THE UPSIDE OF DOWN: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization, by Thomas Homer-Dixon, will be released on October 31 by Knopf in Canada and on November 1 by Island Press in the United States.
The Upside of Down sets out a theory of the growth, crisis, and renewal of societies. It argues that today’s converging energy, environmental, and political-economic stresses could cause a breakdown of national and global order. But there are things we can do now to keep such a breakdown from being catastrophic. And some kinds of breakdown could even open up extraordinary opportunities for creative, bold reform of our societies, if we’re prepared to exploit these opportunities when they arise.
His books The Ingenuity Gap and Environment, Scarcity and Violence are must reads. I am really looking forward to his new book.
2 comments:
I'm so glad I stopped by today - this new book sounds fascinating. I'll definately be keeping my eye out for it and looking up his other works on Amazon. Thanks Candy!
(hope you're feeling better!)
Thanks, Karen, I have been feeling like shit...and I don't stop, ya know? The only thing was though, I didn't feel like sitting at a desk the last few days. but I don't know some weird ocmbo of headache and yuckiness but yea! it's gone today!
Thanks for asking. And I was totally thinking about you when I posted this just now. I figured you are one person who actually might go and check out his work!
I hate the crappy books that are all about "civilized people are just going to fight till one wins" I think that those are so misguided. Homer-Dixon is also a fairly easy to read academic which is a pretty good accomplishment...and he he has practical ideas of tools and choices, not just doom and gloom.
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