Warren Dean0.0 Warren Dean chronicles the chaotic path to what could be one of the greatest natural disasters of modern times: the disappearance of the Atlantic Forest. A quarter the size of the Amazon Forest, and the most densely populated region in Brazil, the Atlantic Forest is now the most endangered in the world. It contains a great diversity of life forms, some of them found nowhere else, as well as the country's largest cities, plantations, mines, and industries. Continual clearing is ravaging most of the forested remnants.
Dean opens his story with the hunter-gatherers of twelve thousand years ago and takes it up to the 1990s—through the invasion of Europeans in the sixteenth century; the ensuing devastation wrought by such developments as gold and diamond mining, slash-and-burn farming, coffee planting, and industrialization; and the desperate battles between conservationists and developers in the late twentieth century.
Based on a great range of documentary and scientific resources,With Broadax and Firebrand is an enormously ambitious book. More than a history of a tropical forest, or of the relationship between forest and humans, it is also a history of Brazil told from an environmental perspective. Dean writes passionately and movingly, in the fierce hope that the story of the Atlantic Forest will serve as a warning of the terrible costs of destroying its great neighbor to the west, the Amazon Forest.
Камерон Уэст, Эллиотт Уэст0.0 This poignant history of the great migrations of the Cheyenne Indians and Anglo pioneers onto the arid Central Plains tells a complex story of the relationship between people and the environment. Elliott West, a distinguished western historian, turns his attention here to land, animals, families, and stories. Focusing on a region embracing parts of present-day Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming, he examines both the facts and myths of the migrations. How did the environment and people affect one another? How did families respond to the challenges of the Central Plains? How have our stories shaped our consciousness of that history? The Way to the West combines deep research with insightful analysis and narrative skill to present a story that both historians and students will enjoy.
An accomplished social historian, West argues forcefully here that history can never be only about human society. It always takes place--unfolds within the shifting, particular complexity of nature. His treatment of the Indian era on the plains is a particularly fresh, insightful demonstration of that fact.--Donald Worster
It may not be possible to take a fresher look at a slice of the West that Elliott West does here. These are inventive, compelling and original essays. Like their author, they are wry, learned, and just plain curious. A wonderful book.--Richard White
