Review by Choice Review
As a critique of capitalism, this book is very acute, especially on issues that affect areas of the author's homeland, India. Read, for example, why many people in India say, "When you drink Coke, you drink the blood of the people." In parts of India where water was often scarce even before Coca-Cola's plants were built, the company's demand for water has been draining some parts of India dry. The book also contains some very inspiring rhetoric, but as a prescription of a coherent political and economic future for the Earth, it is less successful. Shiva (Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, New Delhi) rambles and often engages in vague and rhetorically excessive language that does little but characterize what the author's vision of the future is not: it certainly has nothing to do with globalization or the practices of large corporations. The emphasis on solutions based in women's wisdom is much appreciated and well argued. Occasionally, however, the book is historically witless, especially when Shiva uses sources far from home. The book begins with words said to be from Chief Seattle (actually "Sea'th'l") that actually were created out of whole cloth about 1970. Summing Up: Recommended. Environmental collections. B. E. Johansen University of Nebraska at Omaha
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
