2008 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize Finalist

Alan Weisman
for The World Without Us (St. Martin’s Press/ Thomas Dunne Books)

Judges' Citation

"In the early twenty-first century, readers of Alan Weisman's The World Without Us may come to share two character traits reinforced by or even acquired from this book: a capacity to look honestly at the impacts that human activity has had on the planet, and a matched ability to pursue remedies and correctives for these impacts. The title conveys the central question of the book: what would become of the earth without humanity? A journalist with an enviable gift for learning from scientists and tracking the implications of their findings, Weisman takes his readers on a remarkable odyssey. With case studies drawn from Cyprus to North Korea, Kenya to Colorado, Weisman introduces us to telling case studies analyzed by a host of experts, people so engaging that they are themselves reminders of the charm and appeal of our complicated species. Writing with energy, clarity, and great craft, Weisman illuminates dark subjects with a rare combination of humor and earnestness. Whether he is discussing the emergence of customs of burial that deny humans the chance of permanence through fossilization, or anticipating the good times that will come to mosquitoes when humans stop poisoning them and eliminating the wetlands in which they thrive, Weisman steers clear of both complacency and fatalism. In a manner wondrously free of the gloom and dismay that saturate many long-term assessments of the planet's future, The World Without Us gives us a prime opportunity to reconsider and reconfigure our conduct in this world. Weisman thus carries on in the literary enterprise—of offering humanity a mirror in which to examine its customs and assumptions—that so many admirers celebrated and celebrate in the work of J. Anthony Lukas."

Bio

Alan Weisman's reports from around the world have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Orion, Wilson Quarterly, Vanity Fair, Mother Jones, Discover, Audubon, Condé Nast Traveler, and in many anthologies, including Best American Science Writing 2006. His previous books include An Echo In My Blood; Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World; and La Frontera: The United States Border With Mexico. A senior producer for Homelands Productions, Weisman's documentaries have aired on National Public Radio, Public Radio International, and American Public Media. Each spring, he leads an annual field program in international journalism at the University of Arizona, where he is Laureate Associate Professor in Journalism and Latin American Studies. He and his wife, sculptor Beckie Kravetz, live in western Massachusetts.

Judges for the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize

Connie Bruck, staff writer at The New Yorker; Patricia Nelson Limerick, faculty director of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder; and Jonathan Weiner, author of The Beak of the Finch.

Journalism Awards

2008 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize Finalist