From Napoleon to Stalin and Other Essays

Book Description

These essays now reprinted and prefaced by Jonathan Haslam, E.H. Carr's biographer, give the reader a representative sample of Carr's interests over several decades. They include fascinating picture portraits of figures, both major and minor, from the 19th and 20th centuries, some of whom he knew firsthand. The reader will also find studied reflection on the major events and their impact including the Paris peace settlement of 1919 and the legacy of Stalin in Russian history. Carr is always lucid, with a taste for controversy. Novices, fans and critics alike will not be disappointed.

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In a wonderful weave of science, metaphor, and prose, David Quammen, author of The Flight of the Iguana, applies the lessons of island biogeography - the study of the distribution of species on islands and islandlike patches of landscape - to modern ecosystem decay, offering us insight into the origin and extinction of species, our relationship to nature, and the future of our world.

Book Description

David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo, is a

brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope,

far-reaching in its message -- a crucial book in

precarious times, which radically alters the way in

which we understand the natural world and our place

in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment

and wonders.

In The Song of the Dodo, we follow Quammen's keen

intellect through the ideas, theories, and experiments

of prominent naturalists of the last two centuries.

We trail after him as he travels the world,

tracking the subject of island biogeography, which

encompasses nothing less than the study of the origin

and extinction of all species. Why is this island

idea so important? Because islands are where

species most commonly go extinct -- and because, as

Quammen points out, we live in an age when all of

Earth's landscapes are being chopped into island-like

fragments by human activity.

Through his eyes, we glimpse the nature of evolution

and extinction, and in so doing come to understand

the monumental diversity of our planet, and

the importance of preserving its wild landscapes,

animals, and plants. We also meet some fascinating

human characters. By the book's end we are wiser,

and more deeply concerned, but Quammen

leaves us with a message of excitement and hope.

Customer Reviews:

Science Journalism? Yeh, it rules!.......2007-09-26

This is the first book I've read by Quammen, an imminently talented journalist who perfectly balances the information and writing style of the book. He follows a chronological progression of island biogeography from Darwin through Jared Diamond (who became hugely famous shortly after the release of this book). Quammen's travelogues are excellent, combining a sympathetic, open perspective that is adventurous and engaged. Late in the book, Quammen describes a climb to the nest of a Mauritius kestrel: "When I'm thirty feet up, a tree branch flicks off my glasses, which drop to the ground. I could go down and retrieve them, sure, that would be sensible, but I'd fall too far behind the cheerful maniacs...
'Do you trust this vine?' I call up to Jones. Gangly but tall, he must weigh two hundred pounds, and from this angle I can appreciate the size of his feet.
'Not greatly.'
We ratchet our way upward, slowly, on the cliff face. It isn't Half Dome but it's more perilous than the average birdwatching stroll. We rise out above the valley. As we move beyond the treetops, I give myself an explicit mental reminder: Fall from here and you don't go home. Finally, Jones and I catch up with Lewis on a narrow rock shelf, like a window ledge ten stories above Lexington Avenue...
I gaze out at the panorama--the forested canyon below us, the deer ranch beyond, and the cane plantation beyond that, all spreading westward for five miles to the crescent of beach and then the great turquoise plane of the Indian Ocean." (562-3)
It's Quammen's excitement and sensitivty that inspire the reader to continue and to care, to take notice of humanity's influence: carving nature into islands, resulting in astonishing rates of extinction and ecosystem decay. But Quammen urges us to cling to hope, not despair, because "besides being fruitless it's far less exciting than hope, however slim." (636)

Desultory fluff.......2007-09-06

This is by far the most desultory, fluff-filled history of biological evolution that I've ever read. Generally, I am not a skimmer of Quammen's work, and in fact often enjoy his wit and lithesome prose, but after only a dozen pages or so into Dodo I found myself flipping page after page looking for something substantive, looking for meat. In one word, the pace is SLOW. Over and over again in the margins I found myself scribbling "Go! Go! We'd advanced this far thirty pages ago!" But on the plus side I suppose if you are looking for a book to practice your speed reading, Dodo may be it: you can flip ten pages at a throw and hardly miss a thing.

Fabulous.......2006-09-06

Quammen's book is a rare bird--a clearly written science book that doesn't condescend to readers. It's long enough to go fairly deep, and deep enough to be interesting: it's on my short list of favorites.

As other reviewers point out, the history of squabbles wears a little thin, but neither Darwin nor anyone else sticks in my memory as having been unfairly kneecapped. In fact, the only faintly negative impression I had was of the excessive care Quammen takes in presenting some fairly basic math. Highly recommended.

Plotting the roadmap to species extinction.......2006-07-23

"Islands are where species go to die." - David Quammen, author of THE SONG OF THE DODO

This book is all about the birth, maturation, and real world applications of the science of island biogeography as it relates to the circumstances of species isolation and diversification and subsequent decline and extinction. Here, "island" means not only the obvious - a bit of land surrounded by water - but any habitat separated from the rest of the world by a geographic barrier which its resident species are unlikely to cross. "Island", then, can refer, for examples, to a lake, a remnant of rain forest surrounded by clear-cut, a temperate mountaintop surrounded by desert, a national park hemmed in by human habitation, a cave, an expanse of jungle bordered by wide rivers, or a literal island in the sea.

Island biogeography inexorably leads the reader to the concept of conservation biology and viable-population theory. You see, the rampant human population is cutting the world's diverse ecosystems into little bits - islands - thus dooming countless species living within them - especially large vertebrates - to eventual destruction.

THE SONG OF THE DODO is a lucid, erudite, troubling, and extensively researched piece of science writing by journalist David Quammen. It's biggest fault is that he just about beats the subject to death. Where, perhaps, just a few examples of past species extinction (the Dodo or the Micronesian honeyeater) and present pending extinction (the indri of Madagascar or the Concho water snake in Texas) would suffice, the author includes at least a dozen more. But, as Quammen is such an excellent writer who feels strongly about this important subject, one cannot award less than five stars. Amidst the record of both realized and threatened animal extirpations, David even manages to be humorous when his narrative becomes a personal travelogue as he journeys to exotic places to observe the pending carnage for himself, as when tripping face-first into a spiderweb on Guam ("My worst nightmares feature tarantulas the size of badgers") or getting mugged in Rio de Janeiro. About the last incident, when confronted at the local police station with the one (of three) of his attackers unlucky enough to get caught, David quips:

"He's looking at five years (imprisonment) I'm told. Cinco anos. Cinco, no kidding? that's a lot of anos, I say. Probably I should feel terrible for the young thug, on grounds of socioeconomic extenuation, but in the weakness of the moment my liberal knee fails to jerk and cinco anos sounds fine."

The most glaring negative is the lack of photographs, both of the various creatures under discussion and the scientists, past and present, who've contributed to, and fought over, the theory and practice of island biogeography.

Recently, I saw AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, a documentary on global warming. Taken together with THE SONG OF THE DODO, my pessimism is kindled to a white heat. I don't have a high opinion of my fellow man: Homo sapiens is a rapacious species ungenerous to the other life forms riding Mother Earth. We blithely defecate on our own doorstep. At some point, the planet, which will ultimately endure, will turn to Man and say, "I'll show you!" Then, as Quammen puts it:

"When we ourselves do go (extinct), the sparrows and the cockroaches and the rats and the dandelions that survive us should eventually give rise to a new inflorescence of diversity. I'll leave it to you to decide whether that represents a gloomy scenario or a cheery one."

Comprehensive.......2006-07-19

Mr Quammen's work is the finest written on the facts of island biogeography. Broad in scope, the writer visited the leks of the birds of paradise and those nasty lizards on Komodo. Other places of interest the book visits are Madagascar and the Galapagos, known for their weird endemic faunas that can only be explained in an evolutionary, and biogeographic manner.

Born To Be A Butterfly (DK Readers, Level 1: Beginning to Read)

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Great pictures.
Born to be Beautiful

Born To Be A Butterfly (DK Readers, Level 1: Beginning to Read)
Karen Wallace
Manufacturer: DK CHILDREN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0789457059

Book Description

This Level 1 book is appropriate for children who are just beginning to read.

In Born to Be a Butterfly, children will witness the magical transformation as a newly hatched caterpillar becomes a beautiful Red Admiral Butterfly. For children who are just beginning to read and who have a limited vocabulary, these 32-page Level 1 books-about everything from tadpoles to puppies-use word repetition and simple sentences to convey meaning. Picture dictionary boxes with word labels "show" the meanings of words. These books contain between 400 and 450 words each, and they are 80 percent pictures and 20 percent text.

The Dorling Kindersley Readers combine an enticing visual layout with high-interest, easy-to-read stories to captivate and delight young bookworms who are just getting started. Written by leading children's authors and compiled in consultation with literacy experts, these engaging books build reader confidence along with a lifelong appreciation for nonfiction, classic stories, and biographies. There is a DK Reader to interest every child at every level, from preschool to grade 4.

Customer Reviews:

Great pictures........2007-08-23

The pictures in this book are clear and up close. You can really see the butterfly's probiscus and other details. It's a great book for the budding scientist or a pre-school/kindergarten classroom.

Born to be Beautiful.......2001-10-30

I have always thought that the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly is just amazing. In this story, a butterfly flits from flower to flower and looks for a leaf where she can lay her eggs. The photography is stunning and you can actually see the caterpillar growing inside the egg. Once the caterpillar hatches, she eats and eats and eats.

As the caterpillar gets bigger and bigger, she sheds her skin until finally she looks for a sturdy leaf and hangs upside down. The outside skin turns hard and inside, she is turning into a beautiful creature. One day the chrysalis splits open and a new butterfly emerges to dry in the sunshine.

On the last page, there is a picture word list and your child can sign and date the back cover to remind them of their accomplishment when they are able to completely read this book on their own.

Amazon.com

Since 1869, when its inaugural issue appeared, the international journal Nature has been at the forefront of research in the life sciences, publishing sometimes controversial, even revolutionary work in such fields as genetics, molecular biology, and evolutionary theory. Its first issue included T. H. Huxley's report on Triassic dinosaurs, which brought public attention to the new discipline of paleontology; subsequent issues helped rehabilitate the reputation of Gregor Mendel and revise the human fossil record, among other achievements. Lately, through exponents such as senior editor Henry Gee, Nature has advocated work in cladistics, a taxonomic system that considers ecological relationships as well as evolutionary lineages in classifying living things, which Gee has elsewhere called "a revolution in thought as profound as that of Darwinian evolution by natural selection."

In Shaking the Tree, useful as both reference and survey text, Gee offers 19 review articles from recent issues of Nature, addressing such topics as the theory of punctuated equilibrium, the origin of terrestrial plants, the evolution of birds from carnivorous dinosaurs, and the manifold causes of mass extinction in distant geological epochs. The contributors include Stephen Jay Gould, John Maynard Smith, Caro-Beth Stewart, and other leading scientists, all of whom fulfill Gee's promise to "provide added spice to nourishing-but-bland textbook fare." --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Nature has published news about the history of life ever since its first issue in 1869, in which T. H. Huxley ("Darwin's bulldog") wrote about Triassic dinosaurs. In recent years, the field has enjoyed a tremendous flowering due to new investigative techniques drawn from cladistics (a revolutionary method for charting evolutionary relationships) and molecular biology.

Shaking the Tree brings together nineteen review articles written for Nature over the past decade by many of the major figures in paleontology and evolution, from Stephen Jay Gould to Simon Conway Morris. Each article is brief, accessible, and opinionated, providing "shoot from the hip" accounts of the latest news and debates. Topics covered include major extinction events, homeotic genes and body plans, the origin and evolution of the primates, and reconstructions of phylogenetic trees for a wide variety of groups. The editor, Henry Gee, gives new commentary and updated references.

Shaking the Tree is a one-stop resource for engaging overviews of the latest research in the history of life on Earth.

Reading and Comprehension Guide: for Life Science (Holt Science and Technology)

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Reading and Comprehension Guide: for Life Science (Holt Science and Technology)

Manufacturer: Holt Rinehart & Winston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0030360617

Product Description

Includes Directed Reading Worksheets, Vocabulary and Section Summary Worksheets.

Prentice Hall Science Explorer Focus on Life Science - California Edition, Guided Reading and Study Workbook

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Prentice Hall Science Explorer Focus on Life Science - California Edition, Guided Reading and Study Workbook

Manufacturer: Pearson Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0130527289

Adaptation And Survival (Reading Essentials in Science)

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Adaptation And Survival (Reading Essentials in Science)
Susan Glass
Manufacturer: Perfection Learning
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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Biology: Dynamics of Life - Reading Essentials

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Biology: Dynamics of Life - Reading Essentials
Alton Biggs
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Glencoe
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0078701813

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El Picaflor (Life Cycles)
David M. Schwartz
Manufacturer: Gareth Stevens Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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Book Description

Lough Neagh is the largest lake in the British Isles. It covers an area of 383 km ² being 30 km along its longest axis. From pre-historic times the lake and its rivers influenced the settlements of man in the role of a fishery and communication link with the interior of Ireland. Ireland's first canal, completed in 1787, linked the small but significant coal deposits of Tyrone to Dublin by way of the lough and later the Lagen Canal became an important commercial route to the new city of Belfast.
Today, only sand barge transport persists but the lough supports Europe's largest eel fishery and provides commercial salmon, trout and perch catches, besides acting as an important centre for recreational pursuits. Increasingly it has become the major water resource for Northern Ireland supplying much of the demand for the heavily populated Belfast area.
Biologically the lough is rich, sustaining enormous invertebrate populations of, for example, chironomids and gammarids alongside the comparatively exotic glacial relict, Mysis relicta. Its bird life makes the lough an area of very special conservation interest as a Ramsar site.
The book describes the basic ecology of the lough with particular emphasis on both the interaction of the physical, chemical and biological components and the role of ecology in resource management. Extensive recent researches are set in geological, geographical and historical context and together with palaeolimnological studies of the sediments are used to trace major changes in the ecology of the lough under man's influence, especially in the past 100 years.

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