What We've Lost by Destroying Rural America
352429
Slow, contemplative fiction about what we've lost by destroying rural America. Berry is a prolific, wise and brilliant farmer-philosopher. Pick any of his books, savor each page, and prepare to be changed. It's time to get out of the fast lane.
2293567
This book is a gripping analysis of what has gone wrong in American society to produce the gap between rich and poor that is easily the widest in the developed world, and according to the author, the biggest wealth divide in the entire world. It's a frightening read. It traces the unwillingness to enfranchise and educate black Americans from slavery and the Civil War to Jim Crow to today's mass incarceration. It shows how the unwillingness of Southern states to accept black Americans as citizens, or grant them even minimal benefits--like Social Security which most black Americans didn't get until the 1950s--has also held back poor whites. If you travel in Europe, and you see the shimmering mass transportation system, the free universities, the low crime rates, and the national health care systems, you will have to compare it with the hollowed-out Rust Belt cities of today's America. It's obvious why upward mobility has died in America, and the dream of a vibrant middle class, low infant mortality rate, and longer life span has moved to Europe.
672710
As we think about natural disasters in America, it seems that dramatic incidents like the Johnstown and Galveston floods and Hurrican Katrina garner much of our attention and deservedly so.  These disasters teach us lessons that help us better prepare for and avoid similar calamities in the future.  The "Dust Bowl" that was the High Plains during the Great Depression certainly qualifies as one of America's great natural disasters.  "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan gives us a window into this time through first hand accounts of those who lived through and survived this time, particularly in No Man's Land, the panhandle of Oklahoma.

When Lewis and Clark made their journey West, they saw the majestic prairies with 12 foot high grass across the windswept Great Plains of America.  By the latter part of the 19th century, the Homestead Act was encouraging westward movement and settlement of this land.  These settlers began turning what had been a self-contained ecosystem of American Indians and buffalo into farmland.  Egan presents a compelling case for how this transformation from grass plains to sodless farmland wound up spelling doom for the high plains and resulted in the "dust bowl".  As heavy farming prior to the Great Depression turned larger acres of land into farmland, the combination of the collapse of wheat prices brought about by the Great Depression along with a decade long drought sowed the seed of destruction for this area.

Against this backdrop, Egan introduces us to human beings whose lives collapsed under the weight of the dust bowl.  The hope and opportunity that brought them to this open and generally uninhabited land turns into hell on earth.  Their health, families and livelihoods are destroyed by the earth they hope will be their American success story.  In spite of all the pain and suffering unleashed on them, they generally remain hopeful and optimistic that things will pass and their lives will return to normal.  Unfortunately, this doesn't prove to be the case.  One by one, their spirits are broken by the unforgivable and unrelenting weather.

"The Worst Hard Time" is great history and Egan artfully weaves a compelling American tragedy.  In an era when most of the news being covered during the Great Depression focused on the urban areas and the large populations, an equally devestating situation was affecting the plains.  Egan makes us modern day witnesses to this epic and hopefully provides us pause for consideration about the consequences of upsetting delicate natural environments for fear of unintended and lasting consequences.
23698
I'm in the middle of Animal Factory.  It's taking me a while to get through it because the information is so overwhelming.  We are paying (and will continue to pay) a terrible price for this disaster.  The pollution of our land and water along with the damage to our meat supply has immense implications for the future.  I sincerely hope this country is waking up to the complete oversight failure that exists and the power and influence of corporate farming.

Anne McElroy Dachel
Media editor: Age of Autism
2456215
For whites who care about moving the USA towards a brighter better future, this text provides historical and current realities of how white supremcy has destroyed  the USA's core values at the expense of its most vunerable citizens, African Americans and the poor.
2331656
America, this describes everything wrong right now. We're screwed because we're divided, not just angry at each other but completely uncaring.
3223479
This is the first book I have found that rationally explains the political miscalculations and corruption that underpins the economic madness I have witnessed engulfing America during the last 50 years.  Thank you David Stockman for providing such a well-researched and comprehensive examination of our country's slide down the slippery slope of economic destruction and political corruption.  Three years after being released, this book is hitting the nail on the head of the economic disaster being plastered over during 2016 election debacle by both major political parties.  The future economic and political projections are very disturbing, and I am watching with horror as they come true.  Unfortunately, it appears that the Boomer generation will be dead and long gone before the younger generations that inherit the debacle created by the Boomers may be finally able to wrestle the symbiotic monsters of the towering Federal Debt and unrestrained Wall Street speculation to the ground and put them out of their misery by abolishing deficit spending, limiting unrestricted cash in elections, and reigning in both legal and illegal political corruption.  God save our country until that finally becomes a reality.
2729959
I just had a review copy of Jonathan Last's book arrive last week and have been glued to it ever since. It's most one of the most thoughtful -- and sobering -- books I've read in the past several years. It's hilarious in the vein of Mark Steyn, and sad in the inescapable conclusion it leads to: America is going the way of Europe. The absence of faith and family values is leading to plummeting fertility rates that will plunge the nation into even further bankruptcy and destroy what's left of America's nuclear family, making the two-parent two-and-a-half children household a species on the verge of extinction. This is a book that every American needs to pick up if they're worried about the future of the country.
2718170
This brilliant book about the oncoming wreck of the global economy fails to answer the most elemental and yet essential question:  How do we change human nature from wanting More!  More!  More!

 Almost 50 years ago, the General Motors' exhibit at the World Fair was based on the idea, "Technology can point the way to a future of limitless promise."  If McKibben or anyone else wants to understand the future, they need only look at today's GM, or Ford.  The world is heading for a similar wreck;  the survivors will be those who get out of the way.

 This book is an example of the problem it laments;  it is a dazzling example of the benign greed that is producing disaster, it offers cheery solutions well suited for miniscule groups of the conscientious, but it's not an answer.  It merely uses more paper to explain the danger of using too much paper and other materials.

 Let's be realistic:  GM's vision of the future produced gray smog, stop-and-go rush hour traffic, road rage, OPEC prices, the rust-belt, inner-city blight, White flight, auto thefts and car bombings, plus global warming, used car sales people and SUVs.  It's all a product of free decisions in a free marketplace.  Now, GM is collapsing but Toyota thrives with its little cars and hybrids.  It's how we got today's mess.  What's the solution?  More free decisions in a free marketplace?

 McKibben is perfect when he points out small hunter/gatherer cooperative groups were normal for 99 percent of our history;  but, he fails to come to grips with the monetization of relations among people during the past 5,000 years, and especially the last 300 years.  Everything is now impartially subject to decisions based on free market pricing, which means the lack of hunter/gatherer cooperation is replaced by individualized competition.

 Our economy is a wolf-pack that has turned on itself.

 He cites the creation of the Industrial Age as beginning with Thomas Newcomen's invention of a practical steam engine in 1712;  but he ignores the agonizing social upheaval people endured in fleeing old local sustainable farms and moving into cities.  Any major change in our future will likely involve a similar human and material price.  Someone needs to explain the "cost" of change and how it can come about.

  One solution I'm involved with on a daily basis is Amazon.com  --  which by making it easy to "recycle" used and donated library books has spared whole forests.  Until such recycling occurs for much more than books, we must be content with dire forecasts about the oncoming wreck of the economy.

  For most societies, the solution has always been collapse before radical change.  McKibben offers little hope that America is different.

 Doable?  Other reviewers are optimistic.  But, I look at the sorrow of ruins and fear people are too attached to past and present mistakes to see or accept alternatives.  Perhaps McKibben is right;  he is certainly an antidote to my pessimism.  His analysis is interesting  --  if doable;  and if doabvle, it is vital.

  This is a rough guide to a better future.
4902672
The survivor stories add stunning immediacy to the human experience of the country's worst environmental disaster. The historical narrative goes a long way to explaining the many factors that lead to it and the long, difficult climb out of it. The dust bowl is a strong example of the problem of libertarianism: Individual farmers maximized their wealth and efficiency by plowing up much of the marginal lands on the plains until the entire system collapsed both economically and ecologically. Farmers and city dwellers literally starved because of a GLUT of farm production not a lack of it. The history also illustrates the need for government intervention and the untended consequences of legislation: the Homestead Act played a major role in the great plow-up but the Soil Conservation Service established in the Dept. of Agriculture still serves to manage soil quality and prevent future crises. Of course, the farm lobbies have fought tooth and nail to maintain the farm bill, legislation meant to stabilize farm prices, reduce bankruptcy and combat the depression almost a century after it served its purpose. Whether you are looking for a gripping story or to understand a significant moment in american history, this book deserves a read.
2740321
Founded on the righteous Word of God, Christian author and retired hospital Chaplin, Richard Capriola, heralds a staunch warning against the national policies that govern America, intertwining the complacency and attitudes of individual and national sins that this nation is engaged in.  Calling out for a nation that returns to the living God and His Wisdom, Capriola speaks of a once great nation that has fallen from grace.

America was founded on the fundamentals of Christianity, derived from Gods Holy Word by our forefathers.  Recently, and more so in past decades, we have become a nation that procreates and tolerates lust, greed and all manner of unrighteousness at all levels  politically and socially - to include the neglect of the poor, the hungry and needy, legal abortion, the decline of marriage.  America has become a society that has an unquenched love for money and self, not to mention a decaying moral attitude with divorce, the neglect and abuse of children and the porn industry all on the rise.

To all degrees, Richard Capriola, points out that Gods Word and point of view indicate that there should be a shift in Americas national and social polices that branch and begin from the heart of Gods Word.  He encourages our politicians, including individuals to create and align their polices under the mighty decree of God, lest we (America) become a nation under judgment (Deuteronomy 8:20).

There is mercy, hope and light to found in living a righteous life, under obedience to the wisdom of God.  He calls out for our nation and Americans to turn, walk in Isaiah 58 and start feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, taking care of the elderly and the sick; our country rages out of control, not taking into account Gods point of view and lacks wisdom  this is a book for those that desire justice and righteousness to return to America and its government.  A fascinating, awe-dropping overview of the decline of Americas society that offers an answer  the only answer  turning back to God Almighty and His ways!

This is a must read ....
731175
This book should be mandatory reading for every American who cares about why Americans are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan, and what's secretly destroying our military from within.  Our government is infected with a quiet, creeping cancer, and most of us have no clue.  The threat is real, and national security at stake, and failure to educate ourselves on this issue could lead to the total destruction of everything we hold dear as Americans.  We've had 8 years of warning and desruction, and assaults upon our Constitution, but how many think it's over?  Guess again.  Read this book.
2642692
This is a frightening look at what might become of the U.S. if we aren't careful.  This book is a lesson in history that too many of us have forgotten.
2892447
Excellent read.  Mr. Egan takes us through the "dirty thirties" to address the question of man-made agricultural disaster vs. cyclic climatic changes by portraying the  political choices, economic greed and conservation failure that  led to the ultimate dust bowl that replaced the native grass covered prairies of the U.S.  He does this by weaving  personal oral histories of early pioneers whose belief in hard work and determination are heart-breaking, with the cold statistical reality that could not and would not have been foreseen at the time.  Have we learned to respect mother nature?  To listen to her?  Are we doomed to repeat our past mistakes?  I read this  book at the same time a draught has been declared in California.  Ironically, it was the government  which ultimately, albeit lately, rescued what was left of the land, created the CCC and attempted to put into practice a change in farming practices that had the only chance of saving the land before they were shoveling sand in NYC.
3186134
This should be required reading for all Americans. As Walter has said, until the United States reaches reconciliation with Native-Americans for the European settlers' theft of the continent, our nation will never be at peace. And our laws need to be changed from their basis on conquest to a basis on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
422288
Wish every American would see this.  Have a copy on hand so your children and grandchildren in the future can know who and how America was destroyed.  Happening right now in front of our eyes but too few care.  Someday when and if it's ever gone, then people will want to know how it happened.  This explains it.
275592
The country needs to find a different way to reinvigorate small-town America so that people don't find their future in drugs.  Purdue Pharma is as guilty as the heroin pushers from Xalisco - they both preyed on vulnerable people and the destruction wrought is staggering.