pdotb@wyrms.de reviewed Post Growth by Tim Jackson
Beautiful, but...
4 stars
If I hadn't just read Jason Hickel's "Less is More", I'd have probably felt more enthusiastic about this book. It feels like they're covering fairly similar ground, but while Hickel's book is dense with ideas, Jackson's book contains some fantastic insights (a couple of which I quoted as I was reading the book), but adrift in a sea of biographical detail. Some of that is interesting (I didn't know anything about Robert F. Kennedy's economic programme, for example), but other parts felt pretty extraneous. Commentary on Lynn Margulis's marriage to Carl Sagan, for example, or Boltzmann's life story, including the sad circumstances of his death. There was also a long diversion on the stone bridge at Potter Heigham, Norfolk, which I think had a lesson in it, but I lost the point somewhere along the way. It's a more poetic book (quite literally, as the author is an Emily Dickinson …
If I hadn't just read Jason Hickel's "Less is More", I'd have probably felt more enthusiastic about this book. It feels like they're covering fairly similar ground, but while Hickel's book is dense with ideas, Jackson's book contains some fantastic insights (a couple of which I quoted as I was reading the book), but adrift in a sea of biographical detail. Some of that is interesting (I didn't know anything about Robert F. Kennedy's economic programme, for example), but other parts felt pretty extraneous. Commentary on Lynn Margulis's marriage to Carl Sagan, for example, or Boltzmann's life story, including the sad circumstances of his death. There was also a long diversion on the stone bridge at Potter Heigham, Norfolk, which I think had a lesson in it, but I lost the point somewhere along the way. It's a more poetic book (quite literally, as the author is an Emily Dickinson fan) than Hickel's, and much heavier on human interest, but for someone looking for an introduction to degrowth I'd recommend "Less is More" over this, hands down.
