Dark Age Ahead

Book (2004) by Jane Jacobs ISBN:1400062322

• In Dark Age Ahead, Jane Jacobs identifies five pillars of our culture that we depend on but which are in serious decline: community and family; higher education; the effective practice of science; taxation and government; and self-policing by learned professions (expert). (Collapse)
  • an excerpt
  • Francis Fukuyama review - Jacobs seems strangely out of touch with important trends of the past generation, which she herself played a role in shaping.
  • All Consuming links
  • Jason Kottke review
  • ScottSpires review - There's a good book in this roaming, sketchy volume struggling to get out. It has to do with either the irrationalities of urban planning (a book Jacobs already wrote), or with the importance of cultural memory. Some of its sections would work well as stand-alone articles. But taken as a whole, Dark Age Ahead is an illustration of KarlKraus' dictum that the value of education is best displayed when educated people speak on a subject that lies outside their field of expertise.