AltWeeklies Wire
'The Gulf Stream' Helps Us Understand Human-Centered Ecologynew
Stan Ulanski has written a multilayered and eminently insightful book about the way the natural world works. His topic is what the founder of modern oceanography, Matthew Fontaine Maury, has called "a river in the ocean" -- the Gulf Stream.
The Texas Observer |
James E. McWilliams |
10-08-2008 |
Nonfiction
'American Earth' Offers Vivid View of the Evolution of Environmental Thinkingnew
American Earth comprises some 100 writings sure-handedly selected and introduced by editor Bill McKibben. Individual entries take a variety of forms, from book excerpts, essays, and speeches to straightforward reportage, memoir, and even poetry.
The Texas Observer |
John Suval |
09-24-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Machiaveli's Shadow' Shows the Emperor's Architect Has No Clothesnew
Machiaveli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove tells, for the first time, the story of how George W. Bush fired the adviser who had been with him since before he defeated Texas Gov. Ann Richards in 1994.
The Texas Observer |
Louis Dubose |
09-10-2008 |
Nonfiction
The Beats Go On in 'Texas Music'new
The History of Texas Music is an anthropological study of Texas as examined through its diverse offering of folk music, offering a historical study of social, ethnic and geographical influence and how they have laid the groundwork for a thriving indie music scene.
The Texas Observer |
Michael Hoinski |
08-27-2008 |
Nonfiction
Mountain Migrant Rick Bass Tries to Explain Why He Left Houston for Higher Groundnew
The American West is a receding point, measured by imagination rather than sextant, and Bass has found it in a rugged stretch of 1 million acres whose human census -- 150 -- is outnumbered by each of several other species, including black bears, owls, elk, and coyotes.
The Texas Observer |
Steven G. Kellman |
07-24-2008 |
Nonfiction
Why Did the Liberals Cross the Road? Bill Bishop Crunches the Numbersnew
Although conventional wisdom affirms the accuracy of the analysis in The Big Sort and the social costs that flow from it -- a decrease in across-the-aisle contact, elevated levels of rhetorical excess, diminished civility -- it does not follow that our political life has reached new levels of intemperance, or that this has had any enduring impact on our capacity to govern.
The Texas Observer |
Char Miller |
07-23-2008 |
Nonfiction
Is There a Middle Way in the Globalization Debate?new
As Sick Planet: Corporate Food and Medicine, by Stan Cox, and Starved for Science: How Biotechnology Is Being Kept Out Of Africa, by Robert Paarlberg collectively demonstrate, the globalization debate seems to demand either a stifling of common sense, or a radical reassessment of assumptions.
The Texas Observer |
James E. McWilliams |
07-02-2008 |
Nonfiction
Lauri Lebo Tackles Intelligent Design, Evolution, and the Medianew
After reading this book and thinking of the millions of dollars and thousands of hours squandered, the hatred, the vitriol, and the disbelief that we're still fighting this age-old battle, I just feel tired and sad. This isn't the end of the story. We'll see it again, fight the battle once more, spend the money, fire up the troops, spar with the same theory in a different cloak, attract the international media, meet at a different courthouse, pass judgment on a different school district.
The Texas Observer |
Ruth Pennebaker |
06-18-2008 |
Nonfiction
David Milne Dissects the Life of Walt Rostow, Who Never Examined His Role in Terrible Violencenew
Walt Rostow's advice as LBJ's chief advisor led to aggressive military action Vietnam, culminating in massive bombings that left the taint of death and failure on LBJ's presidency.
The Texas Observer |
Thomas Palaima |
06-11-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Bad Money' is Not Meant to be Pretty, and It Isn'tnew
Phillips argues that financial recklessness, combined with peak oil and the rise of Asian economic power, will doom -- has already doomed -- American world leadership and our standard of living, which depend on the value of the dollar.
The Texas Observer |
James K. Galbraith |
05-21-2008 |
Nonfiction
Jim Wallis Reimagines a Christian Take on Controversial Political Issuesnew
If progressives can see past their justified mistrust of politicking pastors, they may find in the evangelical pastor Wallis not just an ally but a visionary, beckoning from the vanguard of social justice.
The Texas Observer |
Emily DePrang |
04-09-2008 |
Nonfiction
Michael Pollan Stumbles with His Latest Booknew
Big claims, not too much support, mostly unconvincing. That's my nutshell response to Pollan's most recent answer to "the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy."
The Texas Observer |
James E. McWilliams |
03-26-2008 |
Nonfiction
James Dawes on the Worst News in the Worldnew
Anyone concerned with human rights will come away from That The World May Know troubled and well informed.
The Texas Observer |
Thomas Palaima |
02-11-2008 |
Nonfiction
Bob Eckhardt: The Man in the Panama Hatnew
Gary A. Keith reclaims the legacy of the quixotic progressive.
The Texas Observer |
Brant Bingamon |
01-14-2008 |
Nonfiction
Buy Some Stuff, Enslave Somebodynew
In Nobodies, John Bowe aims to make explicit the connection between the rise of the global market and the growing number of people throughout the world living in poverty, doomed to spend their lives providing goods and services for people born into wealthier circumstances.
The Texas Observer |
Josh Rosenblatt |
12-17-2007 |
Nonfiction
