or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
34 used & new from $6.71
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
X
LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice (Paperback)

~ Robert L. Thayer Jr. (Author) "It is a clear day in September, and I am sitting by a window in a sparsely filled airliner en route from Portland to Sacramento..." (more)
Key Phrases: valley bioregion, bioregional hypothesis, slough corridors, Sacramento Valley, Putah Creek, Cache Creek (more...)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
List Price: $24.95
Price: $18.77 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $6.18 (25%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Only 5 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want it delivered Tuesday, November 10? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
14 new from $15.50 20 used from $6.71

Also Available in:

 List Price: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover (1) $55.00 $55.00 10 used & new from $18.20

Frequently Bought Together

LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice + Rediscovery of North America + Bioregionalism
Price For All Three: $80.91

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice by Robert L. Thayer Jr.

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Rediscovery of North America by Barry Lopez

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Bioregionalism by M. Mcginnis

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Bioregionalism

Bioregionalism

by M. Mcginnis
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  $53.56
The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry

The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry

by Wendell Berry
4.2 out of 5 stars (9)  $10.85
Toward Unity among Environmentalists

Toward Unity among Environmentalists

by Bryan G. Norton
$85.00
Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision

Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision

by Kirkpatrick Sale
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  $20.65
Ecology

Ecology

by Robert E. Ricklefs
3.5 out of 5 stars (2)  $114.45
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The author asks three existential questions: Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to do? LIFEPLACE is a guide to answering the second question, which, in the end, may help us to better address the remaining two."--Scott Davis, "Landscape Architecture" --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


Product Description

Robert Thayer brings the concepts and promises of the growing bioregional movement to a wide audience in a book that passionately urges us to discover "where we are" as an antidote to our rootless, stressful modern lives. LifePlace is a provocative meditation on bioregionalism and what it means to live, work, eat, and play in relation to naturally, rather than politically, defined areas. In it, Thayer gives a richly textured portrait of his own home, the Putah-Cache watershed in California's Sacramento Valley, demonstrating how bioregionalism can be practiced in everyday life. Written in a lively anecdotal style and expressing a profound love of place, this book is a guide to the personal rewards and the social benefits of reinhabiting the natural world on a local scale.

In LifePlace, Thayer shares what he has learned over the course of thirty years about the Sacramento Valley's geography, minerals, flora, and fauna; its relation to fire, agriculture, and water; and its indigenous peoples, farmers, and artists. He shows how the spirit of bioregionalism springs from learning the history of a place, from participating in its local economy, from living in housing designed in the context of the region. He asks: How can we instill a love of place and knowledge of the local into our education system? How can the economy become more responsive to the ecology of region? This valuable book is also a window onto current writing on bioregionalism, introducing the ideas of its most notable proponents in accessible and highly engaging prose.

At the same time that it gives an entirely new appreciation of California's Central Valley, LifePlace shows how we can move toward a new way of being, thinking, and acting in the world that can lead to a sustainable, harmonious, and more satisfying future.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 317 pages
  • Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 22, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0520236289
  • ISBN-13: 978-0520236288
  • Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #397,005 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Robert L. Thayer
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Robert L. Thayer Page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
It is a clear day in September, and I am sitting by a window in a sparsely filled airliner en route from Portland to Sacramento. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
valley bioregion, bioregional hypothesis, slough corridors, tailwater ponds, flood bypasses, bioregional culture, bioregional economy, resource conservation district, bioregional planning, own bioregion, bioregional movement, bioregional approach, global corporatism, ecosystem geography, gray pine, rice stubble, ecological planning, seasonal wetlands, blue oaks, local wisdom, resistance identities, nearby nature, natural regions, watershed region
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sacramento Valley, Putah Creek, Cache Creek, Robert Thayer, Central Valley, Sacramento River, Blue Ridge, Coast Range, David Robertson, United States, Bay Area, Yolo County, North America, Big Head, Jane Jacobs, River Patwin, Sutter Buttes, Glory Hole, Pacific Northwest, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Bear Valley, California Biodiversity Council, Critical Conservation Value, Hill Patwin, Jacob Mann
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 88 books:
See all 88 books this book cites
 
2 books cite this book:

Books on Related Topics (learn more)
 
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice
81% buy the item featured on this page:
LifePlace: Bioregional Thought and Practice 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
$18.77
Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision
10% buy
Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
$20.65
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
3% buy
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things 4.4 out of 5 stars (164)
$18.15
The World Without Us
3% buy
The World Without Us 4.1 out of 5 stars (293)
$8.73
Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more
 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Live life close to the earth, July 17, 2003
In a narrative rich with the essence of the Sacramento Valley, Thayer crafts a compelling argument for a life lived closer to the earth. He begins this evocative book--which is part memoir, part lifestyle manual--by describing his home of the last 30 years as "a mail-order spouse whom I would grow to appreciate, then love." Most readers will forgive his reluctant love affair, for Thayer moved to California's monotonous, agricultural valley from the rugged, mountainscape of Boulder, Colorado.

The author, a landscape architecture professor at the University of California, Davis, chronicles his growing connection with and attachment to a place some might find unlovable as an illustration of his point that every area possesses both unique potentials and limitations. He advocates for communities built upon new urbanist principles, art that is framed by region and education that is reflective of place. Drawing from personal experience, he offers a multitude of suggestions on how to reconnect with our immediate surroundings.

He cautions against allowing our local communities to be supplanted by the hegemony of the global economy and champions relocalized trade. He takes exception to large, top-down organizations. "The truth," he writes, "which neither the traditional right nor left wishes to admit, is that broadly enfranchised, local grassroots efforts to identify with and care for natural regions are so powerful, so ultimately democratic, and so basically popular with the American people that they threaten the huge, entrenched political organizations on both sides."

At its core, the book holds that a bioregional orientation is the only way to create true sustainability. Building upon the themes of other authors, such as Paul Hawken, Jane Jacobs and David Orr, Thayer shows readers how a deepened connection to the surrounding natural region can add meaning and texture to our often disconnected, modern lives.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:





















i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.