Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 A delightful, poetic read on painful subjects May 19, 2003
Tobias Robison (Princeton, NJ, USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
"Soil and Soul" is about how Scottish land was stolen from its residents, how the natural flow of capitalism exacerbated this process, and how a great victory was won recently in getting some control back to the Scots over their land.But this book is not at all polemical. It mixes the author's reminiscences of growing up in the Hebrides and rubbing noses a bit with the overlords; Bardic background to establish the culture of Scotland the people's natural relationship with the land; a balanced ergonomic analysis without fingerpointing; and a deep religious understanding as well; to lay the background for the battles to give the isle of Eigg back to its inhabitants, and to prevent a beautiful mountain from being turned into an unsightly garbage pit (this battle is not yet over however). The latter part of the book carefully explains how a combination of mysticism, religion and careful grassworks planning actually helped to stop the Isle of Eigg from being a plaything of the rich. AN UNLIKELY TERIFFIC READ!
Review by John Seed, Rainforest Information Centre, NSW September 2, 2001
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Alastair McIntosh's Soil and Soul leads me on from my first reading of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The same thirst for justice, the same identification of the eloquent bard with the voiceless ones rekindles poetry and revolution in the readers heart and thunders forth "alarm! alarm!" as deep as any Biblical prophesy. McIntosh is able to leave one foot firmly planted in the old ways of a native Celtic people and the other slap bang in the middle of scholarly argumentation thereby bridging the great divide between poetry and science. He helps us to come to terms with our broken hearts and understand the dysfunctional power behind the carnage. Soil and Soul is a major work which stretches us from the psychohistory of colonisation as seen through the lens of Hebridean culture to inspiring, empowering and entertaining case histories of community empowerment and cultural healing in which the author has played a pioneering part: read it! - John Seed (author of Thinking Like a Mountain).
Most important book I have ever read January 6, 2002
F. Meek (Killin, Scotland)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book is essential reading for all those who care about the way our society is developing. Alastair McIntosh shows by examples such as the Harris superquarry that the giant corporates can be taken on and defeated. He does this in such a way as to (re)awaken a genuine sense of reverence for the Earth in general and my own country Scotland in particular. I have read it once since I received it at Christmas and I will be reading it again very soon!
This is an important and hope filled book. December 11, 2001
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
When I finished reading this wonderfully written book, I ordered four more copies, one for a group and three for individuals who,like the author, are about creating a more caring culture. I believe that his quest for environmental justice in his homeland will give the book's readers courage and hope as it connects to all such quests. It is in learning one another's stories that will enable us together to build a world that works for all.
Clarity, insight, inspiration - a rare combination. November 7, 2001
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Alastair McIntosh has crafted a beautifully written, hard-hitting and mind-blowing book here. It's the kind of book that will be of lasting importance as a testimony to the importance of place, belonging and identity and 'naming the powers' in our search for an ecologically, socially sustainable world. Congratulations to the author - and give yourself enough time to fully digest the stories, insight and poetry of a Scottish bard in full flight...
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