By David DarlingtonOur Price: $17.50 (Save 30%) Original Cover Price: $25.00 Our Item Code: mojave Postage Code: book1.5
330 Pages, Hardcover Features: Table of Contents, Index
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| Our Review | Opinion of the webmaster, subject to debate |
This is a fascinating look at the Mojave and our changing relationship to with it. As our least compromising environment, the desert has historically been subject to what David Darlington terms the "Old View" - that of a murderous wasteland where society's detritus could be dumped. More recently, a New View has arisen, celebrating the place as a wonderland - a harbor for citizens seeking refuge from that same civilization. Darlington's unique style combines adventure with information on the flora and fauna, history and politics of this quintessentially American desert. Includes a chapter on George Van Tassel's Integratron. -- tm
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| Information from the Publisher | Always supportive |
Review from The New York Times Book Review, September 1, 1996
As our least compromising environment, the desert has historically been subject to what David Darlington terms the "Old View" - that of a murderous wasteland where society's detritus could be dumped. More recently, a New View has arisen, celebrating the place as a wonderlandÐ a harbor for citizens seeking refuge from that same civilization. Always, it has been a demanding habitat for hardy plants and animals and people whose survival systems are among the most resourceful on the planet.
The quintessential American desert - the most visible, the most vulnerable, the most emblematic, and the most misunderstood - is the Mojave. Ranging from the outskirts of Los Angeles to the psychic fringes of Las Vegas, it contains such archetypal American spots as Death Valley, Edwards Air Force Base, Joshua Tree National Park, and the Panamint Mountains (where the forty-niners found silver and the Manson family prepared for Helter Skelter). The Mojave is a place of contradictions: a region of apparent openness that retains a palpable air of mystery; an empty, inhospitable land that has been thoroughly scoured by people; a stark and oppressive environment that dispenses a feeling of liberation. It is an area not only of intriguing natural history but of stubborn human aspiration - a blue-skied, blue-jeaned kingdom of high-speed jet fighters and UFO watchers, endangered tortoises and dirt-bike racers, secret drug labs and health-food preachers, nuclear waste dumps and nudist squatters, plucky ranchers and corporate gold miners. In the tradition of Barry Lopez's Arctic Dreams, Darlington explores this unique and embattled region, revealing America's changing relationship with its environment.
Table of Contents
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