Serious bureaucratic, technological and environmental issues, unpacked with facility, provide digestible food for thought.
Morris (The Trillion-Dollar Meltdown, 2008, etc.) presents a persuasive, upbeat forecast of economic growth, starting now, for the United States.
The author has a companionable voice, affable and easy, but with words chosen for maximum clarity. He tackles three elements of the American economy that he identifies as the driving forces of recovery: hydrocarbons from shale; investment in infrastructure and manufacturing; and health care. Each of these forces has received black eyes and body blows of late, from both the left and right of the political spectrum, but Morris, though not starry-eyed, optimistically assesses all three. He walks readers through the controversial process of extracting oil and gas from shale, providing a highly entertaining minicourse in geology. Fracking has gone badly wrong, he writes, acknowledging spillage, leakage, emissions and compromised aquifers, but there are ways to contain this damage, if not eliminate it, through responsible drilling practices. Our crumbling infrastructure calls out for a Keynesian infusion, Morris writes, but the level of investment relative to GDP "has fallen off dramatically, to the point where it could actually inhibit the industrial recovery.” That recovery must be based on jobs created at home, writes the author, citing a consulting group that estimates “an American company will save only about 10-15 percent of costs by manufacturing a kitchen appliance in China, which is too little to justify the long delivery lead times and other aggravations that come with offshoring.” Health care, long hostage to vested interests, is a huge employer and also makes important contributions to biotech industries and innovation-driven productivity growth. Our taxes, pitifully low by historical standards, could be put to better use than endless warfare, he argues—infrastructure, old-age security and education, for example.
Serious bureaucratic, technological and environmental issues, unpacked with facility, provide digestible food for thought.Pub Date: June 11, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-61039-336-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
The Lightmans have created a massive, illuminating alphabetical listing of 447 Greco-Roman women, who are each profiled in entries that range from a few lines to a few pages. The intriguing information is often presented in a lively manner, profiling women who influenced the times in which they lived. Through their lives, a picture of this particular era, from 6th-century b.c. to a.d. 476, emerges (with details often omitted from other history texts covering the same period) that powerfully evokes the past roles of women. Sources for the information are given following every entry. The format gives rise to one small problem, in that so many of those included have the same name. The book, by necessity, covers 15 Cleopatras; students seeking information on the one who got mixed up with Mark Antony will have to cover almost a dozen entries before locating her. The same is true for all the Agrippinas, Julias, Livias, etc. The glossary and bibliography will be useful to more scholarly readers; the hope is that less-practiced researchers won’t be frustrated by the stumbling blocks of the volume’s organization, and barred from its entertaining, solidly educational gems. (b&w illustrations, map, glossary, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8160-3112-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Facts On File
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
This exciting collective biography features ten important women in the historic struggle to win freedom and civil rights. Pinkney (Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra, 1998, etc.) tells the well-known stories of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks. Other women such as Biddy Mason and Dorothy Irene Height are in the history books but are less familiar. They span the 18th and 19th centuries, from Sojourner Truth, born into slavery circa 1797, to Shirley Chisholm, born in 1924 and living today. Each story contains essential demographic and biographical information written in an accessible, informal style, which provides a vivid picture of the women’s lives, their personalities, backgrounds, and the actions that made them memorable. Many of the women also had to fight against prejudice toward women in addition to their causes. Some did not live to see the results of their struggle, but successful or not, all were courageous leaders who paved the way for a more democratic and inclusive America. The introduction gives the reader a glimpse into Pinkney’s own life and her rationale for the selection of biographies. A bibliography for further reading lists what are probably her research sources, but are not identified as such and quotations within the chapters are not footnoted in any way. Another quibble is a small mistake in the biography of Dorothy Irene Height as to the two degrees she received in four years. Both were in educational psychology, but Pinkney lists the bachelor’s as in social work. However, these flaws do not compromise the value of the book. Alcorn’s (Langston Hughes, not reviewed, etc.) paintings, oil on canvas, are as magnificent as his figures and add much to this handsome volume. Vibrant colors, rhythmic lines, and collage-like compositions are allegorical in design and convey the essence of each woman and her work. A truly inspiring collection for personal as well as institutional libraries. (Biography. 8-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-15-201005-X
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
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