Carla T. Main - Reviews and Events for Bulldozed

Speaking Engagement

Carla will address students at Hamilton College, NY, about Bulldozed and related Constitutional Law questions. Co-sponsored by the Alexander Hamilton Institute and the Edmund Burke Institute together with the Republican Club of Hamilton College.

Date to be announced.

To interview Carla or to book her for a radio or television appearance, please contact
Encounter Books,
1-800-786-3839
or Writers
Representatives LLC.

Events | Advance Praise | Book Reviews | News & Media

Bulldozed is ForeWord Magazine's

2007 Book of the Year Award
Bronze Medal Winner
Political Science Category

ForeWord Magazine’s Judging Criteria: "Our unique awards process brings readers, librarians, and booksellers together to select their top categories as well as choose the winning titles. Their decisions are based on editorial excellence, professional production, originality of the narrative, author credentials relative to the book, and the value the book adds to its genre.

"[Does the book] expand a reader's world, introduce a voice society needs to hear, offer practical knowledge where none existed before, or simply entertain so compellingly that all distractions fall away…Finalists are determined by a jury of judges consisting of editors and reviewers of ForeWord Magazine, booksellers, librarians, and other industry professionals."

Bulldozed was among three medal winners in its category, placing above nine competing books, one of which was named as an Honorable Mention and eight of which were Finalists.

Bulldozed was one of a select group of books nominated and considered for the 2007 T.R. Fehrenbach Book Award, given annually by the Texas Historical Commission.

The Commission stated about Bulldozed, "Although the book was not selected as a winner, it is a valuable contribution to the study of Texas history." A copy of Bulldozed has been retained in the Texas Historical Commission library in Austin.

Events

Speaking Engagement: Carla will address students at Hamilton College, NY, about Bulldozed and related Constitutional Law questions. Co-sponsored by the Alexander Hamilton Institute and the Edmund Burke Institute together with the Republican Club of Hamilton College. Date to be announced.

A roundtable event was held at The American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C., featuring Carla Main and a discussion of Bulldozed. The invitation-only luncheon on December 12, 2007, moderated by Michael Barone, included attendees Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute, Fred Smith of the Competitive Institute, Robert Gasaway of Kirkland & Ellis, Ashley Parrish and Alan Greenblatt of Governing Magazine. The book forum event was hosted by Michael Greve, the John G. Searle Scholar at AEI.

Advance Praise for Bulldozed

"It is a rare issue, in an age of partisan polarization, that can unite libertarians and liberals. The governmental power of eminent domain, now employed for private profit, is one such issue. This spreading practice pits class against class, wealth against ordinary property-owning citizens, and government power against the powerless. Carla Main's vivid account of the history surrounding the Supreme Court's Kelo decision should frighten every property-owning American and make us all wonder where Tom Paine is when we need him."

-- Gary Hart, United States Senator (ret.)

"Like a Greek tragedy unfolding, Carla Main's book chronicles the eminent domain struggles in Freeport, Texas, which pitted the Gore family, with its longtime shrimp business, against the machinations of an unholy alliance between city politicians and developers. If you have ever shared the Supreme Court's unquestioned deference to the public planning process that shaped its ill-fated Kelo decision, you'll surely change your mind as you follow this sordid saga to its bitter end. You'll never look at eminent domain in the same way again."

-- Richard A. Epstein, the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law,
University of Chicago; Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, and author of
Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain

"Bulldozed tells the people story behind the great eminent domain cases: Kelo v. New London, Poletown Neighborhood Council v. Detroit, and Western Seafood v. Freeport, Texas. To understand the impact of eminent domain on real people, read Bulldozed. A big bonus is that Carla Main has written a page-turner."

-- John Norquist, President and CEO of the Congress for the
New Urbanism and former Mayor of Milwaukee

Book Reviews

Reviewing 'Bulldozed' for frontpagemagazine.com (March 21, 2008), David Forsmark compared the book to a John Grisham legal thriller in which "Main tells the story of the Gores and their brave stand against the thuggery of Freeport city officials...from the suppression of political speech and the abuse of police power, to the publishing of propaganda on the taxpayer dime." Forsmark concluded that "...Carla Main's direct and witty writing makes 'Bulldozed' a page-turner of the first order. It's also a darn good civics lesson."
Read the full review here

A blogger following the controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, New York had this to say about Bulldozed and related eminent domain issues. (February 25, 2008)

Bulldozed was reviewed by Mark Lardas in the Galveston County Daily News, Texas' oldest newspaper (January 27, 2008). Lardas noted that books revolving around civil law can be complicated or dull, yet this "is a remarkably readable and engaging book...Bulldozed reads like a Grisham novel. The book is especially compelling as a local story, involving area people. The points of law might be arcane, but Main humanizes them by giving them a human face. She shows eminent domain cases are often less about land than about people’s dreams. As Bulldozed shows, when dreams collide people get hurt."
Read the full review here

Bulldozed was reviewed by Jonathan V. Last in the Wall Street Journal (December 18, 2007): "Outrage, appropriately, is the sustained effect of Carla Main's Bulldozed, the case study of another instance of eminent-domain abuse .... Ms. Main's legal background and reporting skills serve her well as she navigates the Gores' messy, twisting fight against city hall."
Read the full review here

Bulldozed was featured as the lead book review in the December 7, 2007 issue of The Recorder: "Carla Main has provided us with a powerful and moving illustration of how tearing down the 'good fences' that private property rights establish can turn 'good neighbors' into enemies and good neighborhoods into dark and forlorn places."
Read an excerpt of the review here or read the full review by subscription at Cal Law's site

For a more informal review of Bulldozed on Tim Sandefur's blog, click here

Bulldozed was reviewed by Heather Wilhelm at Real Clear Politics (November 9, 2007): "[Bulldozed] offers a clear-eyed assessment of eminent domain in America, focusing on the insanity that recently engulfed a Texas town over a strip of waterfront land. Bulldozed also addresses, through history and case law, how we got to this point -- and, now that the bulldozer's out of the proverbial barn, where we go from here."
Read the full review here

Bulldozed was reviewed by the Texas Observer, the leading liberal magazine of Texas.
Read the full review here

Bulldozed has been a featured selection of The Conservative Book Club.

Bulldozed has been selected by The Human Events Book Service: "Veteran journalist Carla T. Main," comments the Book Service, "takes a hard look at the sad state of property rights in America, showing how easy it has become for local governments to seize private property and turn it over to private developers under the guise of 'public improvements' and 'public use.'"
Read the full review here

Media/News

Carla Main was quoted in Alan Greenblatt's Observer column in Governing (March 2008) regarding the Department of Homeland Security's plan to build 670 miles of new fencing along the nation's southwestern border this year.
Read the story here (text only page; scroll down to article titled "Fencing Match")

Bulldozed was front page news on February 24, 2008 in The Facts, the leading daily paper in Brazoria County, Texas in a story entitled "Book chronicles eminent domain fight."
Read the story here

Radio Appearances:

I Object: Justice Examined with host Jerri Lynn Ward on Right Talk Radio, January 31, 2008.

In The News with host Pete Ferrand on WRJN News-Talk 1400 AM, Racine, Wisconsin, serving the greater Milwaukee metropolitan area, January 7, 2008.

The Edge with John Stokes and The Ice Team, KGEZ Z-600 AM, Kalispell, Montana, serving the Great Falls metropolitan area, January 7, 2008.

The Mike McConnell Show, 700WLW Cincinnati Ohio, January 3, 2008

Radio Active with host Craig Hammond, WTZE serving Bluefield, West Virginia and WHIS serving Tazewell County, Virginia, December 20, 2007

The Brad Davis Program, WDRC Radio, Hartford, Connecticut, December 20, 2007

At Your Service with host Bill Corwin, WTRC serving Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana, November 28, 2007

The Jack Pieper Afternoon Talk Show, KLVI, Beaumont, Texas, November 15, 2007

The Curt Smith Show, "Perspectives," Rochester, New York, NPR Affiliate, November 10, 2007

The Lee Rogers and Melanie Morgan Program, KFSO Radio, San Francisco, California, October 19, 2007

The Gregg Knapp Experience, 570 KLIF, Radio America, October 15, 2007 (syndicated)

The Northwest Show with host Lars Larson, , October 8, 2007 (syndicated)

To interview Carla or to book her for a radio or television appearance, please contact Encounter Books, 1-800-786-3839 or Writers Representatives LLC.