A New Book on Shade by Sam Bloch

This week marks the release of Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource, a new book by journalist Sam Bloch that expands on an article published in Places in spring 2019.

“Shade” was the inaugural installment of “Writing the City,” an ongoing collaboration between Places and the Arts and Culture program at Columbia Journalism School dedicated to providing opportunities for early-career journalists to investigate a topic that would otherwise receive little attention. To this point, Bloch’s ambitious article has a powerful thesis: that shade is an index of inequality, a requirement for public health, and a mandate for urban design.

Sam was one of the first environmental journalists to identify shade as an civic resource in itself, and his Places article has become a definitive and influential resource, widely read and cited by journalists and academics, and studied in urban planning programs.

For several years now, Bloch has continued his research into the subject, and his book, published this month by Random House, broadens the scope of his inquiry by examining the natural and social histories of shade in the United States and around the world.

“How corny would it be to say Sam Bloch has brought shade into the light? It’s true, and it’s an extraordinary achievement,” said David Hajdu, co-director, with Alisa Solomon, of the Arts and Culture program at Columbia Journalism School. “I was thrilled to work with Sam and the editors of Places on the piece that spawned his book. Blazing a new path of intellectual inquiry is a treacherous endeavor, and Sam came through triumphantly.”

We encourage you to read Sam Bloch’s book — and to re-read his article in Places, which, years later, remains an essential work on an increasingly critical and often overlooked natural resource.