Silent Spring

In light of the recent 50th anniversary of Silent Spring, we decided to share our thoughts about one of the most well-known environmental books which many people believe sparked the environmental movement.

Silent Spring, written by scientist Rachel Carson, it documents the harm caused to birds and other animals by pesticide use. This book had a lot of political impact, leading to the banning of certain pesticides. It showed evidence that what we do to the environment can have much broader and serious consequences. Although environmental public health is not a big interest of ours, we thought it would be worth while to read such an important piece of literature. Maybe it was because we had such high expectations of the book going in, or maybe it was just not our style, whatever the case we found the book disappointing. Each chapter simply described another anecdotal incident, of pesticides harming some animal in some part of the country, it just got really boring. Do not get us wrong, we believe this is an important piece of literature in our history, we just get more out of knowing the story behind the book itself and the impact it has had worldwide. Our official recommendation is LEAVE and instead READ about the impact the book has had since its publication.

A Field Guide to Sprawl

A Field Guide to Sprawl
By: Dolores Hayden (Jim Wark, Photographer)

This is a fun little book that defines 51 different aspects of urban sprawl. The author, Dolores Hayden, replaces the technical jargon of architects and urban planners with common terms like “snout house” “zoomburb” and “duck.” She suggests that by using these simple terms people can identify sprawl in their own communities and thus better understand what causes it. While the terms in the book are unique and novel we doubt that we will be using them any time soon. While the terms are a bit difficult to put into use the ideas behind each term are great. This book introduced us to many aspects of sprawl that we may not otherwise have recognized. The book is a quick, easy read. Just as one would expect of a “field guide” each spread of pages defines a single term in alphabetical order, in one or two small paragraphs. Amazing aerial photographs compliment each term and paints a clear picture on each specific definition. The author wishes that everybody keep a copy of this book in their glove department (no doubt trying to boost her sales) so that the next time you are experiencing “gridlock” you will quickly be able to find which aspect of sprawl is to blame. We do not see a need for everyone to buy this book although it is nice reference material. Our official recommendation is READ.

Public Health and Urban Sprawl

In addition to our weekly posts we will also occasionally submit book reviews that deal with our subject matter. The purpose of these reviews is simply to share with you what we have read and give recommendations to guide your own reading choices. Instead of giving a traditional rating (4 stars out of 5) we’ll give you one of three recommendations: “Buy”, “Read”, or “Leave.” For us book reviews have been helpful for us to decide what books we want to read next and hopefully we can do that for you. Please note that these reviews are only our opinion and we do not benefit in any way from them or any purchase of a book. Our first book review is Urban Sprawl and Public Health, an obvious place for us to start.

Public Health and Urban Sprawl:
Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities
By: Howard Frumkin, Lawrence Frank, and Dr. Richard J. Jackson

Public Health and Urban Sprawl: Designing, Planning, and Building for Healthy Communities, the title says it all. This book is a must read for anyone in public health or urban planning and is a good read for everyone else. Public health officials want to create healthy communities and this book shows that collaboration with Urban Planning can do this. The book starts out by explaining what urban sprawl is, how, and why it started. It then goes into the effects that urban sprawl has on our communities and how that in turn has affected our health and well-being. It is relatively easy to read and understand and is full of research and studies on each topic making the authors’ arguments evidence based. The book covers a variety of topics including: air quality, physical activity, water quality and more. The book is a little lengthy but only because it covers so many diverse and important topics. The authors’ conclude the book by suggesting answers to the problem of urban sprawl. This book is full of research and studies and serves as a good reference to have on hand. Our official recommendation is BUY.