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Rating: 
Summary: Power Politics
Review: A richly rewarding read -- unrepentant, greedy politicians; real estate moguls of the Guilded Age; emerging awareness of public health needs; New York pathos. And a double espresso of gossip!History and political buffs will devour; anyone interested in how one of the world's most dynamic cities rose from the mud will find this facsinating. "Ragtime" but real.
Rating:
Summary: Fat of the Land
Review: As a former New Yorker, I'm enjoying this engrossing tale of money and politicians, public health and urban real estate moguls, and behind the scenes views of the forces that shaped the growth of one of the world's most dynamic cities. Good read for those interested in history and politics, but also has enough nitty-gritty gossip and well-researched tales of corruption to be entertaining for the general reader.
Rating:
Summary: Blood and Filth and Fat and Foam
Review: The colorful and fetid history of waste makes for an enervating read. Miller has done exhaustive and meticulous research to share with us the forgotten tale of where the trash went and the distressing facts about where it goes today. There are many new, never-before revealed facts Miller has unearthed from the landfill of time-- he introduces us to an astounding and entertaining parade of bold scoundrels, do-gooder public health pioneers, social theorists, corrupt politicans, self-righteous environmentalists and a few good, clear thinkers tossed in for good measure. Miller himself is certainly one of them. He digs deep and leads us with a steady hand and a cool, observing eye to the places where were planted the seeds of public policy that have brought us to the ruin we face today. This cautionary tale applies not only to New York, though New York, as in many things, stands as the example, good and bad, of how disposal works. Don't be put off by the subject or think this is an academic book. Miller is a superb prose stylist and his ability to summon vividly the characters and tenor of past times is often wonderfully Dickensian. This sleeper is a ripping good read. Enjoy! I've heard the author is going to be on NPR's Fresh Air in December. No pun intended, I gather...
Rating:
Summary: Blood and Filth and Fat and Foam
Review: The colorful and fetid history of waste makes for an enervating read. Miller has done exhaustive and meticulous research to share with us the forgotten tale of where the trash went and the distressing facts about where it goes today. There are many new, never-before revealed facts Miller has unearthed from the landfill of time-- he introduces us to an astounding and entertaining parade of bold scoundrels, do-gooder public health pioneers, social theorists, corrupt politicans, self-righteous environmentalists and a few good, clear thinkers tossed in for good measure. Miller himself is certainly one of them. He digs deep and leads us with a steady hand and a cool, observing eye to the places where were planted the seeds of public policy that have brought us to the ruin we face today. This cautionary tale applies not only to New York, though New York, as in many things, stands as the example, good and bad, of how disposal works. Don't be put off by the subject or think this is an academic book. Miller is a superb prose stylist and his ability to summon vividly the characters and tenor of past times is often wonderfully Dickensian. This sleeper is a ripping good read. Enjoy! I've heard the author is going to be on NPR's Fresh Air in December. No pun intended, I gather...
Rating: 
Summary: Ho hum
Review: This book contains a useful timeline, just a few pages long, chronicling the significant events contained in the rest of the book. Save time -- read that part instead. He has a few good points to make, but then it comes across as mostly padding. I had been hoping for more, on such a fascinating topic. (yawn) On second thought, it did help me get to sleep.
Rating:
Summary: Ho hum
Review: This book contains a useful timeline, just a few pages long, chronicling the significant events contained in the rest of the book. Save time -- read that part instead. He has a few good points to make, but then it comes across as mostly padding. I had been hoping for more, on such a fascinating topic. (yawn) On second thought, it did help me get to sleep.
Rating:
Summary: Political history of infrastructure in NYC
Review: This book is the story behind the people responsible for taking care of waste removal in New York City. The book begins with a chapter that traces the infamous woeful journey of the Mobro, the garbage barge that could not find a home. The main text of the book is divided into 4 sections: Engineering Reform (public health in Europe and America in the mid-1800s, early NYC contracts for gathering bones and organic matter in the mid-1800s), Expanding Opportunities (contracts for Central Park, elevated railways, the Brooklyn Ash incinerator), Public Work (roads and rails, bridges and tunnels, parks and parkways, ports and airports, all covering the 1930s to 1940s), and Landscape Sculpture (Rachel Carson, DDT, dioxins and incinerators, landfills, transfer stations, and NIMBYs). The book concludes with a chapter on the "Pew Yew Choo-Choo", a Mobro-like train that looked in vain for a place to unload. The book is amply illustrated with black and white photographs and drawings. At the end of the book are 90 pages of documentary notes, but presumably to strengthen the narrative of the text, they are not linked directly to the main text with endnote numbers. The subtitle of the book,"Garbage of the New York the last two hundred years", is a very inaccurate guide to the book's actual contents. The book isn't about garbage, but about the people who wanted the garbage contracts over the years, and the politics involved with getting the contracts. Actually, the book also doesn't focus particularly strongly on garbage contracts either, since quite a few pages or even chapters are devoted to the contracts for other infrastructure projects, like Central Park and public transit systems. Many of these other projects do have a loose connection with garbage, in the sense that some of them depended on garbage for fill (such as LaGuardia Airport), but others seem to be included only because they involved some of the same people who were also vying for the garbage contracts. In any case, the book can hardly claim to cover the last two hundred years, since the text begins in the 1840s. I picked up this book because I was interested in learning more about how one of the largest cities in the country has dealt with its garbage over the years. There was no description at all of early garbage disposal arrangements in NYC before the 1840s. I did learn how dead animals and bones were boiled for grease in the mid-1800s, and there was limited discussion of incinerators, as well as some information about landfills and shipping garbage out of town. But a few clues in the book lead to me to believe there was more to be said about garbage. For example, at one point, Miller mentions a NYC law that required all buildings with more than 12 residential units to have their incinerators. Does this mean that there was some sort of responsibility or expectation for garbage to be dealt with at the point of disposal? Was this a wide-spread practice? For how long? To write a comprehensive history of garbage in NYC, Miller might have put more focus on questions such as these, and a bit less on issues that are only marginally, if at all, related to garbage.
Rating:
Summary: Political history of infrastructure in NYC
Review: This book is the story behind the people responsible for taking care of waste removal in New York City. The book begins with a chapter that traces the infamous woeful journey of the Mobro, the garbage barge that could not find a home. The main text of the book is divided into 4 sections: Engineering Reform (public health in Europe and America in the mid-1800s, early NYC contracts for gathering bones and organic matter in the mid-1800s), Expanding Opportunities (contracts for Central Park, elevated railways, the Brooklyn Ash incinerator), Public Work (roads and rails, bridges and tunnels, parks and parkways, ports and airports, all covering the 1930s to 1940s), and Landscape Sculpture (Rachel Carson, DDT, dioxins and incinerators, landfills, transfer stations, and NIMBYs). The book concludes with a chapter on the "Pew Yew Choo-Choo", a Mobro-like train that looked in vain for a place to unload. The book is amply illustrated with black and white photographs and drawings. At the end of the book are 90 pages of documentary notes, but presumably to strengthen the narrative of the text, they are not linked directly to the main text with endnote numbers. The subtitle of the book,"Garbage of the New York the last two hundred years", is a very inaccurate guide to the book's actual contents. The book isn't about garbage, but about the people who wanted the garbage contracts over the years, and the politics involved with getting the contracts. Actually, the book also doesn't focus particularly strongly on garbage contracts either, since quite a few pages or even chapters are devoted to the contracts for other infrastructure projects, like Central Park and public transit systems. Many of these other projects do have a loose connection with garbage, in the sense that some of them depended on garbage for fill (such as LaGuardia Airport), but others seem to be included only because they involved some of the same people who were also vying for the garbage contracts. In any case, the book can hardly claim to cover the last two hundred years, since the text begins in the 1840s. I picked up this book because I was interested in learning more about how one of the largest cities in the country has dealt with its garbage over the years. There was no description at all of early garbage disposal arrangements in NYC before the 1840s. I did learn how dead animals and bones were boiled for grease in the mid-1800s, and there was limited discussion of incinerators, as well as some information about landfills and shipping garbage out of town. But a few clues in the book lead to me to believe there was more to be said about garbage. For example, at one point, Miller mentions a NYC law that required all buildings with more than 12 residential units to have their incinerators. Does this mean that there was some sort of responsibility or expectation for garbage to be dealt with at the point of disposal? Was this a wide-spread practice? For how long? To write a comprehensive history of garbage in NYC, Miller might have put more focus on questions such as these, and a bit less on issues that are only marginally, if at all, related to garbage.
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