Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Baltimore & Ohio Steam Locomotives: The Last 30 Years 1928 -
This is a roster book in case you haven't heard. Roster books are not my 1st choice in books. If you want a good B&O roster book THIS one is for you. ... Read more

Book Description
Thomas Dixon Jr.(1864-1946) is best remembered today as the author of the racist novels thatserved as the basis for D. W. Griffith's controversial 1915 classic film The Birth of a Nation.But in his lifetime, Dixon also enjoyed great renown as a minister, lecturer, lawyer, and actor. And although the native southerner's blatant racist, chauvinist, and white supremacist views are abhorrent today, they found enthusiastic reception among his audiences throughout the country.

This book explains why. Distinguished scholars of religion, film, literature, music, history, and gender studies offer a provocative examination of Dixon's ideas, personal life, and career and in the process illuminate the evolution of white racism in the early twentieth century and its legacy down to the present.

The contributors analyze Dixon's sermons, books, plays, and films, seeking to understand the appeal of his message within the white culture of the Progressive era. They also explore the critical responses of African Americans contemporary with Dixon.Dixon proves to have been a pioneer in understanding modern methods of moving mass audiences.He experimented with tricks to excite a crowd—intermingling politics, religion, and entertainment in ways that still reverberate today. He pushed for the war in Cuba, advocated the subservience of blacks and women, and was avidly anti-Communist as a writer and stage director.

By delving into the context and complexity of Dixon's life, this splendid book raises fascinating questions about the power of popular culture in forming Americans' views in any age. Contributors: W. Fitzhugh Brundage, Jane Gaines, William Link, Cynthia Lynn Lyerly, Louis Menand, Charlene Regester, Scott Romine, John David Smith, David Stricklin.

AUTHOR BIO: Michele K. Gillespie is the author of Free Labor in an Unfree World: White Artisans in Slaveholding Georgia, 1789-1860 and a coeditor of several books, including Neither Lady nor Slave: Working Women of the Old South and The Devil's Lane: Sex and Race in the Early South.She is Kahle Associate Professor of History at Wake Forest University.

Randal L. Hall is the author of William Louis Poteat: A Leader of the Progressive-Era South and coeditor of The Southern Albatross: Race and Ethnicity in the American South.He is associate editor of the Journal of Southern History at Rice University. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A Gripping Historical Classic
The epic that inspired the film classic Birth of a Nation! These three gripping historical novels on the beaten South's bitter "Reconstruction" years chronicle the birth of the first Ku Klux Klan; they helped give rise to the second. Published together for the first time in this magnificent volume are three classics: The Leopard's Spots, the story of Yankee oppression in the occupied South (1865-1900); The Clansman, on white resistance to tyranny and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan; and The Traitor, which traces the Klan's fall. Born of the author's own experience, the work captures all the poignancy of the tragic post-Civil War era in the South, and all the passion with which its despoiled and disenfranchised people rose up to reclaim their rights and safeguard their heritage. No popular work has addressed America's race problem with more searing frankness. You'll marvel at the parallels between the efforts in the 1860s and 1870s of money-hungry Yankee capitalists and earnest, misguided do-gooders to throttle white Southerners, and today's still-unfolding drama of American racial politics. Long out of print, now completely reset in a modern, easy to read typeface. A new preface by attorney Sam Dickson tells of the author's life and times, including his collaboration with famed director D. W. Griffith in the making of the enduring American film classic Birth of a Nation.

Note on Noontide Press
As I note in another review, the intro to this edition is explicitly white supremacist.It's not a mistake that happened to slip by the (otherwise decent) folks at Noontide Press.The Press publishes exclusively whack-job conspiracy theories about how Jews/Blacks/the Illuminati/Elders of Zion/UN fetishists/Masonic wizards,etc. are secretly running the world that oppressed Nazis/Klansman/Christian Identitarians/etc. need to take back.Buying this edition puts money in these folks' pockets, so be advised.

The Clansman
Drop your preconcieved notions of the Klan's earliest days at the door.If only half of what Thomas Dixon records is true, who wouldn't have taken similar measures?It has been the same in every culture from Ireland to Israel.People will only withstand egregious oppression for so long.It is a shame the typical racist morons in the modern KKK are not like these guys.-Stonewall

The Traitor
I have an original edition of this third part in the series.Itblewaway all of my preconceived notions about the Hhistorical Ku Klux klan.Itis excellent!I am ordered it for a friend and recommend it to all!

poorly edited white supremacist edition
Although Dixon's work are historically significant and should be inprint, this edition is problematic for two reasons.First, theediting is awful.Second, the introduction--from the 1980s--is written by a white supremacist arguing for the validity of Dixon's vision of a racially segregated America. With good online versions of two of two of these novels at UNC's "Documenting the American South" project, save yourself some money and avoid this edition. ... Read more

Book Description
Environmental disasters.Terrorist wars. Energy scarcity.Economic failure.Is this the world's inevitable fate, a downward spiral that ultimately spells the collapse of societies?Perhaps, says acclaimed author Thomas Homer-Dixon - or perhaps these crises can actually lead to renewal for ourselves and planet earth.



The Upside of Down takes the reader on a mind-stretching tour of societies' management, or mismanagement, of disasters over time. From the demise of ancient Rome to contemporary climate change, this spellbinding book analyzes what happens when multiple crises compound to cause what the author calls "synchronous failure."But, crisis doesn't have to mean total global calamity. Through catagenesis, or creative, bold reform in the wake of breakdown, it is possible to reinvent our future.



Drawing on the worlds of archeology, poetry, politics, science, and economics, The Upside of Down is certain to provoke controversy and stir imaginations across the globe.The author's wide-ranging expertise makes his insights and proposals particularly acute, as people of all nations try to grapple with how we can survive tomorrow's inevitable shocks to our global system.There is no guarantee of success, but there are ways to begin thinking about a better world, and The Upside of Down is the ideal place to start thinking. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Spectacular Synthesis, Signals Emergence of Collective Intelligence
I learned a great deal more about this author when two chapters in a book I just published, Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace featured histhinking: an interview of him by Hassan Masum; and his interview of the Rt Hon Paul Martin on the important topic of the Internet and democracy.

Consequently, I may place more value on this book than some of the other reviewers, but I choose to give it a solid five stars.In combination with his earlier book The Ingenuity Gap: Facing the Economic, Environmental, and Other Challenges of an Increasingly Complex and Unpredictable Future, and the work of many, many people on emergent collective, peace, commercial, gift, cultural, and earth intelligence, all subsets of the emerging discipline of public intellligence (self-governance founded on full access to all information to produce reality-based balanced budgets), I regard the author as one of a handful of individuals exploring the possibilities of cognitive collective integral consciousness.

I have a note: superb single best overview.I cannot list all the books I would like, being limited to ten links, the ones I do are a token.See my 1100+ other reviews and my many lists for a more comprehensive stroll through the relevant literatures.

Highlights from my notes:

+ Five stresses (population, energy, environmental, climate, economic)

+ I have a note, what about mental, cultural, physical stress (e.g. dramatic increases in mental illness, blind fundamentalism, and obesity).

+ See the image on predicting revolution, the author observes that revolutions come from synchronous failures with negative synergy.

+ Connectivity and speed are multipliers, and I am reminded that virtually all US SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) systems in the US are connected to the Internet and hackable (meanwhile, the Chinese have figured how to hack into systems not connected to the Internet, but drawing electric power from the open grid).

+ Synchronous failures get worse when they jump system boundaries and created frayed less resilient networks.

+ He write of the thermodynamics of empire and the declining return on investment from energy discovery and exploitation.

+He writes of migration getting much much worse in the future, which confirms my own view that border control is not the answer, stabilization & reconstruction of the source countries is the longer-term sustainable answer.

+ He credits George Soros with having the first intuitive understanding of the asymmetries of wealth in relation to destabilization of the world.

+ He observes that we have transformed and degrades half the Earth's land surface, and is particularly concerned with the washing away of entire nations of topsoil (compounded by agriculture that does not do deep-root farming).

+ As the book winds to a conclusion, the author discusses massive denial and the loss of resilience that gets worse each day.

+ "Non-extremists have a formidable 'collective action problem.'"

+ Need alternative values (I am reminded that the literature points out just two sustainable approaches to agriculture and community: the Amish and the Cuban).He notes that fundamentalists are especially ill-equipped by their myopia to be adaptive or resilient.

+ He covers the polarization between rich and poor.While other books listed below are more trenchant, the author has done a superb job of integrating historical, economic, social, and cultural works.This is a very fine book.

+ He adds a useful snippet on Cultural Intelligence, distinguishing between utilitarian values (likes and dislikes), moral values (fairness and justice), and existential values (significance and meaning).

+ Violence is discusses as stemming from motivation, opportunity, and framing--all of which can be found in the eight stages of genocide as defined by Dr. Greg Stanton of Genocide Watch.

+ He ends the book with praise of the open source model (search from my Gnomedex 2007 keytone, "Open Everything") and concludes that the Internet is not living up to its potential as a platform for large-scale problem solving.I agree, and I condemn Google for choosing to become an illicit vacuum cleaner of other people's information, rather than an open source platform for allowing every person to be a collector, processor, analyst, producer, and consumer of public intelligence (search for my book review of "Google 2.o: The Calculating Predator."IBM ando the Google partners are literally BLIND and refusing to assimilate documented early warnings on how Google is preparing to scorch banking, communications, data storage, entertainment, and publishing, all without respect for privacy or copyright, and without regulatory oversight.

I list below eight books I recommend for reading as an expansion of this elegant synthesis.At Earth Intelligence Network you can find a table of 1000+ books I have reviewed, sortable by threat, policy, or challenger.

A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility--Report of the Secretary-General's High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political--Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration
Five Minds for the Future
The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)

Eye opening read.
without repeating points well-made by the other reviewers here, this book was an eye opener for me, and laid out clearly many things that have been concerning me for some time, but which I have mostly seen only intuitively; Homer-Dixon quantifies and qualifies many of these concerns.

My main problem with this book, and the reason I don't give it five stars, is that Homer-Dixon's grasp of history is Eurocentric and fairly shallow, so using the Roman empire as his only major comparison point is not presenting the historical picture at all well; he should have drawn on Persian history, especially the Sassanid empire, India and China, as a wider context would have shown that the Romans were at least as much borrowers as innovators, and when they ran out of ideas to borrow it harmed their solution-finding ability immensely.

The "Elephant in the room" that Homer-Dixon and others ignore (and he never squarely addresses it in this book) is that our biosphere probably cannot support the current number of humans indefinitely, let alone the expected population growth to come, even if the effects of looming resource shortages and global warming are ignored. In the event of a major breakdown of global networks and fragmenting of societies as they look out for themselves first and last, starvation on an enormous scale looms. This is a problem that also needs to be addressed, but perhaps has no socially acceptable solution.

Despite these minor reservations, I would recommend this book as a starting point that pulls together ideas from many disciplines, leading into deeper research from specialists in the fields Homer-Dixon touches on.

Eloquent and timely
In this pathbreaking work Thomas Homer-Dixon illustrates the complex and tenuous relations between the human ecology and the natural systems upon which society, markets, and structures of governance are based. He warns that human populations, and their high rates of resource consumption, are rapidly outstripping the regenerative capacity of the planet. A principal contribution of the work lies in his argument that energy flows play a central role in the maintainance of economic and socio-political stability. Homer-Dixon's exploration of the role of energy in the collapse of previous political institutions is rather novel and deserves serious consideration.
Moreover, Homer-Dixon has a rare talent for weaving advances in the natural sciences into the policy literature and communicating advanced concepts to the reader with clarity and precision. His discussions of complexity, emergent properties, and panarchy are particularly illuminating. A wonderful read.

Reflecting in the fog
The key question in this book is raised in the very middle: "Why don't we face reality?"A major reason is that we are groping in a fog to learn what that reality is.Homer-Dixon likens our society to a driver careering along a country road in a dense fog.We can barely see what's ahead, but we're somehow confident that no mishap will befall us.We've gotten this far safely.As we drive, we're guided by the mantra of "endless economic growth".We have some idea where we've been, but remain uncertain about what lies ahead.Worse, we don't seem to care.Ignoring the warning signs indicating that all might not be well we continue along our course.In this excellent study of how our society is progressing and where it's likely going, the author clearly outlines the various options before us and what actions we can take to prevent serious disruptions.

The book is a call for preparation.Resilience is what our outlook and our policies should undertake to prevent disasters that we cannot handle.Having observed and reflected on these issues for several years, Homer-Dixon concludes that major difficulties lie ahead.We cannot avoid them - they're already here or loom in the near future.He lists some of the obvious ones:terrorism is now a part of life, climate change beyond our experience is already with us, and economic and social disruption causes have already been pinpointed.His model used as the basis of assessment is the Roman Empire.He cites three examples of what the Empire accomplished, the Colosseum, the road and aqueduct networks and the Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek, Lebanon.All these enterprises required immense amounts of energy, yet a society without engineering schools achieved them all successfully.It worked only so long as the energy was available and applied efficiently.Our schools taught us that the Romans built their imperium on slavery, but Homer-Dixon shows that concept to be false.Oxen pulled the 256 carts of material required by the Colosseum and free peasant farmers supplied the basic energy needs.The Empire collapsed only when the energy required failed.We need to understand what can be learned from that Empire offer, andHomer-Dixon demonstrates how pertinent the lessons are today.

The author's formula for assessment is EROI - Energy Return On Investment.We've been profligate in energy use, and it's future availability is a major concern of the his."Peak oil" has been the topic of so many books and articles, it should be old news.The author notes how the petroleum industry and those dependent on it keep up a continuous barrage of denial propaganda to discourage us from believing that evident fact.The "globalised" economy was supposed to reduce the distinction between rich and poor.Not only is it having the opposite effect, but it's increasing the consumption of energy in the process.While a number of recent books stress the threats posed by environmental change, Homer-Dixon sees that as but one element in a far larger picture.He deals with a full range of pressures building up to threaten society.He likens them to tectonic stresses likely to snap unexpectedly at any time.

Unlike some books making forecasts or offering timetables of potential catastrophe, Homer-Dixon's more circumspect.He's more concerned with demonstrating that the kinds of "growth" we've experienced cannot endure. What and when surprise setbacks occur is of less importance to him than how we adjust to them.He's not addressing a small coterie of "movers and shakers" with this workHis prose style is just short of that of a story-telling narrative.He means for all of us, taxpayers, policy-makers and even academics and scientists, to participate in the development and preparation of new sets of options for survival.We will all be effected by the unfolding events.While this may seem that the author's "Down" is inevitable and final, he prefixed it with "Upside" for a reason.His opening depicts the destruction of a city - San Francisco in the 1906 earthquake and fire.The city didn't collapse and die, but recovery meant a new approach to disaster planning.We must follow that example, or our collapse will be more severe.It will be global and possibly all-consuming.[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Required Reading for all Who Care About the Planet
This brilliant, courageous, inspiring, multidisciplinary book unflinchingly examines the ominous, ever increasing tectonic pressures--population imbalances, energy shortages, environmental damage, global warming, and the widening gaps between rich and poor--that threaten to disrupt, if not topple, civilization.

Historical, ecological, political, economic, scientific, sociological and psychological threads are woven together in a fascinating, extremely readable analysis of the mess we are in, how we got here, what we can expect in the future, and what we can do about it.

Homer-Dixon does not provide magic bullet solutions to our problems because, in fact, none exists. He does, however, suggest four important actions, including boosting the overall resilience of our civilization, especially critical systems like energy and food distribution. Most importantly, he stresses the cultivation of the prospective mind, which includes an openness to radically new ways of thinking about our world and about how we should live our lives.

The author states that "when a social earthquake erupts--when the established order starts to crack and crumble--much depends on what happens in the period immediately following the initial shock." A mega-crisis has the potential to jolt people awake from their social conditioning, and can bring out the very worst or the very best in people. Homer-Dixon tells us to prepare for that moment, so the forces of reason, tolerance and compassion will prevail.

This book is not for those wanting to pretend that band-aide solutions from corporate-owned politicians will save us. This book is a zen-like slap in the face designed to zap denial, and awaken prospective, creative intelligence, so that bold new solutions to our planetary problems can emerge.

If I could, I would make The Upside of Down required reading for everyone on the planet. When it comes to defining the global crisis, it is by far the best of the following related books which I've recently read:

James Howard Kunstler, The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil,
Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-
First Century (2006)

Stephen Leeb, The Coming Economic Collapse (2006)

Chalmers Johnson, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (2006)

Sir Martin Rees, Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning (2003)

DavidKorten, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community (2006)

Bill McKibben, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable
Future(2007)

Raine Eisler, The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics
(2007)

Jerry Mander & John Cavanagh, Alternatives to Economic Globalization
(2004)

Paul Hawken, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came
into Being and Why No One Saw it Coming (2007)

Lester Brown, Plan B2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a
Civilization in Trouble(2006)

Paul & Anne Ehrlich, One With Nineveh: Politics, Consumption and the
Human Future(2004)



... Read more

Amazon.com
A sprawling, complex, and comic work from one of the country's most celebrated and idiosyncratic authors, Mason & Dixon is Thomas Pynchon's Most Magickal reinvention of the 18th-century novel. It follows the lifelong partnership and adventures of the English surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon (of Mason-Dixon Line fame) as they travel the world mapping and measuring through an uncharted pre-Revolutionary America of Native Americans, white settlers, taverns, and bawdy establishments of ill-repute. Fans of the postmodern master of paranoia will recognize Pynchon's personality in the novel's first phrase: "Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs," a brief echo of the rockets that curve across the skies in the writer's masterpiece Gravity's Rainbow.Book Description

Customer Reviews (133)

remedy for insomnia
OH MY GOD HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE SO BORING?

I found a nice hard back version in a bargain bin somewhere for $6.Picked it up, took it home.Every time I put it down, I had to check my pulse.Now I know why it was only $6.

Wow!
Stunning.Possibly the pinnacle of writing.A moving work with riches to be found on so many levels.Gorgeous writing and an enjoyable read.However, the writing is very difficult, the story is all over the place, and it is very long.Work your way up to this book, take your time reading it, and you won't be disappointed! An incredible journey and adventure.

Wow. Fantastick...eeh!
Pynchon's my all-time favorite, but this big paperback has sat on my shelf for years. I am so glad to have finally gotten around to tackling this jaw-dropping masterwork. Perhaps I should wait until I've actually finished it (presently about 3/4 through), but I am enjoying the Ride so much I had to enthuse. Pynchon is a freakin genius. Other reviewers have mentioned some of the comic set-pieces--getting stoned with Col. Washington, the talking English Dog, Felipe the elecric eel and his backup marimba band, etc., but every little detail is sheer delight. The beverage-themed goofy names (Cherrycoke, Redzinger), the historical detail (thanks, 'kipedia!), the stories within stories within stories...wow. One of my favorite little touches: the black-clad young woman from Brooklyn who uses "as" in the way her counterparts in the present day use "like." This is a feast of language, so much fun I almost don't care about its deeper meaning. Which, I do not doubt, lurks there for future "smoaking."

Twice-read Jeremiad
I was disappointed by Pynchon's latest, 'Against the Day', but decided it stronger to reinforce my support for this mature masterpiece than add to the noise around the later juvenile epic.

Pynchon's usual weakness is to treat his secondary characters to more sympathy than his leads, which are loaded like ordnance to be lobbed, both with vicious parody and with thematic gravity, at the author's favorite targets: the fortress walls of contemporary political culture cast in the material of his historical fantasies, and the residents behind those walls, the duelling spirits that make their project of civic modernity. in this mix, the comical subplots often flourish and resolve satisfiably with folks putting down their cooking utensils, making babies and finally saying what they really mean. the tragic in Pynchon, meanwhile, tends to run out of air.

Mason & Dixon avoids these problems. The author invests in Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, developing them more personably than he's achieved elsewhere. The kernel of this vivid novel is their accidental friendship, and despite the novel's sedimentary layers (imaginary 18th century idiom, conspiracies of colony, state and corporation, the paradigmatic turnings on technology's turf, a disturbance of terrestrial forces not capturable by lexical scope, etc.), this seed takes root and sustains throughout. Laurel & Hardy they are indeed (or Wilder & Pryor), but the personae of Mason & Dixon are thorough such that they transcend comparison to other duets, stepping into the literary tradition as their own precedent.

To folks unfamiliar with Pynchon, I can recommend this or Gravity's Rainbow as good cherry poppers. To those exercised Pynchon readers who have dismissed Mason & Dixon, perhaps for its uncharacteristic restraint, or the tidiness of its denouement, I urge you pick it up again; I believe this is the one that will be remembered in three generations.

Mason & Dixon is a wild "mechanical duck" chase through the eighteenth century world of surveyors Mason and Dixon
What a wild, exuberant, complex, richly worded, comic, tragic novel is this gargantuan book by the noted Thomas Pynchon(born in New York State in 1937). Pynchon's novels are nearly as complex as James Joyce's Ulysses. They are also funnier and closer to the American experience as this book looks at the survey undertaken in the 1760s by English astronomer/surveyers from the Royal Society: Charles Mason and his companion Jeremiah Dixon.
In the first 200 pages of this 800 pound Goliath of a book we see the two meet; travel to South Africa and St. Helens on astronomical observation jaunts; be chased at sea by a French man-o-war; deal with
family matters as they travel, argue and do science in a spirt of comradeship and inquiry characteristic of the Age of Reason. Pynchon satirically throws mud at the Age of Reason which such ludicrous characters as a mechanical duck; a huge worm and a talking dog! (the Learned English Dog!). Along the way we meet characters who are eccentric, verbose, cruel and hilarioius. It is obvioius Pynchon is a learned scholar of eighteenth century life, science as well as being a master of the English language.
This was my first encounter with the difficult Mr. Pynchon. I confess that there are sections of the book which leave me nonplussed, confused and downright bored! Pynchon is concerned with "Time" (as witness a conversation between two clocks!) and readily switches tenses, times and situations. It can be as confusing as adjusting to the writing of a William Faulkner. It would require several readings guided by a great English professor to aid the layperson in understanding such a tangled web of a shaggy dog tome! The book is written in faux eighteenth century prose reminiscent of the wild hijinks of Laurence Sterne's classic of absurdity and word play "Tristam Shandy."
I pity the poor wretch who picks up this book in the local bookstore or buys it on Amazon hoping to have a standard historical novel on Mason and Dixon in his/her hands. The two men surveyed the line between Penn.
and Maryland in the days prior to the American Revolution. Pynchon's book deals with slavery and the nascent movement in the colonies to revolt against Great Britain.
Famous figures of the age appear. George Washington and Mary share some "weed" with the surveyors as a slave joins them for a fun filled hour! Dr. Johnson and James Boswell converse with Mason and Dixon
as well as Benjamin Franklin The doings ofhistorical personages is strictly fictional and usually for laughs.
The narrative shows the friendship between Mason and Dixon from their first teaming until their deaths. Pynchon is considered to be one of our best novelist by such a literary guru as the esteemed Harold Bloom of Yale.While not my cup of tea I agree with Bloom. The language, complexity, imagination and storytelling ability of the genius that is Pynchon is peerless in our nation's prose. A daunting but rewarding read not for those looking for beach reading or mindless thinking. Pynchon will keep the persevering reader on his/her toes for hours! ... Read more

Book Description

The Earth's human population is expected to pass eight billion by the year 2025, while rapid growth in the global economy will spur ever increasing demands for natural resources. The world will consequently face growing scarcities of such vital renewable resources as cropland, fresh water, and forests. Thomas Homer-Dixon argues in this sobering book that these environmental scarcities will have profound social consequences--contributing to insurrections, ethnic clashes, urban unrest, and other forms of civil violence, especially in the developing world.

Homer-Dixon synthesizes work from a wide range of international research projects to develop a detailed model of the sources of environmental scarcity. He refers to water shortages in China, population growth in sub-Saharan Africa, and land distribution in Mexico, for example, to show that scarcities stem from the degradation and depletion of renewable resources, the increased demand for these resources, and/or their unequal distribution. He shows that these scarcities can lead to deepened poverty, large-scale migrations, sharpened social cleavages, and weakened institutions. And he describes the kinds of violence that can result from these social effects, arguing that conflicts in Chiapas, Mexico and ongoing turmoil in many African and Asian countries, for instance, are already partly a consequence of scarcity.

Homer-Dixon is careful to point out that the effects of environmental scarcity are indirect and act in combination with other social, political, and economic stresses. He also acknowledges that human ingenuity can reduce the likelihood of conflict, particularly in countries with efficient markets, capable states, and an educated populace. But he argues that the violent consequences of scarcity should not be underestimated--especially when about half the world's population depends directly on local renewables for their day-to-day well-being. In the next decades, he writes, growing scarcities will affect billions of people with unprecedented severity and at an unparalleled scale and pace.

Clearly written and forcefully argued, this book will become the standard work on the complex relationship between environmental scarcities and human violence.

Customer Reviews (4)

Scholarly analysis
Thomas Homer-Dixon's "Environment, Scarcity and Violence" offers a scholarly analysis of the role environmental scarcity plays in spawning violent human conflicts. The author uses social science research methodology to isolate the independent variable of environmental scarcity in order to study the ways it may or may not contribute to violence. Importantly, Homer-Dixon has found that environmental scarcity, while insignificant in itself, is a significant factor in amplifying the underlying tensions that may in turn fuel a society's descent into violence.

The author goes on to argue that countries that possess sufficient quantities of ingenuity may be able to avert violence by curing their environmental crises through the application of advanced technological and managerial skills. On the other hand, nations that lack ingenuity -- or those who lose intellectual capital as the result of their deteriorating environments -- are more apt to descend into violence as these societies negatively respond to their crises by turning against themselves.

Although the book provides no easy answers to the stated problems, it does suggest that democracy and international cooperation will be badly needed in the struggle to create a peaceful and stable planet. I strongly recommended this outstanding book to policy makers and others who are interested in learning how we might secure a non-violent future for ourselves in an increasingly tumultuous world.

Thoughtful, General, Missing the Big Bang

Last year we had some exceptional works on water scarcity (de Villier), resource wars (Klare), corporate razing of the environment (Czech), among many others that I reviewed here on Amazon. This year we have two extraordinary books, this is the second of the two in my estimation (the other being Andrew Price-Smith's "The Health of Nations: Infectious Disease, Environmental Change, and Their Effects on National Security and Development"- as both authors are from the University of Toronto, one can only applaud the collection of talent this organization seems to nurture).

The author is brilliant and has a longer track record than most for being both prescient and meticulous about in the arena of environmental scarcity.

His book is effective in making the point, but very candidly, did not go the full distance that I was hoping for--he is, in a word, too general and the book lacks a single chapter that pulls it all together with very specific rankings of both the variables and the countries.

The general proposition is clear-cut: environmental scarcity has social effects that lead to violent conflict. However, the author takes a side road in exploring "human ingenuity" as an ameliorating factor, and while he makes reference to crass corporate and elitist carpet-bagging and the social structures of repression, he fails to draw out more fully and explicitly the inherent association between repressive corrupt regimes with extreme concentrations of wealth and power, scarcity, and violence.

For myself, I found two gems within this book: the first, a passing comment on the crucial role that unfettered urbanization plays in exacerbating scarcity and all that comes with it (migration, disease, crime); the second, the author's prescriptive emphasis, extremely importance, on the prevention of scarcity rather than adaptation or amelioration of scarcity.

The endnotes would have been more useful as footnotes but are quite good. The bibliography and index are four star rather than five star, and I was quite disappointed to not have a single page about the author, nor a consolidated bibliography of his many signal contribution over time in the form of articles and lectures.

A must read on the relationship of violence and scarcity...
Like most political science books, after I finished this one, I was slightly disappointed. I bought this book in hopes of a masterwork; upon turning its last page, I thought that this book was something much less than this. I thought that it begged as many questions as it sought to answer; I thought that much of what it brought forth as profound was only that in the sense of being profoundly obvious; I thought that the author opened this book with definitions that were overly broad and thus, in the end, proved nothing.

Thankfully, as time has passed, though, my opinion of this book has changed fully and completely. Many of the problems that I saw with this book stemmed from the fact that this book is essentially the first large-scale, well-publicized work of its kind. Its author puts forth a strongly written and researched work into the interrelationship between scarcity and violence on multiple levels; it is both (fairly) easy to understand while still being challenging for those who are not new to the study of conflict....

I'd recommend this book to any student of international or comparative politics-- especially those who are interested in fighting between groups of people. This is probably going to be one of the key books toward understanding what is to come in the world in the next twenty or so years; in this category (though topically somewhat unrelated) I'd suggest van Crevald's 'The Transformation of War' and 'The Rise and Decline of the State' and some of Robert Kaplan's travel books as excellent source material....

I am certain that there are going to be many who dislike what this book says-- but as to how it is written, and how it is researched, it seems to me to have been in large measure flawless. Buy this book.

Seminal thoughtpiece, masterfully written
This book offers brilliant and carefully argued insights into the nexus of relations that the title suggests.Homer-Dixon has made a case for environmental conern all the more powerful by steering away from thedogmatism that so often accompanies such work.Instead, he has presented abook that is the result of years of academic research in a way that anyonewill enjoy reading it. Homer-Dixon is a great writer who knows an enormousamount about this subject and has as a result written an incredible book. Buy it! Read it!Get your professor to put it on the core reading list ofany course about world politics, international relations, environment, andmore! ... Read more

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A Gem
Author Corns has studied Ohio's Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway for decades, and his passion for the subject shines through in this definitive volume. Hundreds of sharply reproduced black-and-white photographs, thoroughly captioned and most never before published, augment a detail-rich text that brings to life an important and relatively unheralded piece of American railway history.

Train and rolling stock photos predominate, as would be expected, but remarkable images of long-gone stations, engine terminals, yards, and workers also grace the pages.

The W&LE, itself an amalgamation of small companies, was leased to the larger Nickel Plate Road in 1949, and it is at this logical point in the Wheeling's rather tumultuous history that the author concludes his review.

This book is a gem, and holds much of interest for railfans, modelers, historians, and Ohioans alike. ... Read more

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The dedication reads "To the memory of a Scotch-Irish Leasder of the South My Uncle, Colonel Leroy McAfee Grand Titan of the invisible empire Ku Klux Klan ... Read more

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Dixon presents racial conflict as an epic struggle with the future of civilization at stake in this dark tale. ... Read more

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"The Clansman" develops the true story of the "Ku Klux Klan Conspiracy," which overturned the Reconstruction régime.The organization was governed by the Grand Wizard Commander-in-Chief, who lived at Memphis, Tennessee. The Grand Dragon commanded a State, the Grand Titan a Congressional District, the Grand Giant a County, and the Grand Cyclops a Township Den. The twelve volumes of Government reports on the famous Klan refer chiefly to events which occurred after 1870, the date of its dissolution."I have sought to preserve in this romance both the letter and the spirit of this remarkable period. The men who enact the drama of fierce revenge into which I have woven a double love-story are historical figures. I have merely changed their names without taking a liberty with any essential historic fact."- Thomas Dixon, Jr. ... Read more

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Until two centuries ago "the emotions" did not exist. Thomas Dixon reveals in this study how emotions came into being as a distinct psychological category. They replaced such concepts as appetites, passions, sentiments and affections, which had preoccupied thinkers as diverse as Augustine, Aquinas, Hume, and Darwin. The book is a significant original contribution to the debate which has preoccupied western thinkers across many disciplines in recent decades.Download Description
Today there is a thriving 'emotions industry' to which philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists are contributing. Yet until two centuries ago 'the emotions' did not exist. In this path-breaking study Thomas Dixon shows how, during the nineteenth century, the emotions came into being as a distinct psychological category, replacing existing categories such as appetites, passions, sentiments and affections. By examining medieval and eighteenth-century theological psychologies and placing Charles Darwin and William James within a broader and more complex nineteenth-century setting, Thomas Dixon argues that this domination by one single descriptive category is not healthy. Overinclusivity of 'the emotions' hampers attempts to argue with any subtlety about the enormous range of mental states and stances of which humans are capable. This book is an important contribution to the debate about emotion and rationality which has preoccupied western thinkers throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and has implications for contemporary debates. ... Read more