General & Miscellaneous Philosophy, Social Structure & Social Change, Future Studies & Forecasting, Civilization - History

Dark Age Ahead

Name: Dark Age Ahead
Author: Jane Jacobs
ISBN: 9781400076703

by Jane Jacobs

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Overview

In this indispensable book, urban visionary Jane Jacobs—renowned author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and The Economy of Cities—convincingly argues that as agrarianism gives way to a technology-based future, we stand on the brink of a new dark age, a period of cultural collapse. Jacobs pinpoints five pillars of our culture that are in serious decay: community and family; higher education; the effective practice of science; taxation, and government; and the self-regulation of the learned professions. The corrosion of these pillars, Jacobs argues, is linked to societal ills such as environmental crisis, racism, and the growing gulf between rich and poor. But this is a hopeful book as well as a warning. Drawing on her vast frame of reference–from fifteenth-century Chinese shipbuilding to Ireland’s cultural rebirth–Jacobs suggests how the cycles of decay can be arrested and our way of life renewed. Invigorating and accessible, Dark Age Ahead is not only the crowning achievement of Jane Jacobs’ career, but one of the most important works of our time.

Synopsis

The Washington Post - Michael Dirda

Dark Age Ahead is certainly worth reading and thinking about.

About the Author, Jane Jacobs

Jane Jacobs was the legendary author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, a work that has never gone out of print and that has transformed the disciplines of urban planning and city architecture. Her other major works include The Economy of Cities, Systems of Survival, and The Nature of Economies. She died in 2006.

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Editorials

Michael Dirda

Dark Age Ahead is certainly worth reading and thinking about.
— The Washington Post

Publishers Weekly

Jacobs's The Death and Life of Great American Cities forever transformed the discipline of urban planning by concentrating on what actually helped cities work. Unencumbered by generations of fatuous theorizing, Jacobs proposed a model of action that has left a positive mark in neighborhoods all over the world. Her latest salvo, Dark Age Ahead, is, despite the pessimism of many of its conclusions, also positive, less a jeremiad than a firm but helpful reminder of just how much is at stake. Jacobs sees "ominous signs of decay" in five "pillars" of our culture: family, community, higher education, science and "self policing by the learned professions." Each is given a detailed treatment, with sympathetic but hard-headed real-world assessments that are often surprising and always provocative and well-expressed. Her chapter on the decline of the nuclear family completely avoids the moral hand-wringing of the kindergarten Cassandras to place the blame on an economy that has made the affordable home either an unattainable dream or a crippling debt. Her discussion of the havoc wrought by the lack of accountability seems ripped from any number of headlines, but her analysis of the larger effects sets it apart. A lifetime of unwasted experience in a number of fields has gone into this short but pungent book, and to ignore its sober warnings would be foolish indeed. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Jacobs (The Death and Life of Great American Cities) defines a dark age as a period of cultural amnesia, when a society forgets its beliefs, customs, knowledge, language, practices, etc. A dark age can be caused by outside forces or by a culture itself, and she fears that North America is creating its own version of the latter. An introductory chapter identifies five threatened pillars of North American culture: family and community, higher education, science and science-based technology, taxation powers and policies, and professional self-policing. Subsequent chapters define these pillars and the dangers to them and consider the consequences of their collapse. Jacobs places arguments in historical context, contending, for example, that the transformation of North American colleges and universities from institutions of higher learning to credential factories has its roots in the Great Depression and the resulting obsession with joblessness. Jacobs does not believe a North American dark age inevitable, leavening her ominous predictions with practical solutions and mordant humor. Scholarly yet accessible, and certain to spark debate, this unique addition to the genre of social forecasting is highly recommended for public and academic libraries.-M.C. Duhig, Carnegie Lib. of Pittsburgh Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Social philosopher Jacobs (Systems of Survivals, 1992, etc.) warns that the collapse of Western Civilization is in the cards, unless we start reshuffling our economic, cultural, and political decks with alacrity. The author begins with some generous praise of Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997), crediting him for the seed that sprouted into the flower of her thesis: Diamond explained why some cultures won and others lost, but he did not sufficiently explore the question of why some successful cultures collapse. (Diamond has been at work for some years on just such a book, as yet unpublished.) Jacobs argues that what she calls the "five pillars of our culture" are in jeopardy. These comprise families and communities, higher education, science and technology, taxes and governmental power, and, finally, the self-policing of learned professions. This seems a motley mix, but Jacobs can write, and so by the end her arguments and admonitions all appear persuasive and disquieting. She has the knack of looking with a fresh eye at a phenomenon we all think we understand (e.g., the collapse of the nuclear family, the decay of the modern city) and pointing out what few of us have noticed. She explains how the advent of the city bus as a replacement for the electric streetcar has fouled the air, clogged the streets, and sent maintenance costs (and thus transportation costs) soaring. Streetcars are much cheaper to buy and maintain-and they last three times longer, she says. She patiently explains economic concepts like "subsidarity" and "fiscal accountability" and shows how powerful central governments that collect large income taxes are sucking away from cities and other communities theresources they need to pay for transportation, health care, and education. But she also takes some powerful swipes at tax-cutting neocons: "The tax cuts' chief benefit, as far as I can see, is the emotional satisfaction they bring to ideologues." Jacobs advocates multi-use boulevards and chides us for cultural hubris. Crisp, entertaining, scholarly, scary.