AUTHOR:Robert L. Thayer, Jr.
PUBLISHER: University of California Press
DATE: 2003
PAPER: Virgin fiber
PAGES: 271
PRICE: $21.95
In a narrative rich with the essence of the Sacramento Valley, Thayer crafts a compelling
argument for a life lived closer to the earth. He begins this evocative book--which is
part memoir, part lifestyle manual--by describing his home of the last 30 years as "a
mail-order spouse whom I would grow to appreciate, then love." Most readers will forgive
his reluctant love affair, for Thayer moved to California’s monotonous, agricultural valley
from the rugged, mountainscape of Boulder, Colorado.
The author, a landscape architecture professor at the University of California, Davis,
chronicles his growing connection with and attachment to a place he originally found unlovable
as an illustration of his point that every area possesses both unique potentials and limitations.
He advocates for communities built upon new urbanist principles, art that is framed by
region and education that is reflective of place. Drawing from personal experience, he
offers a multitude of suggestions on how to reconnect with our immediate surroundings.
He cautions against allowing our local communities to be supplanted by the hegemony
of the global economy and champions relocalized trade. He takes exception to large,
top-down organizations. "The truth," he writes, "which neither the traditional right
nor left wishes to admit, is that broadly enfranchised, local grassroots efforts to
identify with and care for natural regions are so powerful, so ultimately democratic,
and so basically popular with the American people that they threaten the huge,
entrenched political organizations on both sides."
At its core, the book holds that a bioregional orientation is the only way to
create true sustainability. Building upon the themes of other authors, such as
Paul Hawken, Jane Jacobs and David Orr, Thayer shows readers how a deepened
connection to the surrounding natural region can add meaning and texture to
our often disconnected, modern lives.
--Avery Yale Kamila
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