Jane A. Grant. 2003. Rowman & Littlefield, New York. 135 pp. $60 cloth, $19.95 paperback.

In Community, Democracy, and the Environment, Jane A. Grant advocates for a strong version of sustainable development, which strives for structural changes to current economic, political, and social institutions, with the underlying assumption that increased community engagement will lead to more sustainable outcomes (Humphrey, Lewis, and Buttel, 2002). In this context, Grant searches for a social/political model that will foster deliberation on common interests, or the development of a civil ethos that will serve as a guide to more sustainable policies and goals at the local, national, and international levels. Community, Democracy, and the Environment outlines how the civil and political spheres in America have become separated in modern society and how the concept of sustainable development may reunite these spheres, at the same time allowing discussion about two competing values—economic growth and environmental protection. For instance, Grant writes: “The usefulness of sustainable development as a mechanism to guide both growth and environmental protection in the following decades will depend on the actual agreements worked out in its name” (p. 13).