Love struck pre-teens would be hard pressed to fawn as heavily over the object of their respective affections as Lis Harris dotes over Allen Hershkowitz. Harris' book, "Tilting at Mills" purports to document the tortured history of Hershkowitz's admirable efforts to bring a paper mill to the South Bronx, but in execution the text reads as a slam book on all those who crossed him on his way. The book is, therefore, a huge disappointment for all those who seek to understand how the environmental movement in the United States can expand its scope and efficacy. The paper mill project forced Hershkowitz and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to directly confront two groups with which environmentalists have not made significant inroads: ethnic minorities and big business. A serious treatment of the complexity of the failed interaction between these different slices of America could contribute to a better comprehension of how to bridge gaps. What Ms. Harris provides in this book, however, cannot be characterized as serious treatment. The explanations provided for particular failures are inexorably provided from the perspective of Hershkowitz -- blame lies with everyone else and not with the Man of La Chelsea. Why did the mill project fail? Because the "community groups" of the South Bronx were hopelessly corrupt, because city politicians and bureaucrats (and one prominently derided state bureaucrat) lacked vision, and because businessmen were hopelessly greedy. What lessons were learned from the failure of the mill project? According to Ms. Harris' rendering: ethnic minority community groups are hopelessly corrupt, most politicians and bureaucrats lack vision, and the majority of businessmen are hopelessly greedy. There is no complexity in "Tilting at Mills," and that is unfortunate.
Take for example Ms. Harris' reporting of the interactions between Hershkowitz and Banana Kelly. Why did Hershkowitz partner with Banana Kelly and Yolanda Rivera? Answer: the recommendation of an individual who worked with community groups in the South Bronx. An objective observer would, perhaps, be puzzled by why the NRDC had little knowledge of community groups operating a few miles to the north of its NYC headquarters, but "Tilting at Mills" is untroubled. Ms. Harris waives away any concern by noting that the NRDC had successfully worked with community groups in the past and was wholly unprepared to deal with the avarice of those that headed Banana Kelly.
The greatest failing of the book, however, is that it often reverts into an unabashed hatchet job on all those who Hershkowitz perceived as obstacles to the project. Venice Miller, NRDC's director of environmental justice who opposed the mill project, is one of those singled out and held up for ridicule. Ms. Harris lets readers know that not only was Ms. Miller wrong in each and every facet of her criticism of the project, but that she was fired from a position with the EPA after the federal government determined that she lied on her resume. Similarly, readers are treated to a history of the indictments handed down regarding Charles Gargano, the chairman of the Empire State Development Corp. who also opposed Hershkowitz's vision. Indeed, all those vehemently opposed to the project, we are told, are archetypes of moral failure. This tale of comeuppance may flatter Hershkowitz and provide absolution to the NRDC and its supporters (like myself), but it makes for an uninteresting read.
