Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 Among his best work October 19, 2008
I concur with the majority of folks here, this book is outstanding. I see one person called in unfocused, well since it consists of three essays published in the New Yorker that happened to have a similar theme -- that of Man attempting to Control Nature be it preventing debris slides in the hills of LA or re-routing the Missippi River, I would not have expected it to read like a traditional book. He does not attempt to link these essays, he does not need to they are fascinating and likely will teach a lot of us things we do not know about the role of humans in altering our landscape. (how many of us knew that we have changed the coursre of the Missippi by at least 50 miles, likely a LOT more, look on a map, have you ever wondered about the 'crooked' end of that huge river?)McPhee brings in a human element to this, weaving micro and macro roles in these grand experiments expertly. From the moment he published A Sense of Where You Are, McPhee laid claim to being one of the best non-fiction writers of the last half century, and the period he became enamored of Geology is perhaps his strongest as a writer (from about the late 60's to the early 80's).
Relevant as ever! September 12, 2008
McPhee's book may not be new, but his point - that trying to control nature leads to unintended consequences - is a important today as it was when it was published. The section on the Mississippi is especially poignant, considering the damage that the delta has experienced. Peg
 Can Man Ever Really Control Nature? March 7, 2008
An intriguing book on man's efforts, as the title says, to control nature. The question is, can or will man succeed. The book leaves it open to conjecture, but does an excellent, though sometimes wordy job, of describing man's efforts...
The Mississippi River chapter badly needed a map to help the reader udnerstand perspective and location. Imagine New Orleans high and dry with what is now the Mighty Mississippi as a meara creed passing the French Quarter. hard to imagine, but possible, even probable...
The image of men using water hoses to cool and direct lava is, at first, unbelievable and incomprehensible, but it worked...and the chapter on California debris (not mud) slides is extremely enlightening....a good book to learn about nature and things you woudn't normally think about...
Recommended.
 unfocused and boring November 30, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was disappointed after reading this book. The author uses 10,000 words to describe things/man-made structures that could be better described by adding a simple illustration. The writing is not organized in sections/chapters. A lot of unnecessary information is added that renders the book boring and unfocused. It will take me a while to read another book by this author...
Engineering skill, policy blunders: January 10, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Mc Phee presents three well written, beautifully researched case studies, short term marvels of engineering skill and determination, doomed from the outset by humanity's ignorance and disregard of natural processes. This book examines an unstable river system in Southern Louisiana, unpredictable massive lava flows in Iceland, and episodic debris flows in Los Angeles mountain foothills. Each case presents the heroic bad judgement of short-lived humans in conflict with gradual natural processes, catastrophic at long intervals, by human measure, and ultimately inxorable, indifferent long-term to our futile efforts at intervention. He wastes few judgemental words on the human folly his stories chronicle, but lets them speak for themselves. He fills the shoes of both writer and teacher.
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