Tag Archives: Politics-CivicInterest

Losing an Enemy

Posted on January 8, 2020 by

Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran, and the Triumph of Diplomacy 472 pages © 2017 Trita Parsi Losing an Enemy is now a profoundly depressing book,  being an extensive history of an agreement that could have started erasing fifty years of … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , | 7 Comments

A Warning

Posted on January 2, 2020 by

A Warning © 2019 A Senior Trump Administration Official 272 pages In 2018, a disturbing op-ed ran in The New York Times declaring the existence of a secret band of White House staffers who were ‘working diligently’ to frustrate part … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Rubbish!

Posted on December 18, 2019 by

Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage © 1992 William Rathje and Cullen Murphy 250 pages Given that historians often use the contents of middens to glean information about societies which have long faded away, it’s only fair to see what our … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Junkyard Planet

Posted on December 6, 2019 by

Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion Dollar Trash Trade © 2013 Adam Minter 304 pages I once encountered a pair of supermarket clerks unloading cases of bottled water from their pallet jack to the shelves where the water awaits the … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Romance of the Rails

Posted on March 21, 2019 by

Romance of the Rails: Why the Trains We Love Are Not the Transportation We Need© 2018 Randal O’Toole300 pages “These are the 1930s again, with all the charm and romance, all the gaiety! That was a carefree world, Danny, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Walkable City Rules

Posted on March 16, 2019 by

Walkaable City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Places © 2018 Jeff Speck312 pages In Walkable Cities, Jeff Speck argued for the virtues of a city optimized for pedestrian travel, and offered ten general guidelines  for making it happen — … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Why We Hate and How to Heal

Posted on February 15, 2019 by

Them: Why We Hate and How to Heal © 2018 Ben Sasse272 pages The tenor of civil ‘discourse’ in America today is disheartening and distressful, in part for at least over a decade there has been little discourse at all, only yelling.  … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

The Big Ones

Posted on February 5, 2019 by

The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)© 2018 Lucy Jones256 pages Earth is not a peaceful place; even it were stripped of all life, it would still teem with energy, from … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Happy City

Posted on February 3, 2019 by

Happy City: Transforming Our Lives through Urban Design© 2013 Charles Montgomery368 pages City air makes one free, but — happy? Throughout the 20th century, Americans fled the urban centers seeking Arcadian bliss. They didn’t find it, and despite an abundance … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Our Time Has Come

Posted on January 30, 2019 by

Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World ©  2018 Alyssa Ayres360 pages The India of the 21st century is more than  the word’s back office;  by some measures, it has already overtaken Japan as the … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments