The State and the Global Ecological Crisis. Edited by John Barry and Robyn Eckersley. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. 307p. $67.00 cloth, $27.00 paper.

The 12 essays offered in this book are a bit like an invitation to a New York cocktail party; the experience is impossible to fully anticipate from a first glance. And like a good cocktail party, this book is interesting not only for the content of the conversations but equally for what it reveals about the participants' relations, values, and assumptions, and even for what the guests might learn about themselves.