The Last Stand: The War Between Wall Street and Main Street Over California's Ancient Redwoods

by David Harris

Book Overview

By chronicling the takeover of Pacific Lumber Company--which had been operated by one family since 1904 before being sold to a Texas-based conglomerate--Harris gives readers a metaphor for the disappearance of a gentler, kinder capitalism. The Last Stand is a book about how some people, often against their will, end by killing the very thing--the forest itself--that has long given them sustenance and shelter.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812925777
• ISBN13: 9780812925777
• Release Date: December 1995
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 373 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.6" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

This is a great read...

The Last Stand is a fascinating story and a well written one at that. Couldn't put the book down. My God Charles Hurwitz is a corrupt individual. He should be serving a life sentence in stead of living high off the hog in Houston Texas. Anyone interested in the environmental movement and the destructive practices of modern day clear cutting should read this book.

Fascinating example of the 80s....but

It should have been soo much more. Running in the same gamet as Alston Chase's "In a Dark Wood" David Harris goes into some of the same territory. The 'good' lumber company taken over by Wall Street and turned into the mirror of its former self, this book is at it most fascinating describing the moves between PALCO and Charles Hurwitz. The arrival of a hurrican alows him to suceed in his takeover but the company is taken over by the resultant costs both to its people and the enviroment. The final point is well taken.....if you lumber in oblivion there can be no winners. Only with sustained yield can the enviroment, employees and shareholders come out ahead. The only winnter with Palco was Charles Hurwitz.