Books: Our Shrinking Water Supply, Decorating, Hitler’s First Big Defeat and New Biography of Claude Levis-Strauss
by Larry Cox on Dec. 17, 2010, under UncategorizedThe Retreat: Hitler’s First Defeat by Michael Jones (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, $27.99)
In 1941, Hitler was on a roll when he ordered his military forces into Russia on the Eastern front. The Nazi army gathered on the outskirts of Moscow and soon found itself mired in ice and snow. The Germans were driven back in bloody retreat.
Michael Jones, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and author of “Stalingrad: How the Red Army Survived the German Onslaught” and “Leningrad: State of Siege,” brings to life this pivotal chapter of WWII but his excellent account is more than just a military history. In addition to documenting the military events, Jones focuses on the human and emotional side of this event. Drawing on a wealth of new eye-witness testimony from both sides of the conflict, the author weaves individuals’ stories, including those of the civilians caught in its midst, into a compelling broader historical narrative.
This is a vivid, gripping, and meticulously researched story of horror and heroism, courage and despair. After reading this book, one is left with one of those “what ifs” questions that seem to litter most of the turning points in history. Hitler’s colossal miscalculation came close to being the ultimate defeat which would have brought about the end of the Nazi regime.
Claude Levi-Strauss: The Poet in the Laboratory by Pat Wilcken (Penguin Press, in
This is the first biography in English of the enigmatic Claude Levi-Strauss.
Levis-Strauss, who died last year shortly after his 100th birthday, was born in Brussels. A graduate in law and philosophy, be became interested in anthropology while studying at Sao Paulo University in Brazil. Although he was considered by many to be the father of modern anthropology, his ideas and writings were more often than not the primary focus. In an interview in 1990, he suggested, “What matters is the work, not the author who happens to write it…it writes itself through him.”
He will, perhaps, be best remembered for his method of analyzing various collective phenomena such as kinship, ritual, and myth.
Wilcken, who studied anthropology at Goldsmith College in London, has built his book on new research personal interviews with Levis-Strauss. The result is a surprisingly accessible account of life and work of Levis-Strauss as he went from Sao Paulo to the Brazilian interior, from New York to Paris, in what can only be called a remarkable life. It provides a rare glimpse of one of the twentieth century’s most influential minds.
Running Out of Water: The Looming Crisis and Solutions to Conserve Our Most Precious Resource by Peter Rogers and Susan Leal with a foreword by Congressman Edward J. Markey (Palgrave/Macmillan, $25)
Water, not oil, could be the next major resource crisis. Even though more than 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by water, less than 1 percent is accessible fresh water. With the present population ballooning to 6.7 billion people and predicted to reach more than 8 billion by 2035, the availability of fresh water will soon become one of the planet’s biggest challenges.
Peter Rogers, a leading water expert and a senior advisor to the Global Water Partnership, and Susan Leal, a consultant and the former general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, are convinced that the world’s impending water crisis is avoidable and that solution are possible. They back up their beliefs with real-life examples that can replicated elsewhere. For example, in Oakland, California, the water and wastewater utility turned food waste into energy while reducing the environmental impacts of this waste on both air and water while in the greater Boston area, water prices increased tenfold between 1986 and 2009, leading to a 35% drop in demand, illustrating that the market rules of supply and demand can be applied to water if it is priced appropriately.
As Rogers and Leal point out, it will take individuals from every level to make a real difference in water usage and conservation. The big question is whether we have the commitment to confront the crisis.
Jonathan Adler on Happy Chic: Accessorizing/Jonathan Adler Happy Chic: Colors (Sterling Innovation, $17.95 each volume)
Sixteen years ago, Jonathan Adler was a little-known potter but his ability to mix modernistic forms with bold colors and sensational graphics helped him build and grow an international gift and design company offering decorative objects, tabletop collections, bath accessories, bedding, candles, furniture, rugs, pillows and lighting. As Adler explains, “If your heirs won’t fight over it, we won’t make it.”
Jonathan, who has eleven stores nationwide, a thriving on-line site, and a wholesale business, shares many of his decorating secrets in two new books, “Accessorizing” and “Colors.” “Colors” helps take much of the mystery out of the rules for creating a pleasing palette of paints and prints before punctuating with personal flair. “Accessorizing” explains how to personalize with household possessions. Whether going bold or just hanging artwork, this might just be the extra help you need to make whatever you’re doing look more professional and pleasing.
