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aguattery's review against another edition
The holier than thou attitude right from the start rubs me the wrong way. Finally drew the line when he called some organizations "schizo"...is there not a better word available?
addisrednick's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Wow. What a passion project. No book has ever moved me the way this one has. It was an incredibly hard read/listen but so important and so rich in information. I even was so inclined to take some notes on mind blowing statistics mentioned throughout the book; such as, the fact that only 3% of the Grand Staircase is ungrazed. If you care about public lands in the West, specifically Utah, you NEED to read this book.
FUCK GRAZING!!
FUCK WILDLIFE SERVICES!!
FUCK THE GOVERNMENT!!
This book is the reason we need people like Caroline Gleich in office in Utah.
FUCK GRAZING!!
FUCK WILDLIFE SERVICES!!
FUCK THE GOVERNMENT!!
This book is the reason we need people like Caroline Gleich in office in Utah.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
cole1017's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
ajlark25's review against another edition
5.0
This book was uncomfortable, but in a good way. This book should be required reading for anyone who works in land management, especially those of us who go into it with good intentions.
As a public lands employee, it really made me think about how we interact with the land. The division between timber and wildlife at my last ranger station. The conversations about the impact of cattle on wildfires amongst the fire crew. The old logger who confronted me and a coworker as we were cleaning up a closed campground. All of the instances had a new meaning behind them.
As a public lands employee, it really made me think about how we interact with the land. The division between timber and wildlife at my last ranger station. The conversations about the impact of cattle on wildfires amongst the fire crew. The old logger who confronted me and a coworker as we were cleaning up a closed campground. All of the instances had a new meaning behind them.
arielamandah's review against another edition
2.0
Even from the introduction, you can feel the anger seething in this book. The audiobook was read by the author, so the emotion behind it was near to his heart. And there is a lot to be angry about. Ketcham paints a very unflattering picture of the BLM, Forest Service, and other government agencies tasked with being the stewards of our public lands. Had I talked to the people he did and had I seen the things he saw firsthand, I suspect I'd be equally outraged. It's extremely disturbing content. I'd want to make as many people as possible aware of the issues, too.
Unfortunately, that's where the book breaks down for me. An Easterner plopped down in the West, he doesn't try to make sense of both sides of the story in a fair-minded way. He paints an extremist viewpoint from an "outside" perspective. And I'm not saying that perspective is entirely wrong - it's just not persuasive. It comes across as a one-sided story told to him by the outliers on the fringe (of which there are people on both sides). That turns people off and makes them stop listening. Anger doesn't persuade them to your cause. He also presented representations of how he got his interviews/firsthand experience which painted a less-than-straightforward, often deceptive approach. That undermined a lot of his credibility for me - even if he felt that was the only way to get the information he wanted.
I really struggled to swallow the chapter on how wicked the "conservation collaboration" agencies are. He cast the ICL and the Wilderness Society in particular as especially egregious villains. Working with them first-hand here in Idaho, I find that a tough pill to take - especially from a New Yorker with limited exposure to what they're doing locally on an ongoing basis.
He was also extremely disparaging to the Mormon community out here in Utah and Idaho. Again, not without reason, given the story he was telling and the players involved, but in a way that undermined his points and used unnecessarily broad brushstrokes to tell the story. People aren't wholly good or bad, no need to castigate an entire religious group. This felt like another issue with an "outsider" telling this story to me.
Again, I'm not sure I disagree with his conclusions or the points he makes throughout (generally). As I'm writing this, I'm also writing rebuttals to my own points in my head. We NEED firebrands and agitators and people who are willing to say the hard things and throw stones at our glass houses. Upton Sinclair did important things. Ultimately, though, I don't think this adds to the conversation in a meaningful, productive way. I think it turns off those who it most needs to reach. It reads like an angry screed without actionable solutions. It did make me think a lot about journalism, though, especially the way that Americans serve as journalists in foreign countries (parachute journalism), and how askew our perspectives may be with only a limited exposure to the people, politics, and "systems" we drop into.
Unfortunately, that's where the book breaks down for me. An Easterner plopped down in the West, he doesn't try to make sense of both sides of the story in a fair-minded way. He paints an extremist viewpoint from an "outside" perspective. And I'm not saying that perspective is entirely wrong - it's just not persuasive. It comes across as a one-sided story told to him by the outliers on the fringe (of which there are people on both sides). That turns people off and makes them stop listening. Anger doesn't persuade them to your cause. He also presented representations of how he got his interviews/firsthand experience which painted a less-than-straightforward, often deceptive approach. That undermined a lot of his credibility for me - even if he felt that was the only way to get the information he wanted.
I really struggled to swallow the chapter on how wicked the "conservation collaboration" agencies are. He cast the ICL and the Wilderness Society in particular as especially egregious villains. Working with them first-hand here in Idaho, I find that a tough pill to take - especially from a New Yorker with limited exposure to what they're doing locally on an ongoing basis.
He was also extremely disparaging to the Mormon community out here in Utah and Idaho. Again, not without reason, given the story he was telling and the players involved, but in a way that undermined his points and used unnecessarily broad brushstrokes to tell the story. People aren't wholly good or bad, no need to castigate an entire religious group. This felt like another issue with an "outsider" telling this story to me.
Again, I'm not sure I disagree with his conclusions or the points he makes throughout (generally). As I'm writing this, I'm also writing rebuttals to my own points in my head. We NEED firebrands and agitators and people who are willing to say the hard things and throw stones at our glass houses. Upton Sinclair did important things. Ultimately, though, I don't think this adds to the conversation in a meaningful, productive way. I think it turns off those who it most needs to reach. It reads like an angry screed without actionable solutions. It did make me think a lot about journalism, though, especially the way that Americans serve as journalists in foreign countries (parachute journalism), and how askew our perspectives may be with only a limited exposure to the people, politics, and "systems" we drop into.
honorsenglishdropout's review against another edition
3.0
"To sit in awe of creation, to listen to, observe, appreciate things greater than yourself, to understand the volition of the natural world, is to be contented and nourished with things as they are, not as they should be, not as we want them to be. This is happiness without need of more."
chelseadarling's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
mammajamma's review against another edition
2.0
I was enjoying refreshing my memory about some things in this book, despite some hyperbole and not learning anything new or useful.
Then I saw the reviews and I realized that the author is _the guy_ who told leftwing straight white dudes to abandon their non-straight-white-dude friends to the whims of Donald Trump in 2016. https://www.thedailybeast.com/anarchists-for-donald-trumplet-the-empire-burn
If he actually wrote like Edward Abbey like the jacket blurb claims, I might keep reading. But life is short, and I need to spend my time on solutions to the problems straight white dudes with nothing to lose but unearned power have caused the rest of us.
Then I saw the reviews and I realized that the author is _the guy_ who told leftwing straight white dudes to abandon their non-straight-white-dude friends to the whims of Donald Trump in 2016. https://www.thedailybeast.com/anarchists-for-donald-trumplet-the-empire-burn
If he actually wrote like Edward Abbey like the jacket blurb claims, I might keep reading. But life is short, and I need to spend my time on solutions to the problems straight white dudes with nothing to lose but unearned power have caused the rest of us.