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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 901
EAN: 9781400062324
ISBN: 1400062322
Label: Random House
Manufacturer: Random House
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: May 04, 2004
Publisher: Random House
Release Date: May 04, 2004
Studio: Random House
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Visionary thinker Jane Jacobs uses her authoritative work on urban life and economies to show us how we can protect and strengthen our culture and communities.
In Dark Age Ahead, Jane Jacobs identifies five pillars of our culture that we depend on but which are in serious decline: community and family; higher education; the effective practice of science; taxation and government; and self-policing by learned professions. The decay of these pillars, Jacobs contends, is behind such ills as environmental crisis, racism and the growing gulf between rich and poor; their continued degradation could lead us into a new Dark Age, a period of cultural collapse in which all that keeps a society alive and vibrant is forgotten.
But this is a hopeful book as well as a warning. Jacobs draws on her vast frame of reference -- from fifteenth-century Chinese shipbuilding to zoning regulations in Brampton, Ontario -- and in highly readable, invigorating prose offers proposals that could arrest the cycles of decay and turn them into beneficent ones. Wise, worldly, full of real-life examples and accessible concepts, this book is an essential read for perilous times.
Average Rating: 
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The central tenet seems to be that if you don't support the people and systems you need, then your city/society degrades. And it is hard to regain lost knowledge.
I see this on a regular basis inside large complex industrial and information technology environments where things get 'old' quickly. They lose the knowledgeable staff (due to retirement or layoffs, etc.) with the assumption that they can be replaced by newer technology or cheaper people.
Its a nice read, with ... Read More
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As in her first book Ms. Jacobs is able to see clearly and write lucidly of things to come. A keen observer that can learn and communicate what she sees. It took too many years for The Death and Life of Great American Cities for planners to recognize the wisdom of her observations. History has now witnessed the disaster she saw before it was too late. She seems to pre-date Naomi Klein and The Shock Doctrine but her message is just as clear. A must read, as are all her works!
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I was interested to see where Jacobs would take the five points outlined that she considers crucial pillars in decline that are currently being ignored. As another customer wrote, I was sad to find that while I agree with her diagnosis overall, the argument is poorly executed and I felt at the end as though I had wasted my time.
The first major point that I felt this book is lacking is a sense of reflection on the part of the author, in addition to basic fact-checking. There are several ... Read More
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The West is living "The Hazard" of an impending "Dark Age", unable to anticipate clearly because of widespread "mass amnesia". The Dark Age is predictable from history, which shows that each major collapse of civilization was followed by a disturbing social transformation. The Dark Age Ahead (the book) agrees in part with Jared Diamond's account that Mesopotamia, for example, fell to ruins because of "environmental ignorance" (p. 15), but that was not the whole story. Part of the story is that there are ... Read More
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The author, now deceased but a noted commentator on culture, communities, and cities, is concerned that Western culture, led by the US, is in serious decline, perhaps on the way to a Dark Age. A Dark Age for her is a society-wide forgetting of more advanced knowledge and practice due to some sort of external or internal factor, like a severe environmental event or injurious political mechanizations. Her assessment is more that the decline of Western culture is short of a Dark Age but may be too far along ... Read More
