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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 304.2
EAN num: 9780374522599
ISBN number: 0374522596
Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: September 01, 1990
Publishing house: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Sale Popularity Level: 44281
Studio: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
The Control of Nature is John McPhee's bestselling account of places where people are locked in combat with nature. Taking us deep into these contested territories, McPhee details the strageties and tactics through which people endeavor to control nature. Most striking is his depiction of the main contestants: nature in complex and awesome guises, and those attempting to wrest control from her - stubborn, sometimes foolhardy, more often ingenious, and always arresting characters.
Amazon.com Review:
Master how-it-works writer John McPhee has instructed his readers in the arcana of how oranges are commercially graded, how mountains form, how canoes are built and oceans crossed. In The Control of Nature he turns his attention once more to geology and the human struggle against nature. In one sketch, he explores the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' unrealized plan to divert the flow of the Mississippi River into a tributary, the Atchafalaya, for flood control; in another, he looks at the ingenious ways in which an Icelandic engineer saved a southern harbor on that island from being destroyed by a lava flow; in a third, he examines a complex scheme to protect Los Angeles from boulders ejected from mountains by compression and tectonic movement. As always, McPhee combines a deep knowledge of his subject with a narrative approach that is wholly accessible; you may not have thought you were interested in earthquakes and flood control, but he gently leads you to take a passionate concern in such matters.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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McPhee's book may not be new, but his point - that trying to control nature leads to unintended consequences - is a important yesterday as it was when it was published. The section on the Mississippi is especially poignant, considering the damage that the delta has experienced. Peg
Rated by buyers 
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An intriguing book on man's efforts, as the title says, to control nature. The question is, can or will man succeed. The book leaves it open to conjecture, but does an excellent, though sometimes wordy job, of describing man's efforts...
The Mississippi River chapter badly needed a map to help the reader udnerstand perspective and location. Imagine New Orleans high and dry with what is now the Mighty Mississippi as a meara creed passing the French Quarter. hard to imagine, but possible, even probable...
The image of men using water hoses to cool and direct lava is, at first, unbelievable and incomprehensible, but it worked...and the chapter on California debris (not mud) slides is extremely enlightening....a good book to learn about nature and things you woudn't normally think about...
Recommended.
Rated by buyers 
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I was disappointed after reading this book. The author uses 10,000 words to describe things/man-made structures that could be better described by adding a simple illustration. The writing is not organized in sections/chapters. A lot of unnecessary information is added that renders the book boring and unfocused. It will take me a while to read another book by this author...
Rated by buyers -
Mc Phee presents three well written, beautifully researched case studies, short term marvels of engineering skill and determination, doomed from the outset by humanity's ignorance and disregard of natural processes. This book examines an unstable river system in Southern Louisiana, unpredictable massive lava flows in Iceland, and episodic debris flows in Los Angeles mountain foothills. Each case presents the heroic bad judgement of short-lived humans in conflict with gradual natural processes, catastrophic at long intervals, by human measure, and ultimately inxorable, indifferent long-term to our futile efforts at intervention. He wastes few judgemental words on the human folly his stories chronicle, but lets them speak for themselves. He fills the shoes of both writer and teacher.
Rated by buyers -
As always, McPhee is a pleasure to read and a pleasure to review. In these chronicles, based both on narrative and on interviews, McPhee's big theme is ambition (a good thing), hubris (no problem, simple answer), and willful ignorance.
McPhee talks about three major `wars' against nature - the effort to keep the Mississippi River running through New Orleans, the semi-successful effort in Iceland to keep a volcano from filling in a critical harbor, and the ludicrous endeavor to prevent fire and flooding from destroying the east side of Los Angeles. In each of these, the threats are portrayed as utterly real and frightening, the science is lucid without being boring or full of jargon, and the people speak for themselves.
If you ever wanted to change the inevitable force of geology by piling up sandbags, stop a lava flow by spraying water on it, or keep your house from being filled with boulders and sand (debris flow) - this book will be a lesson on fighting rear guard actions against enemies that will, eventually, win.
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