Camouflage
Camouflage by Neil Leach; MIT Press, 2006. 289pp Reviewed by Austin Williams | 1 July 2006 After the Alan Sokal affair, cultural studies writers have been nervous of transgressing the boundaries between pretentious quackery and insightfulness. Reviewers too, tread cautiously for fear of humiliation. This is a pity, because such intellectual caution tends to obscure the rare occasions when a cultural studies’ book hits the nail on the...
Kicking the Carbon Habit
‘Kicking the Carbon Habit: Global Warming and the Case for Renewable and Nuclear Energy’ by William Sweet; Colmbia University Press, 2006. 239pp Reviewed by Austin Williams | 30 June 2006 This is a remarkably detailed analysis of the evidence for climate change and the causal link between carbon emissions and global temperature rise. Starting from an acceptance of the famous Milankovitch cycles – identified in the...
The Revenge of Gaia
‘The Revenge of Gaia’ by James Lovelock; Penguin, 2006. 192pp Stephen Rowland reviews The Revenge of Gaia in the form of a letter to the author Dear James Many thanks for your latest book, The Revenge of Gaia. It’s given me plenty to think about. When I first read your earlier book on Planetary Medicine, I thought the whole idea of the Gaia metaphor was intriguing, and this book takes these ideas further, albeit in a...
New York’s Beaux-Arts masterpiece
Elisabetta Gasparoni | 12 June 2006 The New York Public Library – majestic columns and arches, grand marble staircases, high, elaborately decorated ceilings – stands magnificent and inviting at the intersection of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. Begun in 1899 and completed in 1911 it is a continuing monument to knowledge and research. The Beaux-Arts style employed by architects John Merven Carrere and Thomas Hastings...
Gardens of Canal Houses
‘Behind the Facades: Gardens of Canal Houses’ by Renate Dorrestein, Koen Kleijn and Harold Strak D’Arts/Architectura & Natura; 2005. 226pp Reviewed by Austin Williams | 9 March 2006 This book comprises a long essay on the history of gardens in Amsterdam and photographs of those individual gardens over the seasons. Excellent and revealing though most of the images are, it is the historic overview that makes this book....
Mobilising Active Citizens
Dave Clements | 4 March 2006 At election time every politician faced with a drubbing claims to have no time for opinion polls. For the rest of us, the general view seems to be that consultation is all very well but there’s a lot of it about and nothing much seems to come of it. The more cynical talk about government by ‘tick box’ or ‘focus group’. And to be fair, there may be something in this. After...
Ken’s planning for London?
Austin Williams | 27 February 2006 The Greater London Authority Act of 1999 that paved the way for Ken Livingstone’s reincarnation as the mayor of London was the longest piece of legislation passed by parliament since the Government of India Act in 1935. At that time, in the guise of enhancing local democratic autonomy, the imperial Governor General retained total authority over administration, legislation and finances of his fiefdom....
ESSAY: New Orleans and the New Urban vision
Austin Williams | 05 February 2006 In a recent article in the Washington Post, architect and professor of architecture, Roger K Lewis bemoans the proposed rebuilding New Orleans. ‘Why, ‘ he asks, ‘do we stubbornly refuse to acknowledge that there are places on the earth’s surface – wetlands and floodplains, seismically active regions, arid deserts, steep hillsides and cliffs – where erecting cities...
Cities
‘Cities’ by John Reader; William Heinemann, 2004. 358pp Reviewed by Austin Williams | 13 January 2006 I thoroughly enjoyed this book although at times I was quite confused by the author’s critique. Funnily enough, this, for me, made it an even more enjoyable exercise, absorbing the engaging facts and entertaining stories while trying to work out what the author really thought about it all. This is an intellectual...
Collapse
‘Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive’ by Jared Diamond; Allan Lane, 2005. 590pp Reviewed by Peter Smith | 9 November 2005 With Collapse, Jared Diamond has essentially written two books. Firstly, a series of four case studies examining ancient societies that subsequently collapsed; the East Islanders, the Anasazi in the south west US, the Maya in the Yucatan which forms part of Mexico today and the Norse in...
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