Encounters with the Archdruid

Rating:
Summary: review
Review: The book is three stories involving hte controversial issues with different land areas. Each story involves a conservationist, David Brower, and opposition. In the mountains, David Brower( the archdruid mentioned in the title), aruges against Charles Park over the issue of a copper mine. On an island, Brower advises Charles Fraser against developing a secluded area. And finally, on the river, Brower arugues with Floyd Dominy about the construction of a dam. Although the three stories shared the same main character, they all stressed different opinions and ended differently. The story showed both extremes of a conservationist and opposition. The book is hard to follow and make connections. It also jumps from present to pas. This is apparent especially in the third story on the river when it jumps from ravelng along the river to Brower's past and resignation from the Sierra Club. The book is interesting as it shows the sides of both conservationist and opposition as expressed through extremely well written stories. Overal, we would recommend this book to people torn between the conservationst and oppositions standpoint but fails to include what we could do to help these issues.

Rating:
Summary: Encounters with an Archdruid
Review: There are three parts to this book. The first is about A Mountain. Brower, Park, Brigham and some others go up the mountain in pursuit of copper. The second part of the book is about An Island. The Island is owned b a man named Charles Frazer. The chapeter deals with the developemnt of the Sea Pines Plantation. The third part of the book is The River. The men discuss the pros and cons of dams. The entire chapater is dedicated to the arguement oabout dams.
The book talks about the good and bads that come about with changes in the environment that maybe some people aren't aware of. Overall, this book reveals good information about the encirionment, but is boring. THe entire third part of the book is about the arguement over dams. At first. the arugements are humerous, but after 94 pages of arguement, it gets very redundant.
The first section of the book is much better than the other parts of the book. Brower and his group have several adventures, such as finding copper in a streamn. Also, they run into more people in the first section of the book, so fortunatly there are more viewpoints. One other partcularly interesting adventurous part was at the very end, when the men go down Lava Falls. Unfortunatly, the book was still rather dull, due to the reptiteveness of the themes in it. Basically, in each chapter, an interesting environmental theme is brought up. However, by the end of the chapter, the theme becomes like beating a dead horse.

Rating:
Summary: This book teaches you, enlightens you, HAUNTS YOU
Review: This book brings the current environmental issues and debates right into your living room, with true stories that will haunt you. I read this book for the first time as required reading in college, and I go back and read it at least once a year. The stories and choices revealed here created agony for me, in several spots, I have to put down the book. But that makes it such a worthwhile read - it moves you, shakes you up, and educates you. You'll never look at environmental issues, or the places portrayed in this book, the same way again.

Rating:
Summary: a generation passes...
Review: This was the book that introduced me to John McPhee (I grew up around the corner from Dave Brower)and it made me a lifelong fan of McPhees remarkable insights and abilities as a reporter. Here he takes Brower -probably the leading voice for landscape conservation in the second half of the 20th century- and puts him Up Close and Personal with three very remarkable antagonists: the greatest Dam builder in North America, the developer of Hilton Head, and with a mining engineer who has "an affinity for beds" -but has managed to spend nearly 8 years in total sleeping rough in search of minerals world-wide. What is most intriguing about this book is that one comes away with an appreciation of the complexities surrounding environmental issues. This is no polemic or one-sided rant, rather McPhee shows us the strengths and weaknesses of each of his characters, and by weaving the personal in with the political we are left to make up our own minds just who are the heroes and who the villains. Recently I used this book in an Environmental Lit. class & to my surprise about half of the students had never heard of Brower (hence the title of my review. In spite of this they were all captured by the artful transparency of McPhee's prose -they were on that raft with Dominy & Brower, they went up that mountain, they walked that beach, and most important, they had that conversation. Thirty years after its publication this book still has the zip to draw its reader in. Regardless of your position on Things Environmental, I encourage you to give this a good read.