Dark Age Ahead - Hardcover

Jacobs, Jane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1400062322 ISBN 13: 9781400062324

Publisher: Random House, 2004

Synopsis

A dark age is a culture’s dead end. In North America, for example, we live in a virtual graveyard of lost and destroyed aboriginal cultures. In this powerful and provocative book, renowned author Jane Jacobs argues convincingly that we face the coming of our own dark age.

Throughout history, there have been many more dark ages than the one that occurred between the fall of the Roman Empire and the dawn of the Renaissance. Ten thousand years ago, our ancestors went from hunter-gatherers to farmers and, along the way, lost almost all memory of what existed before. Now we stand at another monumental crossroads, as agrarianism gives way to a technology-based future. How do we make this shift without losing the culture we hold dear—and without falling behind other nations that successfully master the transition?

First we must concede that things are awry. Jacobs identifies five central pillars of our society that show serious signs of decay: community and family; higher education; science and technology; governmental representation; and self-regulation of the learned professions. These are the elements we depend on to stand firm—but Jacobs maintains that they are in the process of becoming irrelevant. If that happens, we will no longer recognize ourselves.

The good news is that the downward movement can be reversed. Japan avoided cultural defeat by retaining a strong hold on history and preservation during war, besiegement, and occupation. Ireland nearly lost all native language during the devastations of famine and colonialism, but managed to renew its culture through the steadfast determination of its citizens. Jacobs assures us that the same can happen here—if only we recognize the signs of decline in time.

Dark Age Ahead is not only the crowning achievement of Jane Jacobs’s career, but one of the most important works of our time. It is a warning that, if heeded, could save our very way of life.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Praise for Jane Jacobs:
“Probably no single thinker has done more in the last fifty years to transform our ideas about the nature of urban life.” -- Chicago Tribune

“[Jacobs] is a thinker of wondrous acumen and curiosity looking still deeper into the human condition.” -- The Globe and Mail

“Jane Jacobs has become more than a person. She is an adjective.” -- Toronto Life

About the Author:

JANE JACOBS is the legendary author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, a work that has never gone out of print and that has transformed the disciplines of urban planning and city architecture. Her other major works include The Economy of Cities, Systems of Survival and The Nature of Economies. She lives in Toronto.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1400062322
• ISBN 13: 9781400062324
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256