book data
414 ratings, 4.25 average rating, 52 reviews
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published
September 1991
by Books On Tape
binding
Audio Cassette
isbn
5553887291
(isbn13: 9785553887292)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 544)
Read in September, 2008
He gives three in-depth examples of where man is controlling nature. His first example is about the Mississippi & how we've been redirecting its course for decades. He explains in detail the reasons for it & brings home how difficult the job has been. His writing is excellent. He personalized the struggle for me. I really got a feel of it in an interesting factual way.
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A great way to ponder the arrogance of humankind
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Read in January, 2008
I’ve read this before. I wanted to re-read his essay about Los Angeles’ mudslide control after driving around in the foothills above my mom’s house with my husband. We passed many concrete basins meant to contain debris slides, and I'd tell him those were for WHEN – NOT IF – the winter rains bring mudslides. My mom’s in no danger, way down in the valley, but yikes, I wouldn’t want to live in one of those canyons. Also essays about Mississippi flood control and volcanoes in Iceland....more
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Read in September, 2008
recommended to Fran by:
saw it at my libraryrecommends it for: anyone who likes science or fascinating non-fiction
As a former Earth Science teacher I found this book terrific! If I had been a complete lay person though, I think it might have been somewhat daunting. It is basically three books in one; each with the thesis that Man Vs. Nature is a drastically unbalanced contest. The issue of flood control, levees, Atchafalaya/Mississippi, etc. along the Gulf Coast is covered first. This is an old book, pre-Katrina, and I was reading it as Hurricane Gustav threatened that area. I wished he had written a p...more
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Read in January, 1993
recommended to Dar...Nola by:
Harold Rossrecommends it for: American Alligator bioregionalists, river people
Well, if you have read my reviews, you know my middle-class connection to the New Yorker and its writers. The majority of my favorites wrote for the magazine (or currently write for it) and I assume this has to do with my teen discovery of the Algonquin Circle and its writers, and their politics and way of life.
So, no surprise that John McPhee is another favorite... His prolific skill seems scary, even has been suspect over the years (meaning people wondered does he have underage Central Ameri...more
So, no surprise that John McPhee is another favorite... His prolific skill seems scary, even has been suspect over the years (meaning people wondered does he have underage Central Ameri...more
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Read in July, 2007
This book is riveting! It discusses in detail the history of three major natural phenomenon that man has tried, and continues to try, to control: lava floes in Iceland; the course of the Mississipi on its ever-morphing flood plain; and California boulder floods. I want to teach the Mississippi chapter as a part of a Hurricane Katrina Curriculum... someday. I borrowed it from a friend two years ago, and I still haven't given it back!
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Read in January, 1990
recommends it for:
Everyone
This is one of my favorite works by John McPhee. It precedes his series on North American earth sciences by a few years, but deals with some of the same themes. It is typical of his style, in that he tries to understand a science or field of study by getting to know people who are practicioners in said field. His books become just as much about them as their work.
the Control of Nature is a meditation on the efforts of man to control and manipulate his environment on a grand scale. These m...more
the Control of Nature is a meditation on the efforts of man to control and manipulate his environment on a grand scale. These m...more
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The Control of Nature - the title alone should be set as a term paper for all Elementary, "middle school"/Jr High & Senior High School students and definately for all college & university students. I would suggest that all candidates for public office & applicants for gov't jobs also submit a paper on the topic but I can already hear the whining about privacy & personal beliefs & Big Brother/Sister/Sibling & the spinning of the BS by the politicos handlers so I...more
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Read in January, 2008
Living in the Atchafalaya Basin or in the canyons and foothills of Los Angeles is a crap shoot. Local, state, and federal governments spend a ridiculous amount of money trying to forestall the inevitable.
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Read in March, 2002
I can never decide which of the three pieces in this book I enjoy the most. Reading about how a lava flow was prevented from swallowing up an Icelandic town by sea water is mind-boggling; learning about how the Mississippi may be captured by its distributary the Atchafalaya made watching the aftermath of Katrina even more suspenseful; and at each re-reading, I am more convinced than ever that "Los Angeles against the Mountains" should be required reading for every resident of Southern...more
Read in July, 2001
This book is amazingly good. Three stories about man's fight to control and beat back nature, and how nature almost always winds. The most dramatic is the story of how a town in Iceland fought back against an erupting volcano and won, more or less. The most poignant, especially in retrospect, is the story of New Orleans's attempts to tame the Mississippi, which is always threatening to change its course and destroy the port. And the most frustrating is about L.A., and its tendency to build in pl...more
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Another amazing John McPhee book. This one ranges from the history of the Corps of Engineer's continuing attempts to control the Mississippi River - as if... to Icelands basically successful cooling of the lava spewing forth from the sea as a new island is born (with side trips to Hawaii's volcanoes) and ending with Los Angeles county's attempts to control the damage done by debris flows from the San Gabriel Mountains into the increasingly populated lowlands. McPhee always brings in the people...more
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
anyone interested in human's impact on the environment
Three places people shouldn't live: along the banks of big rivers given to flooding, next to active volcanoes, or on mountains prone to land/mudslides. Nevertheless, they do. In order to continue living there, they are engaged in a constant struggle with mother nature with varying degrees of success. McPhee gives three accounts of such struggles: the Mississippi River, volcanoes on Iceland and the mountains surrounding L.A. Without preaching, each of these presents a great example of our impact ...more
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Wonderful book about the hubris of humans in attempting to, and believeing that, we are more powerful and smarter than the forces of nature. Three cases, each, among other things, illuminate how the human imagination is largely limited to both the human experience and the scale of human history. Both these flaws in imagination - and the consequences - are beautifully explored by McPhee.
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Read in June, 2008
This is an excellent and flabbergasting read. The lengths to which mankind will go to thwart nature, and the complacency with which we settle in the shadow of menace, are amazing. These three long essays are thought-provoking, clear and full of great details. Occasionally McPhee states something as geologic fact on which consensus has not occurred, but other than that this book could not be improved. Well, I guess I also wish I knew what further developments have occurred at the sites since its ...more
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Twenty or thirty pages in, I was thinking to myself, "Well, obviously this is a good book, but so far it isn't digging into me as deeply as some of his others," and decided I would give it four stars instead of the customary McPhee five stars.
Twenty or thirty pages later, my barge was sucked into the draw where the Atchafalaya leaves the Mississippi. A few hundred pages after that, I finally came back up for air, 5th star in hand.
Twenty or thirty pages later, my barge was sucked into the draw where the Atchafalaya leaves the Mississippi. A few hundred pages after that, I finally came back up for air, 5th star in hand.
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Read in January, 2004
This is one of the those books I hear myself mentioning all the time. It's gotten to the point where my husband rolls his eyes every time I trot out 'Control of Nature.' But there's nothing to be done about it; it's etched on my brain. It forever influenced how I think about the world and the way humans try -- and fail -- to influence it. I'm so glad I read it. A must for fans of The New Yorker and the great McPhee.
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Read in January, 2005
recommends it for:
nature binders
McPhee is one of the best journalists. this book chronicles mans attempts at controlling nature. inevitably the examples serve as warning to future policy decisions. nature is not controllable. not sustainable when controlled. think about holding the ocean back with a wall.
this book also talks about the levees in New Orleans, years before Katrina. prophecy? no. careful analysis.
this book also talks about the levees in New Orleans, years before Katrina. prophecy? no. careful analysis.
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Read in August, 2006
recommends it for:
Nature lover & engineers
The first 1/3 of this book, about the Atchafalaya river control project on the Mississippi river, is amazing. After that, some of the themes and prose become repetitive, but it is still classic McPhee. Alternately amazed and repulsed by the wonder and hubris of man's struggle with nature, McPhee does a great job detailing efforts to control rivers, floods, and lava. Fascinating.
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Read in July, 2008
Fascinating stuff. The book covers three different instances of man taking on inevitable natural phenomena from a historical, scientific and social perspective. While I find that McPhee tends to meander, with the occasional non-sequitur thrown in for good measure, it probably keeps the lay reader interested in what could have been a short, dull textbook.
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