by Lowell E. Baier with Christopher E. Segal ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 15, 2023
A lengthy but thorough investigation of a long-debated American law.
Attorney and conservationist Baier provides readers with a detailed look at the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
The ESA was a 20-page law when it was first enacted, with an additional 30 pages of regulations set forth by the United States government to protect animal and plant life in imminent danger of extinction. Fifty years later, it has grown immensely; it’s now a 50-page law, connected to thousands of regulations. How the ESA got to this point is a complex story of politics, ecology, and differing opinions about the government’s responsibility to endangered species. The book begins with views on wildlife in the pre-ESA United States: Hunting, for example, was once guided by a “sportsmen’s code of conduct,” but by the late 1800s, “overharvesting” was threatening many species, including birds hunted for their colorful plumage, and bison, whose numbers were greatly thinned by overhunting. It became clear that conservation efforts were necessary, but it took decades for the ESA to come to be, which provides protection for certain species and allows them to be delisted in certain circumstances. This exhaustive book ably captures all the twists and turns in the development and enforcement of the ESA, up to and including the Biden administration. It features numerous citations, photos, and court cases, as well as appendices and an extensive bibliography. A section on migrating animals, for instance, includes information on the “nine distinct elk populations in Yellowstone National Park,” revealing how the wildlife in question are just as complex as the politics that govern their existence. These partisan politics can prove dizzying; much of the Trump administration’s agenda, for instance, seemed to focus on “reversing Obama’s accomplishments.” On the other side of the debate, Chief Justice Warren Burger pointed out that it’s vital to protect diverse species because “they are keys to puzzles which we cannot solve, and may provide answers to questions which we have not yet learned to ask.” Overall, this is a measured look at what the ESA means for the country and effectively shows how it came to its current state.
A lengthy but thorough investigation of a long-debated American law.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781538112076
Page Count: 864
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
edited by Lowell E. Baier , John F. Organ and Christopher E. Segal
by Howard Zinn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1979
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
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BOOK REVIEW
by Howard Zinn ; adapted by Rebecca Stefoff with by Ed Morales
BOOK REVIEW
by Howard Zinn with Ray Suarez
BOOK REVIEW
by Howard Zinn
by Alok Vaid-Menon ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
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Best Books Of 2020
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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More In The Series
by Shavone Charles ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
by Leo Baker ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
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