Books

American Urbanist by Richard K. Rein | An Island Press book
How William H. Whyte's Unconventional Wisdom Reshaped Public Life

On an otherwise normal weekday in the 1980s, commuters on busy Route 1 in central New Jersey noticed an alarming sight: a man in a suit and tie dashing across four lanes of traffic, then scurrying through a narrow underpass as cars whizzed by...

352 pages
6 x 9
14 photos

From the Ground Up | Island Press
Local Efforts to Create Resilient Cities

For decades, American cities have experimented with ways to remake themselves in response to climate change. These efforts, often driven by grassroots activism, offer valuable lessons for transforming the places we live. In From the...

304 pages
7 x 10
81 photos, 32 illustrations

Pathways to Success | Island Press
Taking Conservation to Scale in Complex Systems

As environmental problems grow larger and more pressing, conservationists have had to adapt. With a shrinking window of time to act, they are turning to broad approaches to combat continental- and global-scale crises of biodiversity loss,...

328 pages
7 x 10
135 figures/illustrations

Cities for Life by Jason Corburn | An Island Press book
How Communities Can Recover from Trauma and Rebuild for Health

Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) Place Book Award Winner (2022) What if cities around the world actively worked to promote the health and healing of all of their residents? Cities contribute to the traumas that cause...

288 pages
6 x 9
49 figures/photos

A Healthy Nature Handbook Edited by Justin Pepper and Don Parker | An Island Press book
Illustrated Insights for Ecological Restoration from Volunteer Stewards of Chicago Wilderness

The Chicago metropolitan area is home to far more protected nature than most people realize. Over half a million acres of protected land known as the Chicago Wilderness are owned and managed by county forest preserve districts and other public...

168 pages
7 x 10
216 photos and illustrations

Autonorama | Island Press
The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving

“The foundation has been laid for fully autonomous,” Elon Musk announced in 2016, when he assured the world that Tesla would have a driverless fleet on the road in 2017. “It’s twice as safe as a human, maybe better....

320 pages
5 x 8
8 figures

Swamplands | Island Press
Tundra Beavers, Quaking Bogs, and the Improbable World of Peat

In a world filled with breathtaking beauty, we have often overlooked the elusive charm and magic of certain landscapes. A cloudy river flows into a verdant Arctic wetland where sandhill cranes and muskoxen dwell. Further south, cypress branches...

312 pages
6 x 9
8 photos, 7 illustrations

The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis

Much of what you’ve heard about plastic pollution may be wrong. Instead of a great island of trash, the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch is made up of manmade debris spread over hundreds of miles of sea—more like a soup than a...

256 pages
6 x 9
20 illustrations

Bet the Farm by Beth Hoffman | An Island Press book
The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America

“Eloquent and detailed…precise and well-thought-out...Read her book — and listen.” — Jane Smiley, The Washington Post. Beth Hoffman was living the good life: she had a successful career as a...

272 pages
5 x 8
5 figures

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