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From: CXED000 <CXED@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA>
To: <consbio@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re[2]: j Wright- LF Book News: ENVIRONMENTAL GORE
In-Reply-To: In reply to your message of FRI 30 SEP 1994 05:36:53 EST

>think it is useful to know that those perspectives exist and how people
>on "the right" think about environmental issues.  I don't think posting
>book information like this is any threat to the list - the views it
>expresses are not unfamiliar or uncommon, meaning that we all have to
>deal with them.  And Stephen Clark's bringing it to our attention as
>"interesting" and warning us that it was a "tendentious review" does not
>smack of insidious propaganda.

Quite the contrary - it informs us in advance what sort of book this is,
which is why I disagree with Ms. Flemming's final suggestion.

>Personally, I think a blurb, a price and a publisher's
>address or phone number for more info/ordering should suffice.

Personally, I find it less misleading, if we are going to continue to
have notice of book publications on the list, to have the contents
listed. Some of us live in places where English language bookstores
are neither plentiful nor as well stocked with academic books as we
would prefer. A glance at the contents page helps us to see whether or
not this is a book we want to spend time ordering. This is not just a
question of subject matter, but also of intellectual style. I'm not
interested in reading only books that I agree with. The books I find
most stimulating are often ones I disagree with. However, there is
a difference between an intellectually serious presentation of a
position I find disagreeable, and an ideological diatribe from a
publishing house responsible, not to standards of intellectual
integrity and rigorous debate, but to the political and economic
interests of its sponsors.

All this is not intended to deny that the book may make some
interesting points. Presumably it does or Clark would not have
have brought it to our attention. But he has also allowed us to see
pretty clearly and fairly from the authors own description of their
approach what we will be getting if we decide to spend the time
hunting down this book. I frankly find that more helpful than the
minimalist approach that leaves one with the misleading impression
that every book that is announced, agreeable or disagreeable, is an
equally valid and serious piece of scholarship.


Eric Beresford                                     cxed@musica.mcgill.ca

Faculty of Religious Studies,                      (514) 398-4126
McGill University
Montreal, P.Q. H3A 2A7
.