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fractaltexan's review
4.0
Richard A. Walker’s The Country in the City: The Greening of the San Francisco Bay Area explores the ways in which Grassroots organizations fought for the protection of an environment within an urban space. He argues that the San Francisco Bay Area’s unique blend of natural and urban spaces was fought for by grassroots and inherently local organizations that have largely been overshadowed by their creation.
His historic intervention focuses in large part on the limited geographical scope, as Walker focuses on the Bay Area. In doing so, he allows for a study of how local politics can bring the ideas of environmental conservation to a local level, allowing for a fusion of nature and urban areas. He also allows for a political look at the work that grassroots organizations, led largely by women who have since been overshadowed, were responsible for the preservation of land and halt of urban renewal; while also showing a narrative of shifting tactics that followed the liberal policies of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the neoliberal eras of 1980s and 1990s. His focus on these local groups and nongovernmental organizations shifts the focus from more well known groups such as the Sierra Club to a distinctly local focus.
Finally, Walker engages the effects this had on the environment and the people of the Bay area by providing lists of parks and natural space within the Bay Area. He also allows us a glimpse into what these successes meant after the fact, with soaring prices for land and one of the most expensive areas for real estate within the world; allowing us to see how history can be used to showcase the effects on a modern environment.
This book would be well placed in a graduate course on environmental history as well as the effects of urban and natural spaces on the local environment. It would also work well in a course geared towards womens history, as women play a large, if at times understated, role within this book. It would also serve as supplemental reading in an undergraduate course on environmental history.
His historic intervention focuses in large part on the limited geographical scope, as Walker focuses on the Bay Area. In doing so, he allows for a study of how local politics can bring the ideas of environmental conservation to a local level, allowing for a fusion of nature and urban areas. He also allows for a political look at the work that grassroots organizations, led largely by women who have since been overshadowed, were responsible for the preservation of land and halt of urban renewal; while also showing a narrative of shifting tactics that followed the liberal policies of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the neoliberal eras of 1980s and 1990s. His focus on these local groups and nongovernmental organizations shifts the focus from more well known groups such as the Sierra Club to a distinctly local focus.
Finally, Walker engages the effects this had on the environment and the people of the Bay area by providing lists of parks and natural space within the Bay Area. He also allows us a glimpse into what these successes meant after the fact, with soaring prices for land and one of the most expensive areas for real estate within the world; allowing us to see how history can be used to showcase the effects on a modern environment.
This book would be well placed in a graduate course on environmental history as well as the effects of urban and natural spaces on the local environment. It would also work well in a course geared towards womens history, as women play a large, if at times understated, role within this book. It would also serve as supplemental reading in an undergraduate course on environmental history.
ignimbrite's review
3.0
This book could have been so good. The subject matter, the chapter headings ("The Upper West Side" for peninsula open space efforts), the photo insets pointed toward a very important, fascinating book on the social history of Bay Area open space and environmental movements. However, in the end, it read like yet another bland environmental history book, with a few exceptions. It's too bad, because it's clear that Watkins could have written something much more interesting. The final chapters on inner city environmental justice campaigns and their relationship with the more genteel green movements were more interesting, though.
18thstjoe's review
5.0
excellent account of the changes in the bay area, and the power that enviromental groups like "Save the Bay" had on keeping the Bay Area from turning into Los Angeles. If you grew up here, you should read this book
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