Dark Age Ahead
by Jane Jacobs | Nonfiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0679313095 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0679313095 Global Overview for this book
3 journalers for this copy...
Highly recommended, Jacobs view of societal decay and how we can reverse the trends.
Jacobs has such an astute mind, and such an accessible way of writing about complicated concepts. This book, published in 2004, is prescient in so many ways. Too bad we lost Jacobs in 2006 -- I would love to hear her thoughts about the last few years of financial madness in our world.
This book is being released to the winner of the Cdn lit sweepstakes. I hope you enjoy these selections!
I remember reading a review of this book when it came out and I intended to read it some day but, of course, other books kept getting in the way. What a thrill to finally have a copy of it in my hands. This is a perfect choice CynthiaA. Thank you so much for sending it to me for the Canadian Literature Sweepstakes.
This book got journalled before I could post my review or release notes. Here is my review:
This is the last book Jane Jacobs wrote. It was written in 2003 and she was born in 1916 so she was 87 at the time. How wonderful to have the mental acuity and wide-ranging curiosity at that age to bring together such divergent fields as city planning, economics, history, politics and education.
Jacobs takes us through a discussion of various Dark Ages and how they resulted in a cultural amnesia into a dissection of five pillars that show signs of a coming Dark Age and finally into a prescription for forestalling this. The five pillars are:
1. Community and family
2. Higher education
3. Science and technology
4. Governmental representation
5. Self-governing professions
Although I can’t speak authoritatively about any of these pillars I do know a little bit more about science and technology than the others. Jacobs describes the way the scientific process works better than anyone else I have ever read. At page 69 she says “In sum, the scientific state of mind works along two slightly different avenues, one abstract, the other feeling its way more concretely and pragmatically. Both approaches demand integrity, awareness of evidence and respect for it, and attention to new questions that arise as immediate practical problems to be grappled with, or else as more abstract and postponable. Both avenues are valid and effective. They work together so well that they frequently shift back and forth in the course of an investigation or they overlap.” She then goes on to say “If a body of enquiry becomes disconnected from the scientific state of mind, that unfortunate segment of knowledge is no longer scientific.” She cites three examples of supposed scientific thinking that became disconnected from the scientific state of mind. The fact that she saw this as an issue in 2003, long before the Harper Government started to wage its war on science strikes me as remarkably prescient. The federal government has muzzled its own scientists and attacked non-governmental science groups with everything from audits to lies.
If Jacobs was as correct about her other arguments as she was about science and technology then we are probably further down the road to a Dark Age than we were a decade ago. Let us hope we are not too late to unwind the vicious spiral (the title of Chapter Seven).
I released this book on August 25 2014 at the Creston Esso where we fueled up on our way back east. We love Creston and getting a JE from the book I left there just cements my feeling for the town. This release was for the 2014 52 Towns in 52 Weeks release challenge.
This book got journalled before I could post my review or release notes. Here is my review:
This is the last book Jane Jacobs wrote. It was written in 2003 and she was born in 1916 so she was 87 at the time. How wonderful to have the mental acuity and wide-ranging curiosity at that age to bring together such divergent fields as city planning, economics, history, politics and education.
Jacobs takes us through a discussion of various Dark Ages and how they resulted in a cultural amnesia into a dissection of five pillars that show signs of a coming Dark Age and finally into a prescription for forestalling this. The five pillars are:
1. Community and family
2. Higher education
3. Science and technology
4. Governmental representation
5. Self-governing professions
Although I can’t speak authoritatively about any of these pillars I do know a little bit more about science and technology than the others. Jacobs describes the way the scientific process works better than anyone else I have ever read. At page 69 she says “In sum, the scientific state of mind works along two slightly different avenues, one abstract, the other feeling its way more concretely and pragmatically. Both approaches demand integrity, awareness of evidence and respect for it, and attention to new questions that arise as immediate practical problems to be grappled with, or else as more abstract and postponable. Both avenues are valid and effective. They work together so well that they frequently shift back and forth in the course of an investigation or they overlap.” She then goes on to say “If a body of enquiry becomes disconnected from the scientific state of mind, that unfortunate segment of knowledge is no longer scientific.” She cites three examples of supposed scientific thinking that became disconnected from the scientific state of mind. The fact that she saw this as an issue in 2003, long before the Harper Government started to wage its war on science strikes me as remarkably prescient. The federal government has muzzled its own scientists and attacked non-governmental science groups with everything from audits to lies.
If Jacobs was as correct about her other arguments as she was about science and technology then we are probably further down the road to a Dark Age than we were a decade ago. Let us hope we are not too late to unwind the vicious spiral (the title of Chapter Seven).
I released this book on August 25 2014 at the Creston Esso where we fueled up on our way back east. We love Creston and getting a JE from the book I left there just cements my feeling for the town. This release was for the 2014 52 Towns in 52 Weeks release challenge.
Haven't read yet but looking forward to it
