Out of the Earth: Civilization and the Life of the Soil

by Daniel J. Hillel

Book Overview

As the crucible of life, the source and final resting place of everything that grows, soil inspires reverence not only in the peasant who derives his daily bread from it, but also in the scientist who contemplates its meaning as the place where life and death meet and exchange vital energies. Out of the Earth is the culmination of the author's long career in conservation. This history of man's use and misuse of soil and water combines a description...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520080807
• ISBN13: 9780520080805
• Release Date: September 1992
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

AMAZING

This book is amazing, inspiring, wonderful. I was so uninterested in the topic of soil before I took a required class in which this book was mentioned. The author, Hillel, discusses the earth from many different points of view, mythological, anthropological, philosophical, ecological, and, of course, scientific. He tells us why the fertile crescent is no longer fertile and about similar destruction we're wreaking on our own bread basket lands right now... Surprisingly, this is an easy book to read. I read many parts of it outloud to friends. Now when I walk I am aware of the life teeming under each step I take...

Not a Dispassionate Exposition

Daniel Hillel's , Out of the Earth: Civilization and the Life of the Soil, stands as a definite "must read" for all of us. Although science-based throughout, this book reads like a mystery novel as Hillel traces man's relationship to the soil over the centuries. Ultimately , he shows us the destruction wrought on civilizations through neglect and ignorance of the soil, proving in the end, as we have somewhat suspected all along, every civilization is built from the soil--more literally than is often recognized. Hillel's understanding, and empathy, comes through distinctively in this compelling narrative, which he introduces as "not a strictly dispassionate exposition." Drawing on his background in education, he begins with a clear and concise introduction to soil science. From there, he takes us along on a journey across our planet and through time to look at the soil with a new appreciation. Hillel is the best kind of writer - seductively informative and a passionate observer. He brings to his pages an affinity for his subject that could make even a debutante enamored of the very ground upon which we all walk. Hillel details soil management in Israel where he served in different positions with the government. He is intimately familiar with desert soil management, but he ranges far and wide beyond the deserts - into the rain forest as well as the plains of the American Midwest. His experience and his vision encompass the entire earth, and his examples are born from every continent. His clear and instructive text is easily digested; his examples are well thought and concise. This book will repay your investment of time and money with a better understanding of the soil you walk daily - that "dirt" you dig out from under your nails after a day in the garden. I appreciate even more the soil which serves as the foundation of my home and upon which the culture and all that we as a society have built - the thin crust that sustains all the inhabitants of Earth; that delicate layer of the Earth in which we grow our plants and bury all our dead. We live and die as beings, societies and civilizations, in conjunction with the care we bestow upon the soil or withhold from it. We may fare no better than our ancestors in our care of the soil, but it will not be from ignorance with books like Hillel's around. This book sits handily on my bookshelf; I take it down and allow it to open to a page to "spot-peruse." It has become pivotal in my thinking about soil, water and civilization.

Out of the Earth

This is a very well written study of the intersection of soil and civilization: Mankind's effect on the life-supporting soil around them, and the usually terminal effect of the degraded soil upon mankind. Hillel has a wonderful voice and solid credentials. As Santana said, remember your history or pay the price.