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Title: An Empire Wilderness : Travels into America's Future by ROBERT D. KAPLAN ISBN: 0-679-77687-7 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 07 September, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (41 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: America at the Turn of the Century
Comment:
Robert D. Kaplan presents an engaging view of the Americanwest and the closely related areas of British Columbia and Mexico. Hisjourneys take him to such disparate places as St. Louis, Vicksburg, Kansas City, Vancouver, Mexico City, Los Angeles and the Oklahoma panhandle. In some ways the book provides further insights into trends previously chronicled in "Edge Cities," "The Nine Nations of North America" and "Ecotopia."
Kaplan provides one of the most succinct descriptions of the demise of St. Louis --- a city that has lost 60 percent of its population, which he concludes "no longer exists."
He provides a sympathetic description of the Oklahoma panhandle, constituting what may be the most comprehensive coverage of this geographical corner virtually unknown to most of the nation.
The book spends considerable time in discussing Arizona, its major cities and its native American preserves.
Kaplan finds that people in the emerging American communities, especially in the technology oriented edge cities, are likely to have much more in common with people they have only met through telecommunications than with their geographical neighbors, or people who live just a few miles away. In this regard, he correctly recognizes that the very meaning of community is undergoing a radical change.
The only significant problem is an uncritical acceptance of the Portland's purported land use planning success. Kaplan indicates that Portland has avoided the "unlimited growth" that has plagued other US cities. He further indicates that the cities of the Northwest (Vancouver and presumably Portland and Seattle) are devoid of sprawl. In fact, Portland sprawls at lower densities than Los Angeles and the central city of Portland is barely one-half to one-third as dense as the Orange County suburbs of Anaheim, Buena Park and Santa Ana. This mistake is often made by people who visit Portland's tiny but engaging core, while missing the other 99 percent of the urbanized area, which resembles Phoenix, though with more vegetation and more sprawl (less density).
With the noted exception the Kaplan book is important, useful and recommended as a thoughtful and apparently accurate assessment of US social trends as the 21st century approaches.
Wendell Cox
The Public Purpose
Rating: 4
Summary: American Travel Writing from an Alternate Dimension
Comment: While Kaplan keeps to his usual winning combination of travel writing and social science in "Empire Wilderness," he cannot avoid falling prey to the very same flaws that marred his last book, "Ends of the Earth"; namely, a tendency to over-emphasize pervailing social trends until he begins to sound like some kind of prophet of doom, forecasting a world out of control. When writing about the Third World, this is somewhat more forgiveable approach, but when applied to the United States, the reader begins to wonder how Kaplan can, in good conscience, hype and sensationalize some of the trends on which he chooses to focus. In his writings for the "Atlantic Monthly," Kaplan has admitted to a Hobbesian, conservative view of human nature, and this, at times, makes him sound like a rabid elitist frightened by the dark, deprived "mob" seething beneath the shining surface of America. This is a somewhat unfair characterization, however, as most of Kaplan's social observations demonstrate a stunning ability to forecast history and cut to the heart of the most salient political and economic trends facing our nation. The extra hype and generalization are probably just to sell more books, so we can let Kaplan off the hook on this one. Just be prepared to read this book skeptically, and you are in for one hell of a journey.
Rating: 1
Summary: Positive Reviewers are so Naive
Comment: Just because one never experiences racism or does not practice it or because a few CEO's are "minorities" does not mean we can say "problem solved". Why do we still claim racism and race are a factor in the US? because if it wasnt, all minority groups would be equal or at least encroaching upon the same level of economic reality most whites experience; the question is will we be allowed to share it???? So in response to "negative reviewers are so hilarious" think about this...nothing will be solved until "minorities" are at the same socio-economic level as whites, in other words we want the majority of people of color to share the same economic status and cultural priveleges as light skinned people do within every aspect of US culture...can you handle that?
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Title: The Coming Anarchy : Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War by Robert D. Kaplan ISBN: 037570759X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Warrior Politics : Why Leadership Requires a Pagan Ethos by Robert D. Kaplan ISBN: 0375726276 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Ends of the Earth : From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia, a Journey to the Frontiers ofAnarchy by Robert D. Kaplan ISBN: 0679751238 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 28 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Eastward to Tartary : Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus by Robert D. Kaplan ISBN: 0375705767 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Surrender or Starve : Travels in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea by ROBERT D. KAPLAN ISBN: 1400034523 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 11 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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