Dirt : The Erosion of Civilizations (Edition 2) (Paperback)

from jjwilson61

Interesting, but it bogged down when the author described one civilization after another doing the same or almost the same thing to their soil and paying the consequence. The entire middle portion of the book could have been summarized into one chapter.

from Devil_llama

This is a truly dirty book - a book about dirt, in fact. This book traces the role that dirt, and the erosion of dirt (some of us would call it soil, but that would be pedantic) has played in the structure of our civilizations. A book that can teach a lot about a subject most people just sort of ...

from slothman

Montgomery introduces us to the basic concepts of soil science, and then starts a tour of soil usage over the ages. He highlights ancient civilizations in the Old and New Worlds and what we know of their agricultural practices— and calls out erosion, soil depletion, salinization, and desertificat...

from kaizic

Of course I was attracted to the unusual title, but the content is more thorough than one would expect. The author is a geologist with the University of Washington. He discusses how human have abused our most important resource from ancient times, and continue to do so today. We know how to nurtu...

from TeaTimeCoder

Very informative but a bit of a slog and the author gets over-excited about organic farming. I understand it's an important issue but going into such a maniacal frenzy is not going to help convince anyone as much as figures or studies (which thankfully the author supplies some of).