{"product_id":"9780679313106","title":"Dark Age Ahead","description":"\u003cp\u003eVisionary thinker Jane Jacobs uses her authoritative work on urban life and economies to show us how we can protect and strengthen our culture and communities.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eDark Age Ahead,\u003c\/em\u003e 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. The decay of these pillars, Jacobs contends, is behind such ills as environmental crisis, racism and the growing gulf between rich and poor; their continued degradation could lead us into a new Dark Age, a period of cultural collapse in which all that keeps a society alive and vibrant is forgotten.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut this is a hopeful book as well as a warning. Jacobs draws on her vast frame of reference -- from fifteenth-century Chinese shipbuilding to zoning regulations in Brampton, Ontario -- and in highly readable, invigorating prose offers proposals that could arrest the cycles of decay and turn them into beneficent ones. Wise, worldly, full of real-life examples and accessible concepts, this book is an essential read for perilous times.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jacobs, Jane","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Social Sciences)","offer_id":43780082761952,"sku":"","price":12.6,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false},{"title":"Hardcover (Social Sciences)","offer_id":46788648861920,"sku":"","price":18.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0330\/3125\/8248\/products\/BNCImageAPI_539fa643-1226-44b9-8380-7b85c8758c5d.jpg?v=1672942341","url":"https:\/\/agricola-street-books.myshopify.com\/products\/9780679313106","provider":"Agricola Street Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}