It was the title that grabbed me: Dark Age Ahead. Just what we need; more bad news.

There's no equivocation in Jane Jacobs' newest book. The first shadows of our very own cultural Dark Age are darkening our lives.

Surprisingly, and against expectations, in this extended essay Jacobs offers some hope. There have been thousands of Dark Ages throughout history. Once in a while, they can be avoided.

I've been reading this book for weeks, and I despair of summarizing it in the little time and space I have here. Jacobs' ideas already have affected my life. I find myself quoting her or talking about her ideas with friends.

Jacobs begins, "This is both a gloomy and a hopeful book. The subject itself is gloomy. A Dark Age is a culture's dead end..."

"We... customarily think of a Dark Age as happening once, long ago, following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. But in North America," she writes, "we live in a graveyard of lost aboriginal cultures, many of which were decisively finished off by mass amnesia in which even the memory of what was lost was also lost."

"How could that possibly happen to us?" she asks. "We have books, magnificent storehouses of knowledge about our culture..." and all the rest.

Here's the risk, according to Jacobs: "Most of the million details of a complex, living culture are transmitted neither in writing nor pictorially. Instead, cultures live through word of mouth and example... " And that's what we're in danger of losing.

Jacobs singles out "five pillars of our culture that we depend on to stand firm." "These pillars are crucial to the culture and are insidiously decaying," she says.

Chapters discuss "community and family" "higher education" "science and science based technology" "governmental powers directly in touch with needs and possibilities" and "self-policing by the learned professions."

She writes convincingly of "families rigged to fail" "credentialing versus educating" "science abandoned" and other ills. Her point hits home in light of this country's recent overseas adventures and internal clampdowns on freedom.

She writes, "History has repeatedly demonstrated that empires seldom seem to retain sufficient cultural self-awareness to prevent them from overreaching and overgrasping. They have neglected to recognize that the true power of a successful culture resides in its example. This is a patient and grown-up attitude to take. Any culture that jettisons the values that have given it competence, adaptability, and identity becomes weak and hollow."

Readers who remember Jane Jacob's most famous book The Death & Life of Great American Cities will appreciate her updated take on urban sprawl, dilapidation, affordable housing and suburban ills. She is learned on these subjects, and informative.

We live in a society that can't afford to admit A students to the University of California, won't fund the arts and libraries, and is letting roads and infrastructure decay. At the same time we wage war overseas, tax the poor and offer benefits to the rich, discourage foreigners from visiting or studying here, and proclaim democracy while practicing something quite different.

Almost every American would agree with some of this. Jane Jacobs is telling us it all adds up to a risk much worse than a damaged environment or loss of credulity in the court of public opinion.

She believes we could be headed toward the absolute end of our culture, to a time when what we know and believe will be lost to memory. Our best will no longer know what they are missing, and our worst will be in ascendancy.

If you sense some truth in this, you will be both chilled and heartened by Jane Jacobs' new book. She's speaking from a lifetime of experience. She's one of the wise elders and she's speaking to you.

Aired Sunday June 6, 2004 at 10:55 am and Monday June 7, 2004 at 8:40 am

Orders/Information:

Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs. Random House hardcover $23.95. ISBN 1400062322.

The Death & Life of American Cities written in 1961 by Jane Jacobs. Vintage paperback $14.95. ISBN 067974195X.

An excellent biographical sketch of the author: http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_0498/ap98jane.htm