Read Online Visionary Women How Rachel Carson Jane Jacobs Jane Goodall and Alice Waters Changed Our World Andrea Barnet 9780062310736 Books
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A Finalist for the PEN/Bograd Weld Prize for Biography
Four influential women we thought we knew well—Jane Jacobs, Rachel Carson, Jane Goodall, and Alice Waters—and how they spearheaded the modern progressive movement
This is the story of four visionaries who profoundly shaped the world we live in today. Together, these women—linked not by friendship or field, but by their choice to break with convention—showed what one person speaking truth to power can do. Jane Jacobs fought for livable cities and strong communities; Rachel Carson warned us about poisoning the environment; Jane Goodall demonstrated the indelible kinship between humans and animals; and Alice Waters urged us to reconsider what and how we eat.
With a keen eye for historical detail, Andrea Barnet traces the arc of each woman’s career and explores how their work collectively changed the course of history. While they hailed from different generations, Carson, Jacobs, Goodall, and Waters found their voices in the early sixties. At a time of enormous upheaval, all four stood as bulwarks against 1950s corporate culture and its war on nature. Consummate outsiders, each prevailed against powerful and mostly male adversaries while also anticipating the disaffections of the emerging counterculture.
Read Online Visionary Women How Rachel Carson Jane Jacobs Jane Goodall and Alice Waters Changed Our World Andrea Barnet 9780062310736 Books
"This is in interesting book. I kept wondering why the author chose the four that she did, and was disappointed that it wasn't addressed the preface or introduction. Readers who are already familiar with the women, and who expect to learn new and illuminating insights will be disappointed. The author's writing doesn't delve very far beneath the surface. For those of us less familiar with the four, though, it was a quick way to get an overview. Of the four, I found Jane Jacobs to be the most interesting, and her work to have been the most significant. Some readers will disagree, of course, but the benefit of reading this book is that one gets a stack of facts to buttress one's arguments. Much has been written about Goodall and Carson so the sections devoted to them are easy going. The author is repetitive in spots, and could have benefited from a sharp penciled editor. Barnet also belabors certain points, and often I found myself skipping paragraphs, thinking "OK. I get it. Enough already." She's an able writer, if not a lively one. But perhaps that's just personal preference. All told, this is a good summer read."
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Visionary Women How Rachel Carson Jane Jacobs Jane Goodall and Alice Waters Changed Our World Andrea Barnet 9780062310736 Books Reviews :
Visionary Women How Rachel Carson Jane Jacobs Jane Goodall and Alice Waters Changed Our World Andrea Barnet 9780062310736 Books Reviews
- Rachel Carson, who exposed the dangers of DDT and founded the environmental movement, was a hero of mine growing up, but I didn't know much about her life. I was therefore thrilled to read
Andrea Barnet's fascinating portrait, one of four, in Visionary Women.
I don't have time to read individual biographies of all the women who changed our view of the world, so I felt I hit the jackpot with this wonderful book. It came at a time when I was in dire need of inspiration.
The women are wisely chosen. In addition to Rachel Carson, there are profiles of Jane Jacobs, who saved lower Manhattan from the developers' wrecking ball, Jane Goodall, who discovered that chimps use tools, and Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters, one of the early farm-to-table advocates. The author has a sharp eye for the telling detail and a novelist's knack for storytelling. She writes with grace and intimacy.
For me, what set the book apart was the way the author linked the women's approach to their fields. They were amateurs who threw out pre-conceived notions and stubbornly relied on their own instincts and observations. They looked for the organic relations and interdependencies and succeeded in making original contributions to the fields of environmentalism, anthropology, urban planning, and food sustainability.
The book would make an excellent choice for book clubs.
Barbara Wright
Denver, CO - This is in interesting book. I kept wondering why the author chose the four that she did, and was disappointed that it wasn't addressed the preface or introduction. Readers who are already familiar with the women, and who expect to learn new and illuminating insights will be disappointed. The author's writing doesn't delve very far beneath the surface. For those of us less familiar with the four, though, it was a quick way to get an overview. Of the four, I found Jane Jacobs to be the most interesting, and her work to have been the most significant. Some readers will disagree, of course, but the benefit of reading this book is that one gets a stack of facts to buttress one's arguments. Much has been written about Goodall and Carson so the sections devoted to them are easy going. The author is repetitive in spots, and could have benefited from a sharp penciled editor. Barnet also belabors certain points, and often I found myself skipping paragraphs, thinking "OK. I get it. Enough already." She's an able writer, if not a lively one. But perhaps that's just personal preference. All told, this is a good summer read.
- I look forward to some bordeaux-fueled conversations about this one when my book group gets their hands on it (and I intend to see to it that they do.) Looking at the lives of these four unassuming twentieth century paradigm shifters opens up doors that offer wonderful vistas in many directions. Come for the French restaurants and chimp-watching ( stay to take on DDT!)
Reading Barnet’s book (which in my case meant mostly listening to it) is a feast for the senses. I was often drawn into thoughts about the unexplored moments in my own life ---the chance encounters on a street corner, blurry insights that may not yet be possible to name. In these dark times such a beacon of hope shines very brightly. Thinking of all the people I'd like to give it to I read the book in a few big gulps, not realizing I had been so thirsty. - This profoundly original book made me so proud to be a woman! Not because I was able to pretend that I share - with Rachel Carson, Jane Jacobs, Jane Goodall and Alice Waters - their incredible doggedness, tolerance for endless work, ability to bounce back countless times after personal tragedy, continuing rejections, condescending dismissal and outright smear campaigns, because I don’t. Or, that I’m strong enough to believe in my own vision and make it manifest, no matter how many years it takes, in the only way that I know it must be - because I’m not.
However, somehow, in the way that this unstoppable mosaic of four brilliant lives is woven together, I get a little glimpse of the way we women work, the way we think, the way that we see our world. I see it that way too, and because I spend no small amount of time doubting myself, this makes me proud, happy and actually inspired. What is this way of seeing things that I’m talking about? You must read the book to find out for yourself, but it has to do with always having one foot on the ground, connecting and being connected to, and using keen observation to discover where we fit into the grand scheme of things.
These women bravely stood their ground in front of an industry hell-bent on poisoning our entire planet, the wrecking ball of “urban renewal,†potentially devastating species arrogance, and powerful tides of soulless conformity. Here we are, half a century later, realizing they were beacons, lightning a better path. Without them we would be living in a far more dangerous and damaged world.
I have to say I’ve never read a book like this before. It’s unusual in the way that it dares to trace really big, bold patterns across landscapes of glittering, finely wrought detail. But that’s what makes it so readable each woman’s story is a fascinating personal journey, laced with keenly observed emotion and fun, salacious tidbits; then there is the wild but masterful trip through the history and popular culture of the 1960s. The big ideas come sensitively, via gentle revelation, unfolding slowly with the power and purpose of a blooming flower. - An inspiring, very well written and constructed book. Barnet both tells the stories of each of woman featured, and finds the common ground among them. I had not focused on how much each of these visionary women were/are sensation-types, seeing the world in its details and building vision from that base And--spoiler alert--"one individual can make a difference"--and this book proves that point.
