Earth Sciences, Geography & Environment Books

Book SynopsisTrade Review"[A] strength of Downriver is Hansman’s ability to make complex and historically fraught water issues understandable. It can take years of engagement to fully comprehend many of the topics she discusses, such as tribal water rights. But Hansman’s writing is clear and succinct, and she has done a great deal of research. As someone who has spent the better part of a decade thinking about Colorado River governance, I was impressed by the book. Hansman exceeded my expectations. Her descriptions and discussions of western water topics are so useful and accurate that they make an excellent starting point for anyone wanting to learn more about these issues." * American Scientist *“Heather Hansman’s new book is a must-read for anyone who loves rivers or is concerned about the future of the West . . . The river carries Hansman through Wyoming ranches, natural-gas fields, cities, and national parks, and she finds that seemingly everyone wants a piece of its pie. So she follows her curiosity, learning where the water goes—and who’s fighting over what.” * Outside *"In an energizing mix of travelogue and investigative journalism, Hansman, a raft guide and environmental reporter, provides a straightforward elucidation of the mind-bogglingly complicated subject of water rights in the American West. . . . Travel enthusiasts will appreciate Hansman’s descriptions of her rafting exploits, love of wildlife, and admiration for the power of water, while policy advocates will mull over her thought-provoking insight into the West’s water conundrum." * Publishers Weekly *"Hansman delivers a worthy updating of a core library containing such works as Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert and Philip Fradkin's A River No More. An insightful look into the unsustainability of western waterways." * Kirkus *"Whether you're a westerner or not, you'll be caught up in the hustle and flow of this universal story, one that has rippling effects on our entire country." * Shape *"Hansman’s new book Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West explores the water emergency with remarkable calm and even-handedness." * New Republic *"Heather Hansman wants her readers to connect the dots between water use, natural resources, and human impact" * Sunset Magazine *"[Downriver] is a blend of personal narrative, water policy research and on-the-ground reporting in the rural West. It’s about her growing comfort with solitude, the technicalities that define a water right, and the people she met along the way. But it’s also a testament to how recreation can serve as a door to learning and an opportunity to engage with big issues that paddlers—and all outdoorspeople, including climbers, skiers, hikers, surfers—tend to be passionate about." * Uncommon Path (REI Blog) *"Downriver should be required reading for everyone who enjoys this podcast—it strikes the perfect balance of being entertaining and educational while examining all sides of the many issues facing the West’s water supply. There are few topics in the West as divisive and emotional as water, and in her book, Heather provides a balanced overview of all the issues, delving deep into the substance of water-related arguments, without crossing over into the mind-numbing jargon that defines most water-related writing." * Mountain & Prairie *"Hansman is willing to interrogate her own assumptions, to speak to people with differing views, and to allow western water issues to become more complicated, not less, as she moves down the river. She explores the sticky parts of western water policy, just as she explore the less-loved sections of the Green." -- Melissa Sevigny, author of Mythical River: Chasing the Mirage of New Water in the American Southwest"Downriver contains [Hansman's] commentary on the state of the river, sprinkled with useful information on the laws that control the river, federal water regulations, and studies that address contemporary issues such as endangered species and climate change." * Journal of Arizona History *"Heather Hansman's time as a rafting guide piqued her interest and her journey on the river, along 730 miles of water from Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. It is so wonderfully written you'll forget you're reading non-fiction." * The Colorado Sun *Table of ContentsOn the River702 cfsFarms686 cfsThe Law of the River Growing a Crop of Humans in the Desert All Those People Have to EatCities2,790 cfsThe Only Watering Hole in the Whole County Flowing Uphill to Money Whose Rights?Dams6,940 cfsClaiming and Reclamation After the Dam Protect the Green River at All Cost The Map of What’s NextFish9,080 cfsLarval Triggers Humans Are a Species, Too What’s the Point of a Wild River? One Big Fish TankRecreation9,180 cfsThrough the Gates What Is It Worth? We Save What We Love and We Love What We KnowFuture Risks10,600 cfsEnergy and Power Water Is Where the Fight Is Climate Change Is Water ChangeFuture Plans6,820 cfsThis Land Is Your Land You Can’t Just Sell Out to a City Getting Comfortable with RiskConfluence3,220 cfs Timeline Acknowledgments Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisPadrón reveals the evolution of Spain's imagining of the New World as a space in continuity with Asia. Narratives of Europe's westward expansion often tell of how the Americas came to be known as a distinct landmass, separate from Asia and uniquely positioned as new ground ripe for transatlantic colonialism. But this geographic vision of the Americas was not shared by all Europeans. While some imperialists imagined North and Central America as undiscovered land, the Spanish pushed to define the New World as part of a larger and eminently flexible geography that they called las Indias, and that by right, belonged to the Crown of Castile and León. Las Indias included all of the New World as well as East and Southeast Asia, although Spain's understanding of the relationship between the two areas changed as the realities of the Pacific Rim came into sharper focus. At first, the Spanish insisted that North and Central America were an extension of the continent of Asia. Eventually, they cTrade Review"It should be essential reading for anyone seeking a fresh approach to understanding Spain’s imperial ambitions during the Age of Discovery." * The Portolan *"Columbus thought that Cuba was an appendage of Asia, and, though it may surprise readers, it would be more than a century before more accurate accounts of the Pacific Ocean and the distinctions between the landforms of Asia and North America emerged. Padrón relays this story with comprehensive knowledge and a skillful interpretation of cartographic and narrative sources, which often rationalized Spanish imperial aims to show that the Spanish Empire had Asian components thanks to the world-encompassing meridian line that divided Spanish and Portuguese zones for exploitation. . . . This highly recommended book clarifies the history of seemingly naïve but at times politically useful sets of flawed assumptions." * CHOICE *"This is a salutary book. . . . it is immensely valuable in making us see how sixteenth-century Spaniards conceptually framed the Americas, the Pacific and beyond; it literally takes us into another world." * The Globe: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Map Society *"Historian Ricardo Padrón’s The Indies of the Setting Sun: How Early Modern Spain Mapped the Far East as the Transpacific West attempts to understand how, in discursive and visual terms, the Spanish crown sought to project its geopolitical and historical influence in the world from the sixteenth century forward. . . . The book is a valuable contribution not only because of its rigorous and intelligent interpretations, but also because it invites us to think about two major issues. First, it shows that territories such as the Americas were not 'invented' once and for all but were revised and reinvented over time and from different places and communities. Second, the book reminds us that we must decenter our gaze from the battles of conquest and pay attention instead to the voyages and ways of understanding vast spaces such as the oceans that were key in politically configuring our modern experience of the globe." * Terrae Incognitae *"In The Indies of the Setting Sun, Ricardo Padrón explores the spatial imaginaries of elite Spaniards in the period bookended by Balboa’s “discovery” of the Pacific Ocean in 1513 in present- day Panama and the 1606 Spanish conquest of the Moluccas. " * Early American Literature *"With this work, Padrón demonstrates that the Pacific has been a fundamental issue in the invention of America, a process that, as he firmly asserts, 'has been repeatedly revised and reinvented over the course of the years, and has meant different things at different times in different discursive communities.' Padrón encourages readers to view the geopolitical imagination of Habsburg Spain in a different light and to rethink the possibilities offered by new approaches to consider the Pacific not as marginal, but as a central location of the Spanish empire." * Bulletin of the Comediantes *"The Indies of the Setting Sun is an original and thoughtful study of the ‘invention’ and subsequent reinventions of the Pacific Ocean as part of the Spanish empire. Padrón brings to this project the same lucid, elegant prose and methodology that characterized his earlier monograph, and again he provides an argument supported by a careful study of sources employing the best historical approaches, closely contextualized reading, and an expansive definition of cartography. This is a much needed intervention, highlighting the importance of Spanish Asia in the history of Spanish imperial expansion." -- María M. Portuondo, author of The Spanish Disquiet: The Biblical Natural Philosophy of Benito Arias Montano"The Indies of the Setting Sun examines the way that Spanish knowledge about the South Sea—now known as the Pacific Ocean—was developed. Challenging the historical idea that Magellan's circumnavigation had established Europeans' understanding of the Americas as divided from Asia by the vast Pacific, Padrón reveals an 'alternative European cartography' that persisted across the sixteenth century. In this odd parallel universe, America was merely the forecourt to Asia, and the South Sea was a small basin within the larger Indies, then Spain's overseas empire. This is the first book I've ever read that colors the larger 'Indies' so vividly." -- Barbara Mundy, author of The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City"The author’s aim. . . is ambitious but the reader will not be disappointed. Padrón, in fact, leads his audience on a real journey through time, dismantling many commonplaces and prejudices about the modern perception of the way the world has been thought of and represented on maps at the dawn of modernity. The author breaks the patterns in the way we think about historical cartography between rigid categories of ‘right and wrong’, ‘precise and approximate’. Instead, Padrón highlights a complex historical process in which different cultural and political theories competed with each other in a dialectic that shaped our way of understanding geography. . . . Ricardo Padrón’s book: The Indies of the Setting Sun should be welcomed as a useful and much needed book. . . . I believe that today, in an era of redefinition of the balance between global powers with enormous interests in the Pacific area, this book is of great usefulness and relevance." * Rutter Project *"A nuanced reading of Spanish cartographic literature about the Pacific region in the sixteenth century. . . . The book’s central strength is in its analytical acuity, which dredges up tensions, contradictions, ironies and ambivalence from multivalent cartographic and written texts." * Imago Mundi *Table of ContentsList of Figures Introduction 1 The Map behind the Curtain 2 South Sea Dreams 3 Pacific Nightmares 4 Shipwrecked Ambitions 5 Pacific Conquests 6 The Location of China 7 The Kingdom of the Setting Sun 8 The Anxieties of a Paper Empire Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Works Cited Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA startling look at the power and perspectives of city building inspectors as they navigate unequal housing landscapes. Though we rarely see them at work, building inspectors have the power to significantly shape our lives through their discretionary decisions. The building inspectors of Chicago are at the heart of sociologist Robin Bartram's analysis of how individuals impactor attempt to impacthousing inequality. In Stacked Decks, she reveals surprising patterns in the judgment calls inspectors make when deciding whom to cite for building code violations. These predominantly white, male inspectors largely recognize that they work within an unequal housing landscape that systematically disadvantages poor people and people of color through redlining, property taxes, and city spending that favor wealthy neighborhoods. Stacked Decks illustrates the uphill battle inspectors face when trying to change a housing system that works against those with the fewest resources. Trade Review"Bartram examines the role of housing inspectors in Chicago, focusing on the judgment calls that inspectors make when deciding whom to cite for building code violations. . . . Her analysis highlights the uphill battle that inspectors face when trying to change a housing system that works against those with the fewest resources." * Law & Social Inquiry *"This volume is a very accessible exploration of how different sources of inequality contribute to unequal housing outcomes by race, income, and social class in US cities. . . In this case study, [Bartram] focuses on the ways in which institutions, laws, decisions, and policies contribute to inequality in the housing market in Chicago. . . This work will likely be of strongest interest to students and scholars of urban sociology, urban studies, urban planning, and possibly public administration. It may also be suitable for general readers looking for publications on housing issues in contemporary US cities." * Choice *"The heart of Bartram’s book is a rich, nuanced description of her time accompanying Chicago’s building inspectors on their rounds as they responded to complaints called into the city’s Department of Buildings. What she found is not only interesting as ethnological description, but challenges much of the conventional wisdom. . . It should be read by anyone concerned with the reality on the ground in America’s urban neighborhoods. . ." * Journal of Urban Affairs *"A fresh look at the work of building inspectors. . . . Stacked Decks is a much-needed examination of how inspectors make sense of complex situations, and how their sense of deservingness influences their judgment." * Social Forces *“Bartram’s smart, succinct, and elegantly written book is ostensibly an ethnographic study of building inspectors in Chicago. In reality, Stacked Decks is a book about power. It uses the daily struggles of building inspectors in Chicago to illuminate a fundamental moral, economic and political problem of our era – the persistence of racialized housing inequality despite the efforts of “frontline” city workers to mitigate it. Distinguishing between individual inspectors’ efforts to mete out justice and the systemic workings of power, Bartram shows us that the former will always be thwarted as long as the latter remains obscure. Stacked Decks is a compact study that raises big questions. Anyone interested in cities, the built environment, racism, wealth inequality, and the operation of municipal, legal, and financial power will want to read it.” -- Beryl Satter, Rutgers University“Stacked Decks is a much needed and methodologically cutting-edge example of the EMERGING sociology of housing, giving us new tools with which to observe that the long-standing structures that made housing opportunity unequal by race are alive and well in new forms. Expertly leveraging ethnography, interviews, archival records on code violations, and 311 calls, Bartram brings into glaring relief the seemingly mundane and invisible dynamics of urban housing, sounding an alarm about housing insecurity, racial equity, and social mobility in America. Stacked Decks is a must read as we as a nation consider how to confront our housing crises.” -- Stefanie DeLuca, Johns Hopkins University“Bartram brilliantly opens a window onto an enormous world of overlooked activity. We see how Chicago building inspectors take ‘stabs at justice’ as they enforce the law. Reading this book compels us to think about how all workers in America understand inequalities and injustices—and how they might use their discretion on the job to right the country’s wrongs.” -- Debbie Becher, Barnard College, Columbia UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter 1. Stacked Decks Chapter 2. Building Inspections Chapter 3. Rentals and Relative Assessments Chapter 4. Helping Out Homeowners: Changing Faces and Stubborn Realities Chapter 5. Justice Blockers Conclusion. Reshuffling the Deck Acknowledgments Appendix A. Methodology Appendix B. Building Violation Counts Appendix C. Map of Strategic Task Force Inspections Notes References Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisRelating his experiences caring for endangered whales, a veterinarian and marine scientist shows we can all share in the salvation of these imperiled animals. The image most of us have of whalers includes harpoons and intentional trauma. Yet eating commercially caught seafood leads to whales' entanglement and slow death in rope and nets, and the global shipping routes that bring us readily available goods often lead to death by collision. Weall of usare whalers, marine scientist and veterinarian Michael J. Moore contends. But we do not have to be. Drawing on over forty years of fieldwork with humpback, pilot, fin, and, in particular, North Atlantic right whalesa species whose population has declined more than 20 percent since 2017Moore takes us with him as he performs whale necropsies on animals stranded on beaches, in his independent research alongside whalers using explosive harpoons, and as he tracks injured whales to deliver sedatives. The whales' plight is a complex, confoundiTrade Review"The threat to whales goes beyond the conventional images of harpooning ships, according to this moving and impassioned debut from veterinarian and marine scientist Moore. . . . . Moore injects his descriptions of the dire situation with a personal angle, sharing stories about how he came to study and care passionately about whales, creatures with awe-inspiring intelligence and social skills but whose population is threatened by humanity. . . . Technology offers a ray of hope—in his final chapter, Moore describes how using ropeless nets for commercial fishing and studying whale population movements can prevent accidental collisions and lessen the death toll. This empowering call to action stuns." * Publishers Weekly, Starred Review *“Moore, a marine scientist and veterinarian, makes a compelling argument that whales’ survival depends on each of us—not just on those who venture out on ships, hunting whales for meat and blubber. It’s sobering to grapple with the ways we might unwittingly contribute to the mammals’ demise, like by eating commercially caught seafood. But Moore also offers reason to be hopeful, including new technologies for ropeless fishing.” * Washington Post, “15 Books to Read This Fall” *"After the world spent more than two centuries slaughtering whales to the point of near-extinction, international commercial whaling was finally banned in 1986. But in this highly persuasive book, the marine scientist Moore demonstrates that many of the gains are being undone by a combination of commercial fishing (in which whales are strangled with ropes and nets) and shipping (whales are often hit by passing cargo ships, and their songs are drowned out by the incessant drum of engines). The North Atlantic right whale’s population, for instance, has declined more than 20% since 2017. It’s not all doom and gloom, though: Moore (not to be confused with the filmmaker of the same name) furnishes solutions while sounding the alarm." * Bloomberg, “Six Best Books This Fall” *"In. . . We Are All Whalers: The Plight of Whales and Our Responsibility, Moore writes that our choices about the food and other products we buy can make a difference in what happens to whales. The extension of that argument is that society as a whole could—and should—provide more support for fishers to move to ropeless gear." * Monga Bay *"A fascinating memoir by a marine biologist-veterinarian who has devoted his entire life to developing methods for saving wild whales in distress, especially critically endangered North Atlantic right whales." * Forbes *"Moore is right that the general public is culpably ignorant of the harms in which they participate. His book is a constructive call to action, since he believes that these problems can be solved. . . . [Written] with vividness and compassion." -- Martha C. Nussbaum * New York Review of Books *"Moore goes where few scientists are comfortable to go, and where most scientists take deliberate steps to avoid. . . . His forty-three years of study, mostly focused on marine mammals, have exposed him to the animal pain and suffering side of what to many has been a mathematical exercise as North Atlantic right whale numbers freefall towards extinction—as they are beaten down by collisions with ships, entanglement in fishing gear, and climate change." * Cape Cod Times *"Unsparing. . . . Intimate. . . . It is time for the government to support the changes that will have to be made if the right whale is to survive. Consumers, too, have a role. I can’t help thinking that the value of this book is bringing the problem up close and personal. The threat of extinction is, in the end, an abstraction, compared to the physical suffering of an entangled whale. Who wants to be the cause of that?" * Portland Press Herald *"Moore’s decades in the field were accompanied by a growing sense of urgency about one species in particular, the North Atlantic right whale. His new book, We Are All Whalers, looks back at his own life and forward to the tenuous future of these imperiled behemoths. He spent his career learning how to save right whales on an individual basis, with some success. 'But,' he writes, 'I also knew that prophylaxis had to be the ultimate goal of any veterinarian.' To save an entire species, Moore warns, we need a lot more hands on deck." * Bluedot Living *"Whale hunters aren’t the only threats to the world’s largest mammal, argues marine scientist Moore in this treatise on protecting the animals and helping them thrive." * Publishers Weekly, "Fall 2021 Announcements: Science" *"This is the book all conservationists wish they could emulate... What may be most notable about this text is the author's sensitivity not only to the species he covers but also to all stakeholders in whale conservation, from indigenous hunters to commercial fishers. It is a thoughtful treatise that, through fact-based analysis, leads readers to confront the root of the problem—choices consumers make in a post-industrial society... Moore offers a most outstanding example of communicating science to advance conservation... Essential." * Choice *"We Are All Whalers is an intensely personal, warts-and-all account that does not avoid the moral grey areas and internal struggles this research brings to one man’s mind. This is certainly one of the more thought-provoking and disturbing books I have read in a while. Anything less would not have done this topic justice." * Inquisitive Biologist *"A scientific memoir of over thirty years of research, a great tale of the sea, and a call to arms." * Sirene *"Moore paints a comprehensive picture of the challenges facing right whales, emphasizing the role that everyone plays in their conservation. . . . Passionate and philosophical." * Whales Online *“Veterinarian Moore knows right whales inside and out, literally. Working chest deep in the guts of dead right whales, he sees, better than anyone, what’s killing them. It’s us. Moore describes how, demonstrating honestly, clearly, and compassionately the consequences of our cruelty, if inadvertent, toward a sentient animal.” -- Deborah Cramer, author of "The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, an Ancient Crab, and an Epic Journey"“An affecting book, authored by a man whose life has circled the great whales, and whose sense of concern and care for these animals has only deepened over time. Moore challenges us to confront how implicated we all are in the ongoing destruction of sea life—and leaves the reader with indelible images of the suffering of countless magnificent animals fettered, gagged, slashed, and lost in the fatal obstacle course we have made of their domain.” -- D. Graham Burnett, author of "The Sounding of the Whale: Science and Cetaceans in the Twentieth Century"“A truly compelling, captivating, and in places heart-wrenching story of one scientist’s journey caring for a highly endangered species. The very predicament of North Atlantic right whales is our fault, and their recovery is also our responsibility, as we are all consumers and hence all culpable in the environmental costs of fish products and goods and services transported at sea. Coexistence with whales is possible, and Moore’s book lays the foundation.” -- Moira Brown, Canadian Whale Institute“Most of us know that whales are in danger but have only a vague understanding of why. Moore’s perspective from personal experience is unique, and this clear book should be read by the conservation community, scientists, and anyone interested in nature and human-whale interactions.” -- Jane Maienschein, Arizona State University and the Marine Biological LaboratoryTable of ContentsPreface 1 Young Man, There Are No Whales Left 2 The First Whale I Had Ever Seen 3 Whaling with Intent 4 The Bowhead Is More than Food 5 Whaling by Accident 6 Treating Whales 7 Our Skinny Friend 8 Taking the Long View: Why Can’t We Let Right Whales Die of Old Age? Postscript 1: Getting Really Cold Postscript 2: A Lonely Tunnel with No Light at the End Acknowledgments Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Impressive and authoritative. . . . Over the past two decades, Oreskes has helped transform how scholars understand the history of scientific and political debates over continental drift and anthropogenic climate change. Her latest work weaves together insights from these and other intellectual spheres to deliver a crucial message: Patronage of knowledge production—that is, who pays for science—matters deeply. . . . Oreskes uses fascinating historical episodes to reveal serious, underappreciated consequences of oceanographers' prolonged reliance on secret, mission-driven navy projects. . . . We need more historical scholarship on how powerful entities produce ignorance as well as knowledge, and Oreskes provides a model for doing so. . . . As an exposé of how navy-sponsored oceanographers wound up constraining their own research agendas and believing their own myths, the book should give pause to all scientists who consider themselves immune to the potential influence of their funders, or who romanticize the golden age of military scientific patronage." * Science *"Insightful. . . . The book reminds us that science does not happen in a vacuum." * Scientific American *"Science on a Mission is what you want in a history: interesting research, stories with context and multiple points of view, clearly and compellingly written." * Nature *"With its empirical richness and its conceptual concerns, this book is essential reading." * Metascience *"Anyone who really wants to understand Cold War-era oceanography now has a definitive text to turn to... Oreskes makes a strong case for why histories of physics must now encompass oceanography." * Physics Today *"In Science on a Mission, historian Naomi Oreskes delves into the role of patronage in science, what emerges is a vivid portrait of how naval oversight transformed what we know about the sea. It is a detailed, sweeping history that illuminates the ways funding shapes the subject, scope, and tenor of research, and it raises profound questions about American science. What difference does it make who pays? A lot." * Yale Climate Connections *"Important and fascinating work. . . . The book is well documented and features many interesting stories and illustrations that professionals and academicians will find appealing. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *"Had I known then what I have learned from Oreskes’s new book, I would have been a better Scripps director." -- Charles Kennel, former director, Scripps Institution of Oceanography"Oreskes's timely, clear-eyed, and extensive history serves as a powerful reminder in a time when our oceans and basic science are under attack: we must defend scientific truth." -- Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island"Science on a Mission is a subtle, human picture of science at war, both hot and cold. Focusing on three vastly important institutes of oceanography, Oreskes tracks how the demands of international conflict have shaped the discipline. In fascinating detail, she explores the discovery of the deep ocean currents and their dynamics; in another precisely documented section, she illuminates the military origins of the ‘pure science’ bathysphere Alvin. With engaging prose and scientific grasp, Oreskes gives us a rich and well-told history of how the navy’s engagement redefined the field, ushering in central discoveries of modern oceanography while hiding its secret-cloaked depths." -- Peter Galison, Harvard University“With her characteristic but rare combination of philosophical and historical insight, and her sharp eye for the politics beneath the surface, Oreskes has skillfully interpreted the wide-ranging legacies of oceanography and brought them into our understanding of scientific—and political—debates of the present day." -- Katharine Anderson, York University"Oreskes has given us a monumental history of the social and political construction of Cold War science. Her analysis lends fascinating insight to the role of the war economy in the creation of American oceanography and raises complex questions about scientific integrity, intellectual autonomy, and the difference between pure and tainted science." -- Matthew England, University of New South Wales"Science on a Mission is a remarkable work of scholarship built on deep research into the institutions and people involved in advancing American oceanography at the height of the Cold War. Oreskes relies on a detailed approach, including over a dozen illustrations and diagrams alongside extensive quotations from relevant scientific papers, to provide internal histories, whether in accounting for how one experiment led to the next or how personalities and ideologies clashed within an institution. As such, the work makes important contributions to the literature and is an excellent companion to texts on naval and industrial laboratories." * Isis *"In this book, Naomi Oreskes demonstrates once again that the history of science is not merely a discipline for the ivory tower. In her work on the denial of man-made climate change and on the procedures that guarantee the trustworthiness of scientific knowledge, she combines historical analysis with topics of current political importance in an exemplary manner." * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (translated from German) *“Highly recommended for anyone interested in the broad topics of geophysics, the history of the oceans, and how American naval spending influenced the shape of modern oceanography.” * The Northern Mariner *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 The Personal, the Political, and the Scientific 2 Seeing the Ocean through Operational Eyes: The Stommel-Arons Model of Abyssal Circulation 3 Whose Science Is It Anyway? The Woods Hole Palace Revolt 4 Stymied by Secrecy: Harry Hess and Seafloor Spreading 5 The Iron Curtain of Classification: What Difference Did It Make? 6 Why the Navy Built Alvin 7 Painting Projects White: The Discovery of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents 8 From Expertise to Advocacy: The Seabed Disposal of Radioactive Waste 9 Changing the Mission: From the Cold War to Climate Change Conclusion: The Context of Motivation Acknowledgments Sources and Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Rowan Wright makes a strong case for how choices—big and small, collective and individual—can change the world." * Publishers Weekly *"Rowan Wright’s book emits passion and fire coupled with a growing urgency to 'put things right'—to make good our failings to protect the life of seas and oceans. Wright highlights good practice and encourages its dissemination and adaptation where possible, whilst castigating politicians for ignoring the science and aligning themselves with those who would exploit our seas to the point at which they become lifeless. . . . This book is simply too important not to be read by the general public, marine scientists, ecological/environmental conservationists, representatives of marine-based industries and especially politicians; and since most of it is jargon-free there really is no excuse." -- Stephen R. Hoskins CBiol FRSB FLS * The Biologist *"A profound plan to save the seas. . . . Our ocean life-support system continues to buckle under human pressures. We have been approaching marine conservation backward, Rowan Wright argues at the outset of her new book, Future Sea. Instead of regulating individual fisheries or putting boundaries around select areas of the ocean, we need to protect the whole thing." -- Mary Ellen Hannibal * Science *"In his book Half-Earth, the famous biologist E.O. Wilson proposed setting aside half of the planet’s surface for conservation purposes. Rowan Wright will do you one better; given how important they are for life on the planet, how about we completely protect the oceans. What, all of it? Yes, not half, all of it. We need a gestalt shift, from ‘default profit and exploitation to default care and respect.’ Such a bold proposal is likely to elicit disbelief and cynicism—’Impossible!’—and Rowan Wright has experienced plenty of that. But hear her out, for sometimes we are our own worst enemy. Future Sea is a surprisingly grounded, balanced, and knowledgeable argument that swayed me because, guess what, the oceans are already protected. . . . I admit that Rowan Wright’s initial brief raised my eyebrows. However, her even-handed treatment of the subject and her insights into environmental law quickly tempered my skepticism. The way forward proposed here will not be easy, and she never pretends it will be, but the urgency with which she makes her case is utterly convincing. Future Sea is a galvanizing book." -- Leon Vlieger * The Inquisitive Biologist *“Future Sea sets out marine policy researcher Rowan Wright’s ideas about how to end destructive industrial activities at sea and enable ocean wildlife to return and thrive. Luckily, she includes steps that anyone, from children to political leaders, can take." * New Scientist *"Future Sea delivers not only the promised 'how' but also the reasons why we should safeguard the ocean from human activities. Advocate and researcher Rowan Wright outlines the critical link between the ocean’s health and our ability to mitigate global warming, the tremendous potential of marine renewable energy, and the ocean’s timeless role as a resource to communities around the world. More profoundly, she argues for its intrinsic value, outside of a human context, noting the vastness and richness of coastal and underwater ecosystems, home to millions of species that are yet unclassified, yet unknown. . . . The times when Rowan Wright draws on her own experiences with ocean life and researching her subjects are when the language is liveliest. Her arguments are most convincing when her own voice is clearest—when the frustration, passion, and will for change of an individual emanate in a kind of slow-burning glow of articulate British restraint. The voice of a single rational, concerned woman make the bolder claims and proposals all the more stealthily convincing. . . . It is her sensitivity to both the complex emotional response to environmental destruction and the profound connections human beings have to the natural world that make the book an effective advocacy tool. I certainly didn’t feel emotionally prepared to take in more environmental ‘bad news,’ but found myself changed after reading the book, feeling that understanding, bearing witness, is also part of making a change. The trick is to move past the paralysis. Rowan Wright pinpoints what is perhaps the greatest challenge, our current global leadership vacuum, describing her dream of ‘leaders with compassion and integrity.’ The implicit message is that for good leadership, too, we all bear some responsibility." -- Megin Jimenez * Chicago Review of Books *"A solutions-oriented read about the dire state of our oceans and how we can better protect them. . . . Books about climate change are often rife with doomy predictions, but Future Sea brims with hopeful stories of communities around the world that are working to protect and conserve our oceans. Our seas face many threats, including climate change, pollution, and overfishing, but this book is solutions-oriented. A marine-policy researcher, Rowan Wright puts forth a sweeping—if somewhat radical—plan that offers total protection of all oceans on Earth and all of their living inhabitants. The book also includes actions individuals can take right now to be better stewards of the seas." -- Amy Brady * LitHub *"A very stimulating and rewarding read." -- Mark AveryOne of 2020's "12 books on climate and environment for the holidays." * Yale Climate Connections *“Rowan Wright combines insightful conversations with brilliant minds in marine science with vivid storytelling and detailed analysis to renew readers’ sense of hope that it is not too late to save our seas. . . . All at once eye-opening, thought-provoking, rage-inducing, and empowering, Future Sea is an excellent read for ocean lovers.” -- Rishad Maynard * Marine Biologist *“If you want to get into understanding ocean management—this is the book for you! If you want to know what your government can be doing to help the ocean—this is the book for you! If you just love the ocean, you guessed it—this is the book for you! To all my nature lovers, ocean swimmers, and people who want to see the world not go up in flames.” * Teenage Reads *"An ambitious and useful handbook. . . . It is an eye-opening book that will fill your soul with the right amount of optimism and call for action. It will tell you in an easy-to-read, step-by-step outline of how to save the planet’s seas." * a la luz *"Combines a legal scholar’s understanding of arcane theories and doctrines . . . with a modern conservation practitioner’s knowledge of the many threats to ocean populations and ecosystems. . . . Timely and provocative. . . . Rowan Wright provides us optimists with a roadmap to substantially restore the health of ocean ecosystems. It’s been a few weeks since I finished reading Future Sea and I’m still thinking about it: thinking about how to convince NGOs and governments to start making some big changes. But one of my favorite chapters (‘The Power of Many Small Changes’) lays out a convincing and detailed case that we can all do a lot to reduce our impacts on ocean wildlife: things like reducing our carbon footprint, eating less beef, eating only sustainably harvested seafood, and participating in beach cleanups." * Current Biology *"Independent researcher and ocean advocate Rowan Wright offers an information-packed and carefully crafted review of challenges to the life and health of oceans... Her passionate engagement and work with environmental NGOs, including Friends of the Earth and Marinet (a fish conservation network), have gained her familiarity with relevant international law—the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, UN Fish Stocks Agreement, and the Convention on Biological Diversity—mandating comprehensive stewardship of the oceans. Rowan Wright's unsentimental analysis shows that well-intentioned conventions can suffer from three failings: weak governance, flimsy monitoring, and minimal compliance. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *“In Future Sea, Rowan Wright makes a convincing call to optimism. From ‘Inky the octopus’ to the Law of the Sea convention she provides a cogent, easy-to-read argument for protecting the whole of our blue marble planet. A fast read on a deep subject, this thoughtful book will leave you feeling empowered to take the plunge, understanding that in saving the natural abundance and diversity of our seas we’re really saving ourselves.” -- David Helvarg, author of "Saved by the Sea" and "The Golden Shore"“Rowan Wright’s book is a clear call to action to modernize the Law of the Sea so that it can deal with the changes in society, in the sea, on land, and in the atmosphere that have arisen since it came into force in 1994. This is the freshest, most sensible, and most optimistic perspective I have seen in a long time. I enjoy very much the positive, can-do approach. Very motivating.” -- Drew Harvell, Cornell University, author of "A Sea of Glass" and "Ocean Outbreak"Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Back-to-Front World 2. The Laws of Life 3. Teeming Seas 4. The Free Sea 5. Theory to Reality 6. Counteroffensive 7. Worrying about the Wrong Stuff 8. The Silver Bullet? 9. The Power of Many Small Changes 10. Finding Like Minds Acknowledgments Notes Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA potent re-examination of America's history of public disinvestment in mass transit. Many a scholar and policy analyst has lamented American dependence on cars and the corresponding lack of federal investment in public transportation throughout the latter decades of the twentieth century. But as Nicholas Dagen Bloom shows in The Great American Transit Disaster, our transit networks are so bad for a very simple reason: we wanted it this way. Focusing on Baltimore, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, and San Francisco, Bloom provides overwhelming evidence that transit disinvestment was a choice rather than destiny. He pinpoints three major factors that led to the decline of public transit in the United States: municipal austerity policies that denied most transit agencies the funding to sustain high-quality service; the encouragement of auto-centric planning; and white flight from dense city centers to far-flung suburbs. As Bloom makes clear, these local public policy decisions werTrade Review“American transit agencies are standing on the brink of a devastating fiscal cliff. . . . Dire though the present situation is, this is hardly the first time that transit officials have been locked in a Sisyphean struggle to maintain service levels with shrinking funding and ridership. As Bloom, a professor of urban policy and planning at Hunter College, describes in his new book, The Great American Transit Disaster, US public transportation has lurched from one crisis to the next throughout the past century.” * Bloomberg CityLab *“In this excellent socioeconomic history, Bloom offers a comprehensive and thought-provoking account of the rise and fall of US mass transit, skillfully assessing successes and stumbles so that we may learn from them and correct course.” * Booklist *“Serves as a powerful introduction for urban scholars, practitioners, and students interested in American public transit policy. Offering extensive historical hindsight, the book nicely prefaces any consideration of current trends related to public transit.” * Journal of Urban Affairs *“A timely exploration of America’s experience with transit.” * Journal of the American Planning Association *“Bloom begins The Great American Transit Disaster by debunking the popular historical conspiracy that big auto and tire manufacturers destroyed a robust urban streetcar system in the United States. But if it wasn’t an elaborate and nefarious plot on the part of the automobile industry to destroy a dense network of public urban transportation, what did? . . . This question sits at the center of Bloom’s extensively researched and expertly argued exploration of the demise of urban public transit in the United States. And, as in the best historical research and writing, his answer is layered and multifaceted.” * Pacific Historical Review *“Bloom makes a compelling case that Americans did this to themselves by demanding better streets for cars at the expense of transit, and favoring low-density, suburban living that makes cars indispensable and transit hard to justify. . . . The book’s greatest strength is its hard look at how racism helped ruin US transit.” * Newcity *“A worthy addition to Chicago’s Historical Studies of Urban America series.” * Technology and Culture *“The Great American Transit Disaster presents a thoughtful and thorough history of public transit development in a number of major American cities. As in his previous books, Bloom makes a significant contribution to the history of twentieth-century urban America.” * Jon C. Teaford, author of The American Suburb: The Basics *“Bloom is a distinguished and prolific scholar of American urban politics. In this cogent and deeply researched book, he seeks to explain why leaders in cities such as Atlanta, Detroit, and Chicago chose to invest in highways and airways rather than mass transit. Bloom, wisely and perceptively, avoids discredited anti-bus and anti-streetcar ideas, focusing instead on pay-as-you-go transit, auto-centric planning, and white flight. Nick Bloom, as always, is readable, assignable, and compelling.” -- Mark H. Rose, coauthor of A Good Place to Do Business: The Politics of Downtown Renewal since 1945Table of ContentsIntroduction Pre–World War II Part 1 Urban Transit Rise and Decline Chapter 1 Baltimore: City Leaders versus Private Transit Chapter 2 Chicago: A Limited Public Commitment to Transit Chapter 3 Boston: Reverse Engineering Public Transit The Postwar Transit Disaster, 1945 to 1980 Part 2 Unsubsidized Private Transit Chapter 4 Baltimore: Urban Crisis, Race, and Private Transit Collapse Chapter 5 Atlanta: Race, Transit, and the Sunbelt Boom Part 3 “Pay as You Go” Public Transit Chapters 6 Chicago: The Failure of “Pay as You Go” Public Transit Chapter 7 Detroit: Racism and America’s Worst Big-City Transit Part 4: Public Transit That Worked Better Chapter 8 Boston Pioneers Public Regional Transit Chapter 9 San Francisco: Deeply Subsidized Public Transit Conclusion Beyond Transit Fatalism Acknowledgments Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisUncertain Climeslooks to the late nineteenth century to reveal how climate anxiety was a crucial element in the emergence of American modernity. Even people who still refuse to accept the reality of human-induced climate change would have to agree that the topic has become inescapable in the United States in recent decades. But as Joseph Giacomelli shows in Uncertain Climes, this is actually nothing new: as far back as Gilded Age America, climate uncertainty has infused major debates on economic growth and national development. In this ambitious examination of late-nineteenth-century understandings of climate, Giacomelli draws on the work of scientists, foresters, surveyors, and settlers to demonstrate how central the subject was to the emergence of American modernity. Amid constant concerns about volatile weather patterns and the use of natural resources, nineteenth-century Americans developed a multilayered discourse on climate and what it might mean for the nation's future. Although climate science was still in its nascent stages during the Gilded Age, fears and hopes about climate change animated the overarching political struggles of the time, including expansion into the American West. Giacomelli makes clear that uncertainty was the common theme linking concerns about human-induced climate change with cultural worries about the sustainability of capitalist expansionism in an era remarkably similar to the United States' unsettled present. Trade Review"Giacomelli lucidly presents climate change as a topic that was actively discussed in the US in the second half of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century . . . Readers learn that climate change has been a polarizing topic in the US for several generations. Recommended." * Choice *“What did nineteenth-century Americans mean when they insisted that planting farms would bring more rain? How do we make sense of the heated but head-spinning debates over all the things that human beings might do to alter their climate? Clamorous but conflicting assertions insisted that Plains tribes or industrious Mormons, artificial canals or the advance of western settlement might change temperature, weather patterns, and nature itself. In this deeply-researched book, Giacomelli demonstrates that substantial public conversation in the Gilded Age was devoted to human role in climate change. He also shows the central presence of uncertainty in those debates. Probabilistic thinking, statistics, maps, data: all were part of climatic contention by elite thinkers and small-town boosters. Our modern worries over climate are crucial in our present crisis, but not unique. Uncertainty and public debate, Giacomelli shows us, have long been how Americans have grappled with the challenges of human influence on the natural world.” * Conevery Bolton Valencius, author of The Health of the Country: How American Settlers Understood Themselves and Their Land *"Uncertain Climes offers a necessary corrective and a significant historiographical contribution that will change how we think about Gilded Age science and environmental history. The genius of Giacomelli’s book is that it embraces the complexity and messiness of the past, challenging the conventional stories historians tell about late-nineteenth-century environmental thought and science.” * Adam Wesley Dean, author of An Agrarian Republic: Farming, Antislavery Politics, and Nature Parks in the Civil War Era *“Here is a history of climate, science, and culture that is fully a study of morality, caution, and uncertainty. Giacomelli does readers a great service by disrupting our twenty-first-century perception that ‘questions of irreducible uncertainty’ are new. Uncertain Climes is big history, making the past feel closer all the time.” * Benjamin Cohen, author of Pure Adulteration: Cheating on Nature in the Age of Manufactured Food *"As a blend of a history of science, intellectual history, and environmental history, Giacomelli provides historians with a text to explore the many angles of climate history. As such, this is an important text to consider the long history of climate-theory and its place in American society. In doing so, the author offers readers a better grasp on the present and maybe, some paths for the future." * History: Reviews of New Books *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Questions “Forever Remain”1 A Climate Fit for Civilization2 Climate and Capitalism in the Great West and Beyond3 In the Middle Border: Gustavus Hinrichs and His Network of Volunteer Observers4 Fluid Geographies: Mapping Climate ChangeInterlude: Rainmakers and Other “Paradoxers”5 Mysterious Ecologies6 Technocracy and the Mastery of UncertaintyConclusion: The Meanings of UncertaintyAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn internationally recognized scientist shows that Earth's separate continents, once together in Pangea, are again on a collision course. You've heard of Pangea, the single landmass that broke apart some 175 million years ago to give us our current continents, but what about its predecessors, Rodinia or Columbia? These supercontinents from Earth's past provide evidence that land repeatedly joins and separates. While scientists debate what that next supercontinent will look likeand what to name itthey all agree: one is coming. In this engaging work, geophysicist Ross Mitchell invites readers to remote (and sometimes treacherous) lands for evidence of past supercontinents, delves into the phenomena that will birth the next, and presents the case for the future supercontinent of Amasia, defined by the merging of North America and Asia. Introducing readers to plate tectonic theory through fieldwork adventures and accessible scientific descriptions, Mitchell considers flows deep in the Earth's mantle to explain Amasia's future formation and shows how this developing theory can illuminate other planetary mysteries. He then poses the inevitable question: how can humanity survive the intervening 200 million years necessary to see Amasia? An expert on the supercontinent cycle, Mitchell offers readers a front-row seat to a slow-motion mystery and an ongoing scientific debate.Trade Review"Although Mitchell’s destination is the distant future, don’t be fooled. His book is as much a romp through the past as it is a look ahead, complete with references unique to the present....Throughout the book, Mitchell’s clear explanations and carefully chosen images help make sense of even the most complicated concepts." * Science News *"Locked in rocks, mountains, and oceans lies evidence of an ancient, active earth. Subduction, plate tectonics, and volcanic activity continually reshape continents. . . . [Those] interested in geology and geophysics will appreciate Mitchell’s compelling vision and research." * Booklist *"Ross Mitchell provides a cinematic view of Earth over billion-year timescales, showing how the slow-motion dance of the continents has a deep underlying logic that makes it possible to predict geographies of the distant future." -- Marcia Bjornerud | author of "Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World""Geological puzzles don’t get bigger than unravelling the choreography of continents since Earth’s childhood. It takes bold thinking, and reconciliation of hard-won field data with computer models of our planet’s interior, to figure out the lay of the land hundreds of millions of years ago. Ross Mitchell draws on his own cutting-edge research to explain how Earth’s heat engine works, and what ancient configurations of land and sea—vastly different from today’s map—meant for the atmosphere, climate and, crucially, the evolution of life. It’s a gripping story, vivaciously told, of prescient scientists, perilous fieldwork, and the amazing ways in which geology empowers us to situate humanity in the context of billions of years of Earth history, and to ground speculation of how the next billion might play out." -- Clive Oppenheimer | author of "Eruptions that Shook the World"“Mitchell is the only person who could write this inviting and engaging book, which shares the thrill of scientific discovery.” -- Brendan Murphy | St. Francis Xavier University"The world is like a giant clock, with enormous tectonic gears of seemingly infinite complexity. That clock will keep ticking long after we humans are extinct, and Ross Mitchell, watchmaker, lets us see far into that future: an amazing Amasia." -- Peter Ward | author of "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe"“A clear, accessible introduction to a ‘super’ significant topic—the supercontinent cycle—and to scientific study itself.” -- Richard E. Ernst | Carleton University"An engaging insider’s story of geological discovery and insight at a grand scale—the unification and fragmentation of supercontinents over geologic time, and why such behavior is repeating, yet changing. This first-hand account reads like The Double Helix, but with mountains for molecules." -- Paul Hoffman | Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 1. Pangea 2. Rodinia 3. Columbia 4. The Unknown Archean 5. The Next Supercontinent Epilogue: Surviving Amasia Acknowledgments Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA study of how the climate crisis is changing human communication from a celebrated rhetorician. Why is it difficult to talk about climate change? Debra Hawhee argues that contemporary rhetoric relies on classical assumptions about humanity and history that cannot conceive of the present crisis. How do we talk about an unprecedented future or represent planetary interests without privileging our own species? A Sense of Urgency explores four emerging answers, their sheer novelty a record of both the devastation and possible futures of climate change. In developing the arts of magnitude, presence, witness, and feeling, A Sense of Urgency invites us to imagine new ways of thinking with our imperiled planet.Trade Review“A Sense of Urgency presents four detailed analyses of emerging rhetorical responses to the impact of climate change. . . . But the introduction and conclusion go beyond the case studies by arguing that contemporary environmental concerns now exert pressure on rhetorical scholarship itself.” * Inside Higher Ed *“With inimitable creativity, Hawhee shows that climate change is not immune to comprehension but rather open to wildly curious rhetorical fashioning. She provides a fully embodied account of rhetoric and climate, time and temperature, showing that such supposed abstractions are actually glimmering sensations that blend feeling and knowing in the most intimate ways. This book is a gift.” -- John Durham Peters, Yale University“The unfolding climate crisis poses unprecedented challenges that require not only new scientific diagnostics but also a new social imaginary that reassesses dominant values, ways of knowing, and collective aspirations. One can hope we are all ready to heed this book’s call to reimagine communication—and the world.” -- Phaedra C. Pezzullo, University of Colorado Boulder“A Sense of Urgency compels us to acknowledge that the magnitude of climate change courses through everything—including facts and feelings, information and sensations. Hawhee demonstrates just how intense rhetoric must become to meet these unprecedented challenges. Working with an extinct glacier, youth activists, a multisensory art installation, and more, Hawhee helps us once again consider an approach to rhetoric that we could not before fathom, but now must.” -- Casey Boyle, University of Texas at AustinTable of ContentsList of Figures 1. Introduction: Intensifications 2. Glacial Death: Making Future Memory Present 3. “In a World Full of ‘Ifs’”: The Felt Time of Youth Climate Rhetors 4. Learning Curves: COVID-19, Climate Change, and Mathematical Magnitude 5. Presence and Placement in Maya Lin’s Ghost Forest 6. Epilogue: Fathoming Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA study of how the climate crisis is changing human communication from a celebrated rhetorician. Why is it difficult to talk about climate change? Debra Hawhee argues that contemporary rhetoric relies on classical assumptions about humanity and history that cannot conceive of the present crisis. How do we talk about an unprecedented future or represent planetary interests without privileging our own species? A Sense of Urgency explores four emerging answers, their sheer novelty a record of both the devastation and possible futures of climate change. In developing the arts of magnitude, presence, witness, and feeling, A Sense of Urgency invites us to imagine new ways of thinking with our imperiled planet.Trade Review“A Sense of Urgency presents four detailed analyses of emerging rhetorical responses to the impact of climate change. . . . But the introduction and conclusion go beyond the case studies by arguing that contemporary environmental concerns now exert pressure on rhetorical scholarship itself.” * Inside Higher Ed *“With inimitable creativity, Hawhee shows that climate change is not immune to comprehension but rather open to wildly curious rhetorical fashioning. She provides a fully embodied account of rhetoric and climate, time and temperature, showing that such supposed abstractions are actually glimmering sensations that blend feeling and knowing in the most intimate ways. This book is a gift.” -- John Durham Peters, Yale University“The unfolding climate crisis poses unprecedented challenges that require not only new scientific diagnostics but also a new social imaginary that reassesses dominant values, ways of knowing, and collective aspirations. One can hope we are all ready to heed this book’s call to reimagine communication—and the world.” -- Phaedra C. Pezzullo, University of Colorado Boulder“A Sense of Urgency compels us to acknowledge that the magnitude of climate change courses through everything—including facts and feelings, information and sensations. Hawhee demonstrates just how intense rhetoric must become to meet these unprecedented challenges. Working with an extinct glacier, youth activists, a multisensory art installation, and more, Hawhee helps us once again consider an approach to rhetoric that we could not before fathom, but now must.” -- Casey Boyle, University of Texas at AustinTable of ContentsList of Figures 1. Introduction: Intensifications 2. Glacial Death: Making Future Memory Present 3. “In a World Full of ‘Ifs’”: The Felt Time of Youth Climate Rhetors 4. Learning Curves: COVID-19, Climate Change, and Mathematical Magnitude 5. Presence and Placement in Maya Lin’s Ghost Forest 6. Epilogue: Fathoming Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA landmark volume about the importance of housing in social life. In 1947, the president of the American Sociological Association, Louis Wirth, argued for the importance of housing as a field of sociological research. Now, seventy-five years later, the sociology of housing has still not developed as a distinct subfield, leaving efforts to understand housing's place in society to other disciplines, such as economics and urban planning. With this volume, the editors and contributors solidify the importance of housing studies within the discipline of sociology by tackling topics like racial segregation, housing instability, the supply of affordable housing, and the process of eviction. In doing so, they showcase the very best traditions of sociology: they draw on diverse methodologies, present unique field sites and data sources, and foreground a range of theoretical approaches to elucidate the relationships between contemporary housing, public policy, and key social outcomes. The STrade Review“In The Sociology of Housing, McCabe and Rosen push housing research from the background to the foreground of so many core sociological questions about how we structure society and interact with one another. This volume offers an expert syllabus on housing for academics, students, and practitioners. There is no book like it, and it will stand as the reference tool for decades to come.” -- Mary Pattillo, Harold Washington Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University“The Sociology of Housing addresses an important topic: how housing is created and, in turn, influences and shapes our lives. Much has been written about the economics and financing of housing. But the multifaceted social influences of housing on society have long been overlooked. With contributions from leading scholars, this volume will make an important contribution to our understanding of how housing is interwoven into our lives.” -- Lance Freeman, James W. Effron University Professor of City and Regional Planning & Sociology, University of PennsylvaniaTable of ContentsIntroduction. How Homes Shape Our Social Lives Brian J. McCabe, Georgetown University; Eva Rosen, Georgetown University Part I: Mechanisms of Housing Inequality 1. Housing as Capital: US Policy, Homeownership, and the Racial Wealth Gap Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, University of Albany 2. Latino Homeownership: Opportunities and Challenges in the Twenty-First Century Allen Hyde, Georgia Institute of Technology; Mary J. Fischer, University of Connecticut 3. Latinos’ Housing Inequality: Local Historical Context and the Relational Formation of Segregation María G. Rendón, University of California, Irvine; Deyanira Nevárez Martínez, Michigan State University; Maya Parvati Kulkarni, University of California, Irvine 4. The Renaissance Comes to the Projects: Public Housing Policy, Race, and Urban Redevelopment in Baltimore Peter Rosenblatt, Loyola University Chicago 5. Unsettling Native Land: Indigenous Perspectives on Housing Jennifer Darrah-Okike, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa; Lorinda Riley, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa; Philip M. E. Garboden, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa; Nathalie Rita, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa 6. Affordable Housing Is Public Health: How Landlords Struggle to Contain America’s Lead Poisoning Crisis Matthew H. McLeskey, SUNY Oswego 7. Audit Studies of Housing Discrimination: Established, Emerging, and Future Research S. Michael Gaddis, University of California, Los Angeles; Nicholas V. DiRago, University of California, Los Angeles Part II: Housing Insecurity and Instability 8. Centering the Institutional Life of Eviction Kyle Nelson, University of California, Los Angeles; Michael C. Lens, University of California, Los Angeles 9. Manufactured Housing in the US: A Critical Affordable Housing Infrastructure Esther Sullivan, University of Colorado, Denver 10. Shared Housing and Housing Instability Hope Harvey, University of Kentucky; Kristin L. Perkins, Georgetown University 11. Informal Housing in the US: Variation and Inequality among Squatters in Detroit Claire Herbert, University of Oregon 12. Housing Deprivation: Homelessness and the Reproduction of Poverty Chris Herring, Harvard University Part III: Housing Markets and Housing Supply 13. Housing Supply as a Social Process Joe LaBriola, Brown University 14. Housing Market Intermediaries Elizabeth Korver-Glenn, University of New Mexico; Robin Bartram, Tulane University; Max Besbris, University of Wisconsin–Madison 15. Housing in the Context of Neighborhood Decline Sharon Cornelissen, Harvard University; Christine Jang-Trettien, Princeton University 16. Learning from Short-Term Rentals’ “Disruptions” Krista E. Paulsen, Boise State University 17. Moving Beyond “Good Landlord, Bad Landlord”: A Theoretical Investigation of Exploitation in Housing Philip M. E. Garboden, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa 18. How We Pay to House Each Other Isaac William Martin, University of California, San Diego Part IV: Housing, Racial Segregation, and Inequality 19. The Future of Segregation Studies: Questions, Challenges, and Opportunities Jacob William Faber, New York University 20. Understanding Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Residential Mobility among Housing Choice Voucher Holders Erin Carll, University of Washington; Hannah Lee, University of Washington; Chris Hess, Kennesaw State University; Kyle Crowder, University of Washington 21. All in the Family: Social Connections and the Cycle of Segregation Maximilian Cuddy, University of Illinois, Chicago; Amy Spring, Georgia State University; Maria Krysan, University of Illinois, Chicago; Kyle Crowder, University of Washington 22. Policing, Property, and the Production of Racial Segregation Rahim Kurwa, University of Illinois, Chicago 23. Criminal Justice Contact and Housing Inequality Brielle Bryan, Rice University; Temi Alao, University of Florida 24. The Housing Divide in the Global South Marco Garrido, University of Chicago Works Cited Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA landmark volume about the importance of housing in social life. In 1947, the president of the American Sociological Association, Louis Wirth, argued for the importance of housing as a field of sociological research. Now, seventy-five years later, the sociology of housing has still not developed as a distinct subfield, leaving efforts to understand housing's place in society to other disciplines, such as economics and urban planning. With this volume, the editors and contributors solidify the importance of housing studies within the discipline of sociology by tackling topics like racial segregation, housing instability, the supply of affordable housing, and the process of eviction. In doing so, they showcase the very best traditions of sociology: they draw on diverse methodologies, present unique field sites and data sources, and foreground a range of theoretical approaches to elucidate the relationships between contemporary housing, public policy, and key social outcomes. The STrade Review“In The Sociology of Housing, McCabe and Rosen push housing research from the background to the foreground of so many core sociological questions about how we structure society and interact with one another. This volume offers an expert syllabus on housing for academics, students, and practitioners. There is no book like it, and it will stand as the reference tool for decades to come.” -- Mary Pattillo, Harold Washington Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University“The Sociology of Housing addresses an important topic: how housing is created and, in turn, influences and shapes our lives. Much has been written about the economics and financing of housing. But the multifaceted social influences of housing on society have long been overlooked. With contributions from leading scholars, this volume will make an important contribution to our understanding of how housing is interwoven into our lives.” -- Lance Freeman, James W. Effron University Professor of City and Regional Planning & Sociology, University of PennsylvaniaTable of ContentsIntroduction. How Homes Shape Our Social Lives Brian J. McCabe, Georgetown University; Eva Rosen, Georgetown University Part I: Mechanisms of Housing Inequality 1. Housing as Capital: US Policy, Homeownership, and the Racial Wealth Gap Zawadi Rucks-Ahidiana, University of Albany 2. Latino Homeownership: Opportunities and Challenges in the Twenty-First Century Allen Hyde, Georgia Institute of Technology; Mary J. Fischer, University of Connecticut 3. Latinos’ Housing Inequality: Local Historical Context and the Relational Formation of Segregation María G. Rendón, University of California, Irvine; Deyanira Nevárez Martínez, Michigan State University; Maya Parvati Kulkarni, University of California, Irvine 4. The Renaissance Comes to the Projects: Public Housing Policy, Race, and Urban Redevelopment in Baltimore Peter Rosenblatt, Loyola University Chicago 5. Unsettling Native Land: Indigenous Perspectives on Housing Jennifer Darrah-Okike, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa; Lorinda Riley, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa; Philip M. E. Garboden, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa; Nathalie Rita, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa 6. Affordable Housing Is Public Health: How Landlords Struggle to Contain America’s Lead Poisoning Crisis Matthew H. McLeskey, SUNY Oswego 7. Audit Studies of Housing Discrimination: Established, Emerging, and Future Research S. Michael Gaddis, University of California, Los Angeles; Nicholas V. DiRago, University of California, Los Angeles Part II: Housing Insecurity and Instability 8. Centering the Institutional Life of Eviction Kyle Nelson, University of California, Los Angeles; Michael C. Lens, University of California, Los Angeles 9. Manufactured Housing in the US: A Critical Affordable Housing Infrastructure Esther Sullivan, University of Colorado, Denver 10. Shared Housing and Housing Instability Hope Harvey, University of Kentucky; Kristin L. Perkins, Georgetown University 11. Informal Housing in the US: Variation and Inequality among Squatters in Detroit Claire Herbert, University of Oregon 12. Housing Deprivation: Homelessness and the Reproduction of Poverty Chris Herring, Harvard University Part III: Housing Markets and Housing Supply 13. Housing Supply as a Social Process Joe LaBriola, Brown University 14. Housing Market Intermediaries Elizabeth Korver-Glenn, University of New Mexico; Robin Bartram, Tulane University; Max Besbris, University of Wisconsin–Madison 15. Housing in the Context of Neighborhood Decline Sharon Cornelissen, Harvard University; Christine Jang-Trettien, Princeton University 16. Learning from Short-Term Rentals’ “Disruptions” Krista E. Paulsen, Boise State University 17. Moving Beyond “Good Landlord, Bad Landlord”: A Theoretical Investigation of Exploitation in Housing Philip M. E. Garboden, University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa 18. How We Pay to House Each Other Isaac William Martin, University of California, San Diego Part IV: Housing, Racial Segregation, and Inequality 19. The Future of Segregation Studies: Questions, Challenges, and Opportunities Jacob William Faber, New York University 20. Understanding Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Residential Mobility among Housing Choice Voucher Holders Erin Carll, University of Washington; Hannah Lee, University of Washington; Chris Hess, Kennesaw State University; Kyle Crowder, University of Washington 21. All in the Family: Social Connections and the Cycle of Segregation Maximilian Cuddy, University of Illinois, Chicago; Amy Spring, Georgia State University; Maria Krysan, University of Illinois, Chicago; Kyle Crowder, University of Washington 22. Policing, Property, and the Production of Racial Segregation Rahim Kurwa, University of Illinois, Chicago 23. Criminal Justice Contact and Housing Inequality Brielle Bryan, Rice University; Temi Alao, University of Florida 24. The Housing Divide in the Global South Marco Garrido, University of Chicago Works Cited Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Catastrophic Thinking presents the best introductory account of how the idea of species-wide loss was conceived and established in scientific circles. . . . [Sepkoski] convincingly suggests that ideas about extinction in each historical period reflect broader social and cultural concerns in the modern world, from the intimate connections between extinction and imperialism to current concerns about the global biodiversity crisis. . . . Extinction is no longer a specialized concern. In this climate, David Sepkoski’s accessible guide is most welcome." * Times Literary Supplement *"Convincingly demonstrates that an ecological perspective has profoundly shaped our views of biological and social communities. . . . Sepkoski's magisterial work will hopefully serve as an inspiration for more comprehensive histories of the concept of diversity. . . . Catastrophic Thinking is essential reading for those seeking to understand the origin of one of the most powerful concepts under consideration today." * Science *"A brilliant examination of an urgent subject, with lessons not just for addressing mass extinction but also for reckoning with the intellectual background against which we have failed to do so. Sepkoski is a scientific Maurice Sendak, conjuring a strange world in which the wild things are not the lost animals and plants of the earth’s past so much as the scientists clamouring to study—if not save—them. . . . This book uncovers a pattern of stasis and rupture; ideas, like species, thrive for a time, only to see the context in which they thrived wiped out. Arriving at this particular moment, in a world stalked by extremists and stoked by a profit-driven public square, Sepkoski’s account of where the wild things went makes perfect sense. In an age of rupture, what other way could it have been written? To paraphrase one of Sepkoski’s own sources: Catastrophic Thinking is the extinction story our era deserves." * Social History of Medicine *"Excellent. . . . Catastrophic Thinking is a closely argued, gracefully written book. In fact, it might even be regarded as several books in one: as a history of extinction science, an essay on the origin of a social value, and more subtlety, a piece of cultural criticism. These elements blend together almost seamlessly. Sepkoski achieves just the right mix of historical detachment, scientific sophistication and cultural perceptiveness to carry off his ambitious project. There are plenty of surprises for the reader along the way, and not a little wisdom. In our present age of catastrophes and catastrophizing, it deserves a wide and enthusiastic readership." * Metascience *"Far from a dry recitation of the scientific literature, Sepkoski's meta-analysis of extinction and biological diversity foregrounds ideas and rhetorical choices. . . . Lucidly written and keenly personal, Catastrophic Thinking is engaging from beginning to end. . . . Sepkoski delineates new territory in the discourse of extinction by reviewing and revisiting the most important scientific figures and literature (popular and academic) of each era since catastrophic thinking took hold of the Western imaginary. Readers interested in the scientific history of extinction as a modern concept, particularly as it was formed by human institutions, will find much of interest in Sepkoski's book." * Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society *"This book is impeccably researched, and—rather than a popular science book—does not repackage and distil others' work but provides a novel, academic argument. This fresh take on how we collectively see extinction—and its flipside, loss of diversity—will help readers understand and contextualise the current crisis and the Anthropocene. Sepkoski will give many pause to reflect not just on how our research is influenced by our broader culture, but also how important it is to influence and impact society and politics: to move the needle on the climate and biodiversity crises. . . . Buy a copy of Catastrophic Thinking to better understand—and even be inspired to change—these terrifying times we are living in." * Holocene *"Timely and fascinating. . . . This is a fabulous book, expertly weaving cultural and intellectual history into a rich tapestry of ideas about loss, precarity, and diversity, whose relevance and significance can hardly be overstated. Sepkoski takes readers on an eye-opening journey into a history that remains surprisingly little known despite its obvious importance given the catastrophic biodiversity crisis we currently face. It's an absolute pleasure to read." * Lukas Rieppel, New Books in Science, Technology, and Society *"Sepkoski has written a book that is as dynamic and paradoxical as extinction and diversity themselves. This is a book about extinction and death, but also about diversity and life. Although extinction is a potentially bleak and distressing territory, Sepkoski guides the reader faithfully through it. . . . He transforms the trenches of extinction into navigable terrain for the reader who is willing to consider their own role in the history of extinction." * Environment and History *"How do humans perceive the nature of extinction, and how has that shaped how humans perceive each other and aspects of society? This thought-provoking book examines those questions and reveals how knowing that we can lose something forever—and the realization that extinction comes with cultural and ecological costs—motivates us to protect everything else." * Revelator *"Catastrophic Thinking stands out for the depth of its scholarship. . . . [The book] is positively bristling with fascinating insights. Obviously, this is a must-read for science historians, but palaeontologists and evolutionary biologists interested in the history of their discipline can also safely pick this up. Furthermore, thanks to the compelling arguments and accessible writing, this book should appeal strongly outside of these disciplines to anyone with an interest in palaeontology, evolution, or mass extinctions." * Inquisitive Biologist *"A solid introduction to one of the most critical issues of today. . . . Recommended." * Choice *"In his wise and meticulously argued new book, Sepkoski explains why every era gets the dinosaur story it deserves, how the threat to biodiversity helped fashion cultural diversity into an ideal, and why extinction has become personal to each and every one of us. An urgent and brilliant exemplar of history of science at its very best, Catastrophic Thinking beautifully shows that the ways we construct the past are always reflections of our hopes and fears for the future." -- Oren Harman, author of Evolutions: Fifteen Myths That Explain Our World"An authoritative, compelling, and insightful account of how biological and cultural diversity has come to be so highly prized in contemporary Western society. This is a definitive history of the cultural and scientific developments, especially in paleontology, that have helped forge our sense of the modern biodiversity crisis. Lucid, historically sweeping, and accessible, Sepkoski's book ably reconstructs key aspects of the larger culture in which ideas about extinction, catastrophe, and diversity emerged." -- Mark V. Barrow, Jr., Virginia Tech"Sepkoski concludes the book with an insightful discussion of neoliberalism and the concept of the Anthropocene that inspires a critical reconsideration of the evidently catastrophic attitude of humans. Indeed, Homo sapiens is ‘the dinosaur and the asteroid’ of our era. Finally, although the book was written before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Catastrophic Thinking seems to provide a very appropriate framework in which to address current questions relating to the major challenges facing human beings on a global scale." * History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences *

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“Scholars of US foreign policy have longed for a biography of Joel Poinsett, the diplomat, secret agent, and legislator who actively shaped US–Latin American relations for three crucial decades in the early nineteenth century. Lindsay Schakenbach Regele’s marvelous new study more than meets the task, not only revealing the extensive scope of his influence at home and abroad but also making an important argument about the evolution of early American political economy.” -- Amy S. Greenberg, The Pennsylvania State University"A revealing if at times critical biographical study that highlights the role of economic interests in early 19th-century foreign relations." * The Wall Street Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1 Founding a Man, 1779–1810 Chapter 2 International and Domestic Politics, 1811–1819 Chapter 3 Domestic and International Politics, 1820–1825 Chapter 4 Interest in Mexico, 1825–1830 Chapter 5 Southern “Honor,” 1830–1836 Chapter 6 War, 1837–1841 Chapter 7 Final Battles, 1841–1851 Epilogue Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“Scholars of US foreign policy have longed for a biography of Joel Poinsett, the diplomat, secret agent, and legislator who actively shaped US–Latin American relations for three crucial decades in the early nineteenth century. Lindsay Schakenbach Regele’s marvelous new study more than meets the task, not only revealing the extensive scope of his influence at home and abroad but also making an important argument about the evolution of early American political economy.” -- Amy S. Greenberg, The Pennsylvania State University"A revealing if at times critical biographical study that highlights the role of economic interests in early 19th-century foreign relations." * The Wall Street Journal *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1 Founding a Man, 1779–1810 Chapter 2 International and Domestic Politics, 1811–1819 Chapter 3 Domestic and International Politics, 1820–1825 Chapter 4 Interest in Mexico, 1825–1830 Chapter 5 Southern “Honor,” 1830–1836 Chapter 6 War, 1837–1841 Chapter 7 Final Battles, 1841–1851 Epilogue Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA whirlwind journey through fungus frontiers that underscores how appreciating fungi is key to understanding our planet's power and fragility. What can we learn from the lives of fungi? Splitting time between the northern and southern hemispheres, ecologist Alison Pouliot ensures that she experiences two autumns per year in the pursuit of fungifrom Australia's deserts to Iceland's glaciers to America's Cascade Mountains. In Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms, we journey alongside Pouliot, magnifiers in hand, as she travels the world. With Pouliot as our guide, we smell fire-loving truffles that transform their scent after burning to lure mammals who eat them and, ultimately, spread their spores. We spot the eerie glow of the ghost fungus, a deceptive entity that looks like an edible oyster mushroom but will soon heave back outalong with everything else in your stomachif you take a bite. And we crawl alongside vegetable caterpillars, which are neither vegetable nor caterpillar but a fungus that devours insects from the inside out. Featuring stunning color photographs of these mycological miracles, Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms shows that understanding fungi is fundamental for harmonizing with the natural world.Trade Review"In this captivating study, ecologist Pouliot expounds on mushrooms she’s encountered during her fieldwork....The result is an enjoyable tour of the fungal kingdom." * Publisher's Weekly *"As Pouliot wryly describes her companions and their forays into forests, the fungi that inhabit them emerge as her protagonists….Attending also to the prominent women (including Beatrix Potter) who helped found mycology as a science and fungi’s place in habitat conservation, Pouliot delivers a charming, informative presentation of a world beneath our feet." * Booklist *"[Pouliot makes a] convincing case . . . Fungi are essential to the world as we know it." * New York Review of Books *"In this book, [Pouliot] takes us with her all over the world as she brings fungi to life with lush descriptions, infectious enthusiasm, and gorgeous pictures. But she also shows the reader just how important fungi are to the natural world, as well as what they do for humans." * Book Riot *"Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms is an information-packed, entertaining read that also has gorgeous color photos of fungi. Pouliot takes the reader on an adventure in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres...learning about these mysterious mycological wonders and the roles they play in our ecological systems." -- Jaime Herndon * American Scientist *"Conveying an impassioned message for conservation and awareness, Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms is a compelling, enlightening look at lowly but remarkable fungi that are often hidden in the shadows." * Foreword Reviews *"So—do we really need another book about mushrooms? The answer is yes, but only if it’s this one. Alison Pouliot has written a lovely book that digs deep but wears its learning lightly, and manages to cover—in a series of relatively short, readable, enjoyable and accurate chapters—most of the important issues in popular mycology." * Fungi *“Pouliot is a mycologist whose knowledge of fungi is extraordinarily vast and intricate.” * The Saturday Paper *“I was entertained and enthralled reading this book and I promise I have never read a book from cover to cover on fungi before. I didn't think it was my jam, but [it turns out] it should be everyone's jam. Fungi is literally the glue that keeps us together.” * Readings *“Pouliot conveys the otherworldly charisma of mushrooms with love and skill.” * The Sydney Morning Herald * “Powerful stuff, which should be read by all those who continue to support the insane logging of our native forests.” -- Jonathan Watts, author and environmental activist"This subterranean journey introduces the quirks of behavior that allow fungi to spread through soils, support living plants, and recycle the debris of nature. Alison is an accomplished storyteller." -- Nicholas P. Money | Miami University"[Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms] is a joy to read." -- Sophie Cunningham | author of "City of Trees""Sensual and scientific. Dazzling and boundary breaking. [Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms] will make you see the world anew." -- Long Litt Woon | author of "The Way Through the Woods""The world of fungi is our world even if we don’t know it and can’t see most of it—strange, dazzling, spooky, unpredictable, friendly, deadly, sly. And Alison is the perfect guide. She surprises and informs, delights and warns; makes you wish you could walk with her and her passionate companions. That’s OK. In this book you do." -- Paul Kelly | songwriter"An evocative, accessible and important book about one of the most vital, yet hugely ignored, kingdoms on our planet—fungi. After reading this you cannot help but see the world in a different light—and should approach mushrooms and truffles with new relish." -- Charles Massy | author of "Call of the Reed Warbler""Anyone who has joined Alison in a forest, anywhere in the world, will know her incredible ability to magnify those microscopic organisms that hold our natural world together, to connect every element of human life—physical, emotional or social—to the function of our natural landscapes. [Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms] is like a walk in the forest, pungent and complex, filled with curiosity and wonder, and leaving you with a sense that there is so much more to uncover." -- Millie Ross | ABCTV "Gardening Australia""The underground teaches us a different language—and Alison Pouliot is the perfect translator." -- Toby Kiers | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam"[Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms] takes storytelling about fungi to a captivating new level. A well-researched page turner." -- Anders Dahlberg | Swedish University of Agricultural SciencesTable of ContentsA Note on Fungal Terminology 1 Stirrings in the Subterrain 2 Life in the Mycosphere 3 Into the Australian Bush 4 No Such Thing as a Bad Fungus 5 Fungi, Fire, and Ice 6 Fungal Renegades 7 The Mycophagists 8 Conserving the Bizarre and the Beautiful 9 Women as Keepers of Fungal Lore 10 Restoring Fungi Epilogue Acknowledgments Images Species Register Glossary Selected Sources Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of those rare academic books that remixes a collection of ideas—medieval poetry, land management, weather, bees, God’s vengeance, and climate change—in a style that’s eminently readable, bringing the past to life and connecting it to the present in one engaging sentence after another." * The Christian Century *“Waste and the Wasters deftly maps the contours of ecosystemic imagination in medieval England through close engagement with one of its major vehicles: poetry. Johnson’s compelling study shows the importance of dealing with premodern sources in all their complexity as they work to make sense of the dense relational landscape that they inhabit and their responsibilities within it." -- Brooke Holmes, Princeton University“Literary scholars in the Anthropocene can’t help but notice precarity, both precarity of time (there may not be much left!) and discursive precarity (does our discipline have much to offer?). Enter Eleanor Johnson. When we finish reading this vigorously conversational book, the ecosystem of our discipline will find refreshing new networks within which to work.” -- James Simpson, Harvard University“A beautiful and urgent essay on ecosystemic thought in late medieval England that is also a call to action on the climate catastrophe now unfolding. Look to art, says Johnson, when there’s no organized vocabulary for expressions of ecosystemic peril. Look to medieval poetry to find complex and ethical ruminations on what it is to waste and to be a waster, both critical communal problems tying individuals to larger concepts of social justice. In our current eco-meltdown, this book will emphatically not waste anyone’s time.” -- Carolyn Dinshaw, New York UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction / Thinking and Talking Ecosystemically Chapter One / The Five Disasters Facing Medieval Ecosystems Chapter Two / The Laws of Waste: The Bible and the Common Law Chapter Three / Waste in Sermons and Penitential Manuals: The Unjust Steward Chapter Four / Winner and Waster: The Imperilment of the Land Chapter Five / Wasters and Workers in Piers Plowman: Famine and Food Insecurity Chapter Six / Chaucer’s Yeoman’s Wasting Body: Pollution and Contagion Chapter Seven / The Wasted Lands of the Green Knight, and the Wasting of Camelot: Climate Change, Climate Revenge Chapter Eight / Gardens, Bees, and Wastours: Political Waste and the Fantasy of Sustainability Chapter Nine / Aftermath: From Wasting to Waste Matter Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA groundbreaking examination of ecological thought in medieval England. While the scale of today's crisis is unprecedented, environmental catastrophe is nothing new. Waste and the Wasters studies the late Middle Ages, when a convergence of land contraction, soil depletion, climate change, pollution, and plague subsumed Western Europe. In a culture lacking formal scientific methods, the task of explaining and coming to grips with what was happening fell to medieval poets. The poems they wrote used the terms waste or wasters to anchor trenchant critiques of people's unsustainable relationships with the world around them and with each other. In this book, Eleanor Johnson shows how poetry helped medieval people understand and navigate the ecosystemic crisesboth material and spiritualof their time.Trade Review"One of those rare academic books that remixes a collection of ideas—medieval poetry, land management, weather, bees, God’s vengeance, and climate change—in a style that’s eminently readable, bringing the past to life and connecting it to the present in one engaging sentence after another." * The Christian Century *“Waste and the Wasters deftly maps the contours of ecosystemic imagination in medieval England through close engagement with one of its major vehicles: poetry. Johnson’s compelling study shows the importance of dealing with premodern sources in all their complexity as they work to make sense of the dense relational landscape that they inhabit and their responsibilities within it." -- Brooke Holmes, Princeton University“Literary scholars in the Anthropocene can’t help but notice precarity, both precarity of time (there may not be much left!) and discursive precarity (does our discipline have much to offer?). Enter Eleanor Johnson. When we finish reading this vigorously conversational book, the ecosystem of our discipline will find refreshing new networks within which to work.” -- James Simpson, Harvard University“A beautiful and urgent essay on ecosystemic thought in late medieval England that is also a call to action on the climate catastrophe now unfolding. Look to art, says Johnson, when there’s no organized vocabulary for expressions of ecosystemic peril. Look to medieval poetry to find complex and ethical ruminations on what it is to waste and to be a waster, both critical communal problems tying individuals to larger concepts of social justice. In our current eco-meltdown, this book will emphatically not waste anyone’s time.” -- Carolyn Dinshaw, New York UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction / Thinking and Talking Ecosystemically Chapter One / The Five Disasters Facing Medieval Ecosystems Chapter Two / The Laws of Waste: The Bible and the Common Law Chapter Three / Waste in Sermons and Penitential Manuals: The Unjust Steward Chapter Four / Winner and Waster: The Imperilment of the Land Chapter Five / Wasters and Workers in Piers Plowman: Famine and Food Insecurity Chapter Six / Chaucer’s Yeoman’s Wasting Body: Pollution and Contagion Chapter Seven / The Wasted Lands of the Green Knight, and the Wasting of Camelot: Climate Change, Climate Revenge Chapter Eight / Gardens, Bees, and Wastours: Political Waste and the Fantasy of Sustainability Chapter Nine / Aftermath: From Wasting to Waste Matter Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisA collection of the most advanced and authoritative agricultural-economic research in the face of increasing water scarcity. Agriculture has been critical in the development of the American economy. Except in parts of the western United States, water access has not been a critical constraint on agricultural productivity, but with climate change, this may no longer be the case. This volume highlights new research on the interconnections between American agriculture, water resources, and climate change. It examines climatic and geologic factors that affect the agricultural sector and highlights historical and contemporary farmer responses to varying conditions and water availability. It identifies the potential effects of climate change on water supplies, access, agricultural practices, and profitability, and analyzes technological, agronomic, management, and institutional adjustments. Adaptations such as new crops, production practices, irrigation technologies, water conveyance infrastructure, fertilizer application, and increased use of groundwater can generate both social benefits and social costs, which may be internalized with various institutional innovations. Drawing on both historical and present experiences, this volume provides valuable insights into the economics of water supply in American agriculture as climate change unfolds.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Gary D. Libecap and Ariel Dinar 1. The Economics of Climatic Adaptation: Agricultural Drainage in the United States Eric C. Edwards and Walter N. Thurman 2. Estimating the Effect of Easements on Agricultural Production Nicole Karwowski 3. The Cost-Effectiveness of Irrigation Canal Lining and Piping in the Western United States R. Aaron Hrozencik, Nicholas A. Potter, and Steven Wallander 4. Center Pivot Irrigation Systems as a Form of Drought Risk Mitigation in Humid Regions Daniel Cooley and Steven M. Smith 5. Perceived Water Scarcity and Irrigation Technology Adoption Joey Blumberg, Christopher Goemans, and Dale Manning 6. Climate, Drought Exposure, and Technology Adoption: An Application to Drought-Tolerant Corn in the United States Jonathan McFadden, David Smith, and Steven Wallander 7. Cover Crops, Drought, Yield, and Risk: An Analysis of US Soybean Production Fengxia Dong 8. Climate Change and Downstream Water Quality in Agricultural Production: The Case of Nutrient Runoff to the Gulf of Mexico Levan Elbakidze, Yuelu Xu, Philip W. Gassman, Jeffrey G. Arnold, and Haw Yen 9. Nutrient Pollution and US Agriculture: Causal Effects, Integrated Assessment, and Implications of Climate Change Konstantinos Metaxoglou and Aaron Smith 10. The Political Economy of Groundwater Management: Descriptive Evidence from California Ellen M. Bruno, Nick Hagerty, and Arthur R. Wardle 11. Estimating the Demand for In Situ Groundwater for Climate Resilience: The Case of the Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer in Arkansas Kent F. Kovacs and Shelby Rider Author Index Subject Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisDespite advanced technology, the practice of water witching - using a forked stick to indicate an underground source of water - persists in both rural and urban areas. This work gives personal accounts, historical background and data from controlled experiments and a nationwide survey.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first English translation of Johannes Weigelt's 1927 classic makes available the seminal work in taphonomy, the study of how organisms die, decay, become entombed in sediments, and fossilize over time. Weigelt emphasized the importance of empirical work and made extensive observations of modern carcasses on the Texas Gulf Coast. He applied the results to evidence from the fossil record and demonstrated that an understanding of the postmortem fate of modern animals is crucial to making sound inferences about fossil vertebrate assemblages and their ecological communities. Weigelt spent sixteen months on the Gulf Coast in the mid-1920s, gathering evidence from the carcasses of cattle and other animals in the early stages of preservation. This book reports his observations. He discusses death and decomposition; classifies various modes of death (drowning, cold, dehydration, fire, mud, quicksand, oil slicks, etc.); documents and analyzes the positions of carcasses; presents detailed data on carcass assemblages at the Smither's Lake site in Texas; and, in a final chapter, makes comparisons to carcass assemblages from the geologic past. He raises questions about whether much of the fossil record is a product of unusual events and, if so, what the implications are for paleoecological studies. The English edition of Recent Vertebrate Carcasses includes a foreword and a translator's note that comment on Weigelt's life and the significance of his work. The original bibliography has been brought up to date, and, where necessary, updated scientific and place names have been added to the text in brackets. An index of names, places, and subjects is included, and Weigelt's own photographs of carcasses and drawings of skeletons illustrate the text.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first English translation of Johannes Weigelt's 1927 classic makes available the seminal work in taphonomy, the study of how organisms die, decay, become entombed in sediments, and fossilize over time. Weigelt emphasized the importance of empirical work and made extensive observations of modern carcasses on the Texas Gulf Coast. He applied the results to evidence from the fossil record and demonstrated that an understanding of the postmortem fate of modern animals is crucial to making sound inferences about fossil vertebrate assemblages and their ecological communities. Weigelt spent sixteen months on the Gulf Coast in the mid-1920s, gathering evidence from the carcasses of cattle and other animals in the early stages of preservation. This book reports his observations. He discusses death and decomposition; classifies various modes of death (drowning, cold, dehydration, fire, mud, quicksand, oil slicks, etc.); documents and analyzes the positions of carcasses; presents detailed data on carcass assemblages at the Smither's Lake site in Texas; and, in a final chapter, makes comparisons to carcass assemblages from the geologic past. He raises questions about whether much of the fossil record is a product of unusual events and, if so, what the implications are for paleoecological studies. The English edition of Recent Vertebrate Carcasses includes a foreword and a translator's note that comment on Weigelt's life and the significance of his work. The original bibliography has been brought up to date, and, where necessary, updated scientific and place names have been added to the text in brackets. An index of names, places, and subjects is included, and Weigelt's own photographs of carcasses and drawings of skeletons illustrate the text.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn the early days of 1937, the Ohio River, swollen by heavy winter rains, began rising. By the time the waters crested, the Ohio and Mississippi had climbed to record heights. Nearly four hundred people had died, while a million more had run from their homes. This is a history of one of the most destructive disasters in American history.Trade Review"David Welky has done a prodigious job of reminding us about the horror inflicted by the Ohio-Mississippi flood of 1937. At its heart, The Thousand-Year Flood is a Great Depression story not unlike the Dust Bowl tragedy. His scholarship is impeccable. Highly recommended!" (Douglas Brinkley, author of The Great Deluge)"

Read more less

Book SynopsisOf the thirty miles of Lake Michigan shoreline within the city limits of Chicago, twenty-four miles is public park land. The crown jewels of its park system, the lakefront parks bewitch natives and visitors alike with their brisk winds, shady trees, sandy beaches, and rolling waves. Like most good things, the protection of the lakefront parks didn't come easy, and this book chronicles the hard-fought and never-ending battles Chicago citizens have waged to keep them forever open, clear, and free.Illustrated with historic and contemporary photographs, Wille's book tells how Chicago's lakefront has survived a century of development. The story serves as a warning to anyone who thinks the struggle for the lakefront is over, or who takes for granted the beauty of its public beaches and parks. A thoroughly fascinating and well-documented narrative which draws the reader into the sights, smells and sounds of Chicago's story. . . . Everyone who cares about the development of land and its conservation will benefit from reading Miss Wille's book.Daniel J. Shannon, Architectural ForumNot only good reading, it is also a splendid example of how to equip concerned citizens for their necessary participation in the politics of planning and a more livable environment.Library Journal

Read more less

Book SynopsisOf the thirty miles of Lake Michigan shoreline within the city limits of Chicago, twenty-four miles is public park land. The crown jewels of its park system, the lakefront parks bewitch natives and visitors alike with their brisk winds, shady trees, sandy beaches, and rolling waves. Like most good things, the protection of the lakefront parks didn't come easy, and this book chronicles the hard-fought and never-ending battles Chicago citizens have waged to keep them forever open, clear, and free.Illustrated with historic and contemporary photographs, Wille's book tells how Chicago's lakefront has survived a century of development. The story serves as a warning to anyone who thinks the struggle for the lakefront is over, or who takes for granted the beauty of its public beaches and parks. A thoroughly fascinating and well-documented narrative which draws the reader into the sights, smells and sounds of Chicago's story. . . . Everyone who cares about the development of land and its conservation will benefit from reading Miss Wille's book.Daniel J. Shannon, Architectural ForumNot only good reading, it is also a splendid example of how to equip concerned citizens for their necessary participation in the politics of planning and a more livable environment.Library Journal

Read more less

Book SynopsisDeforestation - the thinning and clearing of forests for fuel, shelter, and agriculture - is among the important ways humans have transformed the environment. This book presents the history of this process and its consequences. It traces the impact of human activities from the Paleolithic age through the classical world and the medieval period.Trade Review"Anyone who doubts the power of history to inform the present should read this closely argued and sweeping survey. This is rich, timely, and sobering historical fare written in a measured, non-sensationalist style by a master of his craft. One only hopes (almost certainly vainly) that today's policymakers take its lessons to heart." - Brian Fagan, Los Angeles Times "The most comprehensive account ever written of when, where, and how humans have wrought what is surely the most dramatic change in Earth's surface since the end of the Pleistocene.... The book is not simply about deforestation but about every aspect of human use of the forest and the forces that drive this use." - Brian Donahue, Science"

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs our world becomes increasingly urbanized, an understanding of the context, mechanisms, and consequences of city and suburban environments becomes more critical. This title demonstrates the value of urban green. Focusing specifically on the role of vegetation and trees, it shows the costs and benefits reaped from urban open spaces.Trade Review"At a time when we all need to approach our shared environmental challenges with an integrative, interdisciplinary perspective, Wilson provides us with a much-needed resource that combines urban ecology, physics, chemistry, and sociology. A must read for anyone seeking to have a positive impact on the places in which we live." (Richard V. Pouyat, US Forest Service)"

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs our world becomes increasingly urbanized, an understanding of the context, mechanisms, and consequences of city and suburban environments becomes more critical. This title demonstrates the value of urban green. Focusing specifically on the role of vegetation and trees, it shows the costs and benefits reaped from urban open spaces.Trade Review"At a time when we all need to approach our shared environmental challenges with an integrative, interdisciplinary perspective, Wilson provides us with a much-needed resource that combines urban ecology, physics, chemistry, and sociology. A must read for anyone seeking to have a positive impact on the places in which we live." (Richard V. Pouyat, US Forest Service)"

Read more less

Book SynopsisFar from being the serene, natural streams of yore, modern rivers have been diverted, dammed, dumped in, and dried up, all in efforts to harness their power for human needs. But these rivers have also undergone environmental change. This title explores the confluence of human and environmental change on ten of the great rivers of the world.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe landscape of southwestern Wyoming around the ghost town of Fossil is beautiful but harsh. But during the early Eocene, more than fifty million years ago, it was a subtropical lake, surrounded by volcanoes and forests and teeming with life. Lavishly produced in full color, this title opens a window onto our planet's long-lost past.Trade Review"Lance Grande's book is a tour de force celebrating the scientific value, historical background, biodiversity, and sheer beauty of the exquisitely preserved fossils from the Fossil Butte localities in Wyoming. Elegantly written with lucid prose and enjoyable stories about the human culture of fossil collecting, it is an unforgettable, must-have biography of one the world's most significant fossil sites." -John Long, author of The Dawn of the Deed"

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe legacy of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) looms large over the natural sciences. His 1799-1804 research expedition to Central and South America with botanist Aime Bonpland set the course for the great scientific surveys of the nineteenth century. This book features his influential work - and his personal favorite.

Read more less

Book SynopsisMount Vesuvius has been famous ever since its eruption in 79 CE, when it destroyed and buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. In this title, the author argues that this investigation and engagement with Vesuvius was paramount to the development of modern volcanology.Trade Review"Watching Vesuvius explores the question of Vesuvius as an object of study in the early modern science of volcanism from the investigations and opinions of humanists and naturalists in the late Renaissance to the early eighteenth-century philosophizing on volcanoes and the development of geology later in the century. Around this history of science, Sean Cocco weaves a deep cultural history of the relationship between nature and culture in the theories and practices of the peoples in the city of Naples." (John A. Marino, University of California, San Diego)"

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis text provides a comprehensive account of the events surrounding the largest student revolt in history. The author teases out the emotions, rumours and elements of traditional and national culture that drove the students to revolt in 1989 at Tiananmen Square, Beijing.

Read more less

Book SynopsisDoes a sustainable future include eating meat?Trade Review"Bringing together a mix of scholars, practitioners, and advocates, Green Meat? highlights diverse perspectives on the future of animal food production. While it may not settle every argument about meat, it undoubtedly offers a valuable contribution to the debate." Garrett M. Broad, Fordham University and author of More Than Just Food: Food Justice and Community Change"Green Meat? provides compelling examples throughout of how meat can be sustainably produced and consumed, but as Abra Brynne discusses in the final chapter, how do we turn theory into practice in ways that slow climate change? Corporations and meat producers will continue to monitor profits and governments will support these companies. The real power lies with consumers and entrepreneurs, those advocating for change and working within existing structures to diversify the meat industry at all levels. Combining holistic grazing with industrial meat production and adding plant-based options at major fast food chains are two examples of changing attitudes and practices. Meat will remain an integral part of humans' diets for the foreseeable future, and Green Meat? provides realistic yet hopeful analyses of how we can consume meat more sustainably. We will need to incorporate all of these ideas when it comes to creating a greener meatscape-modernization, replacement, and renewal; this is the most powerful takeaway from the collection." HNet

Read more less

Book SynopsisA short history of climate change: its causes, consequences, deniers, and solutions for remediation.Trade Review"It is worth saying that it is preposterous that in a world where we can get energy from the sun, the wind, and the tides -- all above ground -- we still get energy by sending miners underground to dig coal, and by defacing the landscape in search of oil and with the construction of pipelines. Carbon Blues is a timely synthesis of the daunting subject of climate change and makes an important contribution to discourse on the topic in society and in the classroom." Laurel Sefton MacDowell, University of Toronto and author of An Environmental History of Canada"In this solidly-written book, Mason, author of Turbulent Empires, sweeps through a variety of contexts related to climate change, history, current events, and the future. Many of today's climate change narratives are depressing. To some it feels as if society is collectively singling the blues. To some it feels as it society is collectively singling the blues. Mason's test is written in this vein, though there is a bit of jazz to be found in it as well." Choice

Read more less

Book SynopsisFriend Beloved invites readers to enter the imaginative worlds of two ambitious young scientists: Marie Carmichael Stopes, the paleobotanist who found international fame as a birth control advocate and feminist icon, and Charles Gordon Hewitt, the housefly expert who became one of Canada's trailblazers of nature conservation before he died in the Spanish flu pandemic.Trade Review“This book provides nuance to the interpersonal relationships, scientific writing, and decision-making processes that shaped who Stopes and Hewitt would become later in life.” H-Environment

Read more less

Book SynopsisFrom shipments of Canadian waste rotting in developing countries to overflowing landfills and ineffective recycling programs, Canada is facing a waste crisis. Canadians are becoming increasingly aware that waste is an acute environmental and human health issue and a complex one, the solutions to which are often contradictory.Canada''s Waste Flows is an honest look at the production and movement of Canadian waste, from region to region and across the globe, and its consequences. Through a series of timely empirical case studies, the book reveals waste as less of a technological problem and more of a material, economic, political, historical, and cultural concern. Canada''s Waste Flows demonstrates that Canadians are misdirecting their attention to post-consumer waste and their responsibility for minimizing it through recycling; waste must be understood as a social justice issue, and in particular as a symptom of ongoing settler colonialism. Through a comparative Trade Review"Canada's Waste Flows generatively redirects the reader's vision away from urban recycling and domestic waste towards the larger problems of waste contamination generated by settler colonialism, neoliberal government, and resource extraction in the Canadian North. Rigorously researched and tightly theorized, Myra Hird's compelling book demonstrates how waste is much more than a technical challenge for specialists: waste has become a pervasive geological stratum, an index of the Anthropocene, which poses urgent challenges for social thought and political action in Canada and beyond." Andrew Barry, University College London"Canada's Waste Flows is one of the first attempts not just to discuss the challenges posed by waste in a municipal or national framework, but to connect these municipal and national politics to global events. Hird examines Canada's waste problems and their colonial legacies in a detailed and holistic way. A fascinating read." Sabrina Peric, University of Calgary

Read more less