Reviews

This is a hard one to rate as it's a bit of a victim of its own success, the messaging doesn't hit as hard any more in a world that's been changed at least in part by the book itself.

Still, it's very readable and gets a little rating boost by virtue of its significance.

It's interesting that she goes very hard on the negative messaging, it's something that we're trained not to do now, as psychologically it's not a very effective way to generate behaviour change... however history tells us it was at least somewhat effective (or perhaps not, the names have changed but chemical contamination of the environment is still an enormous problem...One in Every Four is more like One in Every Two these days).
It's not wholly negative though, she does do a good job of presenting both tried and tested and emerging alternatives to pesticide use.

It's also fascinating to get perspective on general scientific progress - it seems inconceivable that the cause of Down Syndrome wasn't conclusively known until 1959!

It's still well worth reading, although at this point maybe more as a book with historic and cultural significance than as a scientific resource.