First of all, Designing the Green Economy is a very impressive book. It has the requisite breadth and depth that appeal to an academic, but is written in a style that is highly readable, comprehensive, and fairly conversational. Although the title suggests that the book is a "touchy feely" economics lesson, it is much more than that. The book covers so many spheres of thought and academic disciplines that I was amazed by the author's ability to integrate many diverse areas such as human geography, world history, social theory, ecosystem management, environmental science, development theory, social movement theory, political science, industrial ecology, feminist thought, and religion and spirituality, to name a few, into an easily understandable version of interdisciplinary economics. Even the economic focus of the book can be separated into discussions specific to labor economics, ecological economics, environmental economics, home economics, agricultural economics, resource economics, macroeconomics, microeconomics, and of course, the history of economics.

Still, Designing the Green Economy feels more like a history book partnered with a handbook for redesigning society rather than a book about economics and the environment, for it investigates and reveals the waves of progress and development caused by human social and cultural endeavors over the ages. The book illuminates the societal problems that "civilization" has caused humanity, and the environmental degradation economic growth has inflicted upon the natural world, as well. Fortunately, Milani offers ambitious but practical solutions to anyone willing to implement them.

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 is called "Beyond Materialism: The Post-Industrial Redefinition of Wealth." In this section, the author describes how the historical materialism of capitalistic wealth accumulation, while liberating people from nature's domination over human survival, created a social/economic system called "industrialization" that eventually modified, exploited, damaged, and destroyed natural systems in the name of human progress. This part of the book introduces the reader to reified economic concepts such as the Divided Economy, Casino Capitalism, Debt Economy, Cog Labor Markets, Waste Economy, Military Keynesianism, Synthetic Economy, Carbohydrate Economy, Paper Economy, and the Megabyte Economy.

Part 2 is called "Designing the Green Economy;" this is where the author puts forth a myriad of solutions to the social, political, economic, environmental, and spiritual problems created by industrialized capitalism, Marxism, Fordism, Reaganism, corporate globalism, and any other "ism" that has limited the human spirit or harmed global ecosystems in the process. This section provides many innovative ideas and concepts that sound great in theory, but would need massive shifts in paradigmatic thinking to be implemented at all levels of society in the coming decades.

While both sections of the book are well written and insightful, I am particularly impressed by the information in the first half of the book. Milani's historical account and synthesis of the rise and fall of money, the division of labor and class, the role of gender and work, the Great Depression and the New Deal, Taylorism and Fordism, Keynesianism and Speculation, the auto/suburban complex, and the "new ecology of politics" were discussions greatly appreciated by a non economist like myself. I was able to see the history of human events in linear time, but also consider the cyclical relationship between humans and nature, and human nature.

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Perhaps the most significant aspect of Designing the Green Economy is its message of hope for the world of the future one that is post industrial, post Fordist, post capitalist, post materialist, and post expansionist. The author envisions a society that has evolved beyond "money as an end unto itself" and beyond where the environment is only seen as raw material for our "destructive impulses." He believes that dominance based civilization can no longer survive, because it now threatens humanity's own survival. Both he and I agree that an important key to developing more balanced and regenerative forms of social organization is to focus on community. With community as the starting point of this socio economic and political transformation, the green perspective will be one of linking scale between levels of community, from neighborhood to planet. Milani suggests "this linking of relationships between different levels is possible only because these are relations between wholes, that is, between levels of relative self reliance."

In the concluding chapters, there are many recommendations for how "communities" can build such self reliance through ecological design and green service economics such as community kitchens and eating areas, common green space, semi private outdoor rooms, shared child care facilities and laundry services, and community and rooftop gardens; soft energy paths such as renewable energy sources and cogeneration; the decentralization of manufacturing into home based shops and more small scale, localized, and craft based work; and to reduce the movement of matter and increase movement of ideas and information.

The author thinks that one of the most important economic activities in the green economy is to sustain and maintain soil, vegetation, and natural drainage, and wind and precipitation patterns, because these resources and processes determine the kind and quality of human economic activity that will be viable in the future. The concept "eco structure" pertains to ecological engineering to augment the self design of natural flows, or perhaps mimic these flows to harmonize infrastructures for energy, transportation, and water services. Another concept, "eco infrastructure," includes nature in the design and planning process so that the notion of infrastructure is extended to food production, the use of raw materials, and even provisions for wildlife.

I found Designing the Green Economy to be an informative, provocative, and refreshing read. I would recommend it as an essential book for those interested in a deeper understanding of the history of economic progress and how it affects contemporary society and the environment. It is also a book of theoretical possibilities and practical solutions. One cannot finish this book without a better knowledge of how we evolved into the market-driven, international, monetary society we see today, and what we can do to become the "disaccumulationist," eco logical, global community that we need to be.