan— son of acclaimed scientists Carl Sagan and Lynn Margulis—uses his knowledge of philosophy, science, sleight-of-hand magic, and the fantastical writings of Philip K. Dick to explore some of the deepest questions we face on Earth. He provides fresh insights as to why we are here, the nature of technology, the prognosis for humanity, the living nature of our planet, and a reasoned explanation to why our universe is probably just one of an infinite number.
Sagan also provides answers to twelve pressing questions:
Why does life exist?
Why do we drink water?
Can we save the Earth from global warming?
Are human beings central and special?
Is it possible that we've arisen by pure chance?
Is the Earth an organism?
Are we part of its exo-brain?
If it is alive, can it reproduce?
Can the universe?
What does the future hold in store for us?
Does God exist? What is the nature of ultimate reality?
Notes from the Holocene is a prime example of the writing coming from a new generation of scientific writers. It will inspire readers to think for themselves while leaving them chuckling with tongue-in-cheek anecdotes—a rare combination that Sagan delivers with ease. And yes, as geneticist J.B.S. Haldane says, "the universe is not only stranger than we imagine, but stranger than we can imagine."
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Customer Reviews
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Read a science book instead.
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-11-08
This book talks about science but is not science. It is more like thoughts of a new-age guru.
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A World Stranger Than We Can Imagine
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-07-02
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
I bought this book in the University of California at Berkeley book store and read the last half of it while flying back to El Paso, Texas. It was well worth the price of admission! Dorian Sagan is an interesting and stimulating thinker. In "Notes from the Holocene: A Brief History History of the Future" he often argues, or at least introduces, both sides of an argument. In this he is quite superior to writers of straight polemics. He makes few pronouncements, but invites the reader to take part in the discussion as an equal. This does not mean that he lacks an opinion. It just means that he knows that his opinion could change, based on new evidence, and so has not invested his ego into absolute statements of "facts," when there is uncertainty. By the time you finish reading the book you are convinced however of the basic weirdness of the universe and of the planet earth in particular, and of the fragile state of human existence.
This book is a treat for those who think about such issues as the existence of a creator, the effects of human-induced global warming, the possibility of a living planet, the Anthropic Principle, the tragedy of the commons and other stimulating questions. While Sagan does not solve most of these (this is not his purpose in any case), he certainly gives the reader something to ponder. I highly recommend this book for those who would plumb the depths of such perennial questions. You may not always like Sagan's take on these issues, but he will make you see many questions from a new and often surprising perspective.
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Notes From the Holocene
Rating (4)
Date: 2008-03-10
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
NOTES FROM THE HOLOCENE: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE FUTURE BY DORION SAGAN: Dorion Sagan, son of the late astronomer and author Carl Sagan, attempts to outline our possible future in his latest book now in paperback, Notes From the Holocene. Sagan uses every informational tool possible, not just drawing from the sciences of physics and evolutionary biology, but also from "science fiction, knowledge of magic tricks, and even a little metaphysics to speculate on basics questions of who and what we are in relationship to the Earth and the universe." It is a book that at times seems almost silly in its thoughts, drawing from ideas that are certainly not facts, and yet when viewed as a whole is comprehensive of the way things are and what they might turn out to be. As humans, we are always asking the "Why are we here?" question, sometimes with our own answers in mind. Notes From the Holocene is Dorion Sagan's answer to this question and many more.
The book is split into four distinct parts: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. Each section goes into immense detail about these specific components, educating the reader greatly in these areas, but at the same time, Sagan ties each part significantly to the overall idea of the book. The afterword, "Twelve Mysteries," does an excellent job of quickly summing up his answers to the questions posed throughout the book. The twelve questions are:
Why does life exist?
Why do we drink water?
Can we save the earth from global warming?
Are human beings central and special?
Is it possible that we've arisen by pure chance?
Is the Earth an organism?
Are we part of its exobrain?
If Earth is alive, can it reproduce?
Can the universe?
What does the future hold in store for us?
Does God exist?
What is the nature of human reality?
Whether you're an absolute scientist, a fundamentalist, or one who believes in reading the future in tea leaves, there is something for everyone in this book. The key is that Sagan is open minded and non-judgmental in every regard, saying that nothing is right or wrong, for nothing is certain, but here are all the possibilities. Notes From the Holocene is a book that may not have your answer to life's questions, but it may get you thinking more about these questions, and start you on a journey with a destination where you will have your own satisfactory answers to these great questions.
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Clue to the New Direction
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-12-17
Holocene is a sophisticated, energized, literary-scientific essay in geoecology that is also a very enjoyable read. The breadth, depth and seriousness of Dorion Sagan's scholarship is unexpectedly punctuated every couple of pages with his captivating dry wit. At times I imagined portions as a script for a standup comedy act - perhaps combined with a few magic routines - Dorion being among other things a professional magician. If this book were to be developed into a Holocene television series paralleling his father's Cosmos, it would be equally eloquent; yet enhanced with a touch of science fiction vaudeville. StarTrek's Data might costar.
The inclusion of numerous references to science fiction (cf Robert Dick) reflects the essay's dual polemic - as much an exploration as an update of current thinking. Unlike classical mechanical science that tends to see the future as pre-determined by universal laws of necessary causal connection, the science fiction mind is that of the engineer, a participant in the universe, who wants to know, not what must be, but what could be. And it is through this portal that Dorion connects us to literature and philosophy. The breadth of the scientific examination is inspiring, covering the billion of years of Gaia's evolution partitioned into the viewpoints founded on what has been recognized since ancient times as the four thermodynamic phases - earth, water, air and fire.
The central theme of Holocene is best understood as a probing response to the question - Where is geoecology leading us? It is both a statement and broadening of the inquiry.
Although understated, there is a palpable sense that we are involved in an historic intellectual transition. Darwin looked at Nature and saw a Malthusian competition of all against all. Vernadsky looked at the same Nature and saw a diverse and highly organized community equally as cooperative as competitive. Many of us recall the experience when first introduced to the Darwinian theory of wondering 'if it is competitive, and obviously humans are the winners, then what are all these other life forms doing still hanging around'. Richard Dawkins modernized the competitive metaphor, in his book The Selfish Gene. The natural expectation of the Darwinian tradition is for there to be only one winning species. The overwhelming evidence against this has been handled by introducing what philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn referred to as 'auxiliary hypotheses' - plausible exception clauses. But modern ecology, epitomized in Vernadsky's 'biosphere', sees an organizational structure completely unexplained by The Darwinian Research Program. James Lovelock's ecological research program captured in his Gaia Hypothesis serves as the modern counterpoint and prospective successor to Dawkins and the dwindling Neo-Darwinian research program.
The depth of the intellectual transition was pointed out by Sagan in his previous book, with Eric Schneider, Into The Cool. And it is here even more explicit in the Earth, Water, Air and Fire partitioning of the presentation. Mechanics, the cornerstone of modern science, doesn't handle the full breadth and significance of thermodynamics. The argument that irreversible processes are 'really' reversible processes, has been hanging uncomfortably in the intellectual air of the science community - 'magically suspended' - supported by increasingly implausible 'auxiliary hypotheses'.
Sagan reviews complexity, chaos and self-organization, the most recent attempts in the 20th century to make sense of irreversible processes, which remain unaccounted for in the physicists representation of thermodynamics as reversible.
Thermodynamics is a natural component of the cluster of concepts associated with modern ecology. But this is thermodynamics more in the Carnot tradition - the engineering tradition - than in the Maxwell/Boltzmann tradition. Awareness of the connection to engineering is welling up slowly. Peter Atkins, in his book, The Second Law (page 7), points out, honestly if unexpectedly that: "The aims adopted and the attitudes struck by Carnot and Boltzmann epitomize thermodynamics. Carnot traveled toward thermodynamics from the direction of the engine, then the symbol of industrial society: his aim was to improve its efficiency. Boltzmann traveled to thermodynamics from the atom, the symbol of emerging scientific fundamentalism: his aim was to increase our comprehension of the world at the deepest levels then conceived. Thermodynamics still has both aspects, and reflects complementary aims, attitudes, and applications."
Sagan more than anyone else in the modern ecological movement sees - or perhaps, more accurately, senses - the engineering perspective and, most insightfully, its connection to Enlightenment thinking. Both Lazere and Sadi Carnot were early graduates of the first engineering university, France's Ecole Polytechnique - and deeply involved in the French Revolution. The same natural philosophy was at the heart of the American Revolution where the concept 'evolutionary progress' was taken for granted. Thomas Jefferson's repeated themes combined faith in the 'useful sciences' (viz engineering) and the laws of nature with ideals of freedom, beauty and progress. None of this makes sense in the framework defined by the Darwinian program - as it remains tethered to time-reversible mechanics.
In the first half of the 20th century, American Pragmatist, John Dewey, clarified the distinct conceptual clusters associated with the Spectator and Participant approaches to understanding our place in the universe. The Spectator sees the universe as an isolated mechanical system where our inquiry as to the nature of the universe has no consequence in altering the nature of the universe. Dewey points that the Spectator perspective is internally incoherent and self-referentially paradoxical. From the Participant perspective Dewey treats the mechanical sciences as sub-perspectives - special cases that only make sense in the broader context of freedom, beauty and progress.
It is in the Participant's engineering perspective - defined by the enterprise of problem-solving - that C.P. Snow's separation between the sciences and the humanities disappears. As Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon put it, 'problem solving is trying to move from a given state to a more desired, more valued state'.
My main criticism of Holocene, as well as the otherwise excellent, Into The Cool, is that Sagan's treatment of thermodynamics is still tied - although with obvious discomfort - to the mechanical metaphor presupposing that the overall organization of the universe is running down. A better guess is that this apparent decline - the so-called 'heat death' - is an artifact of trying to account for real, irreversible change in terms of a reversible mechanical framework. When we accept that the evolution of the biosphere, as well as the evolution of the cosmos, are real phenomena - explanations in terms of time-reversible mechanics simply inadequate.
Dorion Sagan, the magician, is well aware of the connections between science and magic. Notably up until the last few centuries, engineers who had mastered a technology - most often without any help from science - were often characterized as magicians, performing technological magic. Reverse engineering Nature to discover technological secrets (viz How does Nature do that?) is methodologically identical to trying to discover the secrets of a professional magic trick. I captured this quote during some now forgotten listserv discussion. Apologies to the now anonymous author. "What is astonishing is that when the development of a previously unknown structure is suddenly revealed as the result of new research, the feeling is often that of seeing the secret of a magic trick or illusion revealed. If there is an Intelligent Designer, he/she/it must be one (excuse the vernacular) helluva magician."
Dorion Sagan's Holocene moves us a step closer to a more magical, enchanting vision of our place in the universe - and to a Participant view of the universe as something like the cosmic engineering enterprise that Plato intimated over 2500 years ago in his dialogue Timaeus.
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The Big Questions
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-10-16
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
If you enjoy philosophy, history of human consciousness, creative speculative thinking and the fine arts of nature as manifest over the past 4,000,000,000 years you will enjoy this book. Notes from the Holocene is both very smart and totally unpretentious. Equally important, for the reader's pleasure, it is at once profound and hilarious.
Dorian Sagan's "Brief History of the Future" is way pre- and post- postmodern. At times I felt I was on a train to nowhere, lucky enough to be seated near Douglas Adams and Foucault having a heart-felt chat.
With sleight-of-hand artistry, Sagan deftly deconstructs our trained-incapacities--we see our delusional projections (aka reality) for what they are. While making us feel we are part of the continuity of 4,000 million years of life on this planet, Sagan uncovers our arrogant self-importance and, at the same time, leaves room for wonder. Notes from the Holocene, much the way Shakespeare's Cleopatra does, moves us into re-cognizing the difference(s) between delusion and illusion--between disjunctive destruction (of much of the planet and ourselves) and visionary imagination.
If you enjoy philosophy, science, evolution of planet Earth, and the ins and out of humans thinking about these things, you'll enjoy this book. If you don't, my hunch is you will enjoy the book anyway. Notes from the Holocene is simply a good read, at he desk with highlighter in hand or at the beach with a glass of wine.
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