The West's history is one of extraordinary success; no other region; empire; culture; or civilization has left so powerful a mark upon the world. The Rise of Western Power charts the West's achievements―representative government; the free enterprise system; modern science; and the rule of law―as well as its misdeeds―two frighteningly destructive World Wars; the Holocaust; imperialistic domination; and the Atlantic slave trade.Adopting a global perspective; Jonathan Daly explores the contributions of other cultures and civilizations to the West's emergence. Historical; geographical; and cultural factors all unfold in the narrative. Adopting a thematic structure; the book traces the rise of Western power through a series of revolutions―social; political; technological; military; commercial; and industrial; among others. The result is a clear and engaging introduction to the history of Western civilization.
#7371 in Books Scribner Book Company 2014-07-01 2014-07-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.37 x 1.20 x 5.50l; .86 #File Name: 1439159866448 pagesScribner Book Company
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. A perfect bookBy DRKI'm in charge of river ops for a dam system in the Bureau of Reclamation. When a friend's father handed me this book; I expected to hate it but I also wanted to understand some of what went into the operations I could review from 1983. This turned out to be a beautiful; balanced; thoughtful book. There's no right or wrong answer. There aren't any faceless demons. Fedarko treats both sides of the engineering/environment divide with compassion and draws such strong character portraits that you find yourself rooting for both.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Glen Canyon Dam failure in 1983 is similar to the 2017 failure of the Oroville Dam spillwayBy Kent PriceThis is a good story; but I really enjoyed the background material on the failure of the Glen Canyon Dam overflow tunnels. The big rains of 1983 in the West resulted in massive flooding in the Colorado River. The Glen Canyon Dam overflow tunnels had not been tested and failed; with the result of massive releases of water down the Colorado. The culprit was "cavitation" by the water flow the bypass tunnels which broke up the concrete lining causing failure. This is nicely covered in the book chapters; along with an appendix which explains the multimillion dollar fix after the floods. The fix was to install metal structures in the overflow tunnels to keep the water flow smooth and generate bubbles.A similar failure occurred in 2017 at Oroville Dam in Northern California on the main spillway which was heavily damaged by the flood waters. The dam operators knew about the Glen Canyon fix; but chose in 2001 not to spend the $100 M for the upgrades. Now we (the taxpayers) are faced with $500 M to repair the spillway; and install the water-flow-smoothing devices.Kevin Fedarko should write another book about the 2017 failure of the 710-ft high Oroville Dam spillway; the the evacuation of 200;000 people downstream. Every so often; Mother Nature show her teeth.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Fascinating Story Beautifully WrittenBy Top CatThis is a beautifully written book about much more than a record dory run through the Grand Canyon. Kevin Fedarko has a gift for conveying information in a way that is interesting and lyrical. I was there in the summer of 1983 and he brought me back to that time; exploring all angles of the situation--even telling in fascinating fashion what caused the big weather event that made a monster river rapid. I learned a tremendous amount about dams; and how perilous the situation was that summer. This is among the best books ever about those who explored and studied and harnessed and profited from and just plain loved the Colorado River. It puts you behind the oars like no other book I've ever read. It's a permanent addition to my natural history collection.
