Critique de Choice
This is a book that deserves to be read. Germic draws together a remarkable set of personalities, events, and ideas to provide the serious student of cultural geography and recreation with a set of important references for further study. The application of Marxian social theory to the topic of recreation is interesting and unique. However, this book will intimidate many readers (who may mistakenly think "hard to read" equals "important"), frustrate most who persevere to parse the meaning from the author's "rich" language, and provide the grist for endless discussions of what he actually means. The essence--that parks were developed to "democratize" space, and that people from different economic classes use recreation lands in differing ways--is actually important. The book's content must, however, be forcibly extracted from the labored use of language and casual asides that impress and "include" the reader. That Germic repeatedly reminds the reader of what he wrote in previous passages is, surprisingly, welcome, because in these statements he summarizes and clarifies his meaning. It is unfortunate that the reader must work so hard, especially on the topic of recreation. Graduate students and faculty. E. J. Delaney formerly, University of Wisconsin--River Falls