Average customer rating:
- Planet Earth.
- Planet Earth: As You've Never Seen It Before
- A Great Coffee Table Book
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Planet Earth: As You've Never Seen It Before
Alastair Fothergill
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series
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Planet Earth: The Making of an Epic Series
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![Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series [HD DVD]](http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000MRAAJW.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg)
Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series [HD DVD]
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Ocean
ASIN: 0520250540 |
Book Description
A visual odyssey that will change the way we see our planet, this remarkable book, companion to the acclaimed Discovery Channel/ BBC series, is an enduring and awe-inspiring record of one of the most ambitious natural history projects ever undertaken. Using the latest aerial surveillance, state-of-the-art cameras, and high definition technology, the creators of Planet Earth have assembled more than 400 stunning photographs of wondrous natural landscapes from around the globe, including incredible footage of the rarely spotted, almost mythical creatures that live in these habitats. Many of the images reveal inaccessible places that few have seen and record animal behavior that has never been filmed or photographed before. With the help of this highly advanced technology and the world's premier wildlife photographers, the book takes us on a spectacular journey from the world's greatest rivers and impressive gorges, to its mightiest mountains, hidden caves and caverns, and vast deserts. Planet Earth captures breathtaking sequences of predators and their prey, lush vistas of forests viewed from the tops of towering trees, the oceans and their mysterious creatures viewed from beneath the surface, and much more--in a magnificent adventure that brings unknown wonders of the natural world into our living rooms.
Copub: BBC Worldwide Americas
Customer Reviews:
Planet Earth........2007-08-14
Wow!!! my 8 year old loves this DVD. Very interesting to watch. Does have some parts that my 8 year old has a trouble watching, this is the section of life and death in the food chain. Otherwise highly recommended, in HD DVD is Awesome....
Planet Earth: As You've Never Seen It Before.......2007-08-10
I have not had a chance to even break the seal on this new book as yet. I skimmed this book at a bookstore, and then decided to buy it. If you saw the mini-series on Discovery or Animal Planet, you will be impressed with this book as well. For those with children, this book is a must.
A Great Coffee Table Book.......2007-08-04
A great companion book to the dvd series.
magnificent.......2007-07-30
Amazing photos and wonderous facts regarding everything imaginable to the unusual. Our family has enjoyed this educational and spellbinding photography.
Glorious.......2007-07-27
Beautifully photographed and informational, this book should be on every nature lover's shelf. The "Planet Earth" series, which I watch weekly on Animal Planet, is even more jaw-dropping. I thank the generous and unbelievably courageous people who have the cojones to make this possible!
Julie Townsend
Metairie, LA
Customer Reviews:
Good Book.......2007-03-18
This is a pretty good basic book with some great examples. I gave it only 4 stars because there are some other great books out there on Landscape Photography which I liked better than this one. John Shaw is a good author to explain the basics and sometimes you see him repeat what you read in the earlier chapters, for me I like it because it kind'a reminds you and you can remember it. This is important for the final shoot out day. ** Close-Ups in Nature ** is another great book from John Shaw and I love the theory and examples in this book.
GREAT INFLUENCE.......2006-03-05
This book influenced my outlook for the wide angle lenses, the use of Velvia, and polorizing filters. I now use all three liberally. Thanks John Shaw
Great book.......2005-10-25
This is very nice book with wonderful pictures and very practical advices.
I will recommend it to all semi-prof photographers and amateurs as well.
My favorite book.......2005-03-26
I've read about ten photography books and this one is my favorite. The text is simple, yet essential. The photographs are truly great.
I guess if someone has read "Nature Photography Field Guide" will find many things at least familiar. The photos, although great to my eye, might be found as too conventional. But thats OK with me.
I think John Shaw is the best "tutor" I could find. His books have helped me a lot to improve my photography.
Great Book Simple To Understand........2004-11-06
I'm not gonna go deep into the contents of the book because others have done that. All I'm gonna tell you is that if your looking to understand photography in anyway this book is for you. John Shaw spells everything out to you in a very simple way that is easy to understand. If your not sure the first time just re-read the section again and it will come to you.
Book Description
New York City's American Museum of Natural History is a national treasure, attracting four million visitors annually. Its dioramas-a dazzling mixture of nature, science, and art-have inspired young and old alike, and are world-renowned examples of the unique diorama craft: art in the service of science. Now, in the only book of its kind, readers get an insider's view of these "windows on nature," witnessing their creation step by meticulous step.
More than forty of the museum's finest dioramas are featured here, depicting the fauna and flora of myriad ecological environments. Stephen Quinn, a diorama artist at the museum, introduces the explorers, naturalists, painters, sculptors, taxidermists, and conservationists behind these three-dimensional marvels, and explains how their collaborations make the displays so lifelike. This enchanting book is the perfect gift for nature lovers, art enthusiasts, and museum goers everywhere.
Customer Reviews:
Monuments to Wilderness.......2007-09-16
There is nowhere beneath a roof, anywhere on earth, that means more to me than the great diorama halls of The American Museum of Natural History. It is stunning (and, really, rather sad) that it has taken this long for a popular book to be written about these magnificent works of art and science, but at least it has been done well. (It is also gratifying to see the book getting such good--and well deserved--reviews here.)
For many millions of people habitat dioramas have been their first taste of the beauty, calm, and nobility of wild creatures and wild places. More people are familiar with nature documentaries these days, and since I love good documentaries too I can't really complain about that. Nonetheless there are some things that habitat dioramas, when done well, can convey that the flickering image, even on an IMAX screen, just can't. No medium portrays the spacious calm of wild country, and the simple dignity of wild animals, better than dioramas. It's also important to remember the valuable record dioramas can provide: many of the dioramas in this book are of places no longer wild.
Stephen Quinn's credentials for writing this book are probably as good as anyone alive. He started as an artist for the museum and has been an important force in helping keep the medium alive through the dark years of the 60s to 80s, when across the U.S. it was frequently neglected, if not despised, by curators though not, blessedly, by the general public. Things are at least somewhat better now, and Mr. Quinn is now project manager for exhibitions at the museum. He has done a fine job with this book. The text is engaging and informative and the photos are big and beautiful.
I do have a few quibbles. He sometimes uses the word "captured" for animals collected (read killed) for the dioramas. I'm sympathetic with why he felt he had to do that, given what he's trying to do with the book and given the cultural forces with which he must contend. The moral issues behind hunting and museum collection are complex and beyond what a book like this could be expected to cover. Nonetheless, animals are never "captured" for taxidermy.
I should hasten to add that animals do not need to be killed specifically for taxidermy. Many if not most animals mounted for museums in the last few decades died in zoos, were hit by automobile traffic, etc. That generally was not a realistic option at the time these dioramas were created.
My other reservation is deeper, but harder to articulate, and I don't have a real solution to it. I also know that a lot of readers will be unsympathetic with it. I'm not completely comfortable with "behind the scenes" stuff in anything other than technical manuals, trade magazines, etc. The people who made these dioramas were of course just people but had high ideals (ideals that Mr. Quinn without question shares) and they wanted the dioramas to be about their _subjects_. His behind the scenes writing will engage people more with the medium and is interesting in itself, no argument. But how much does it really help to have people thinking "I wonder if that rock in Diorama Z is the one that employees used to go to make out behind on their lunch hour."?
I don't know the answer, and so I can't really fault the author. I also recognize that many of the reviewers here loved that aspect of the book. My hope, and I'm sure it's the author's as well, is that it will all stay in perspective. Let's hope that's right. It would be very sad to see dioramas become the subject of the kind of psychologizing and trivializing that permeates the world of "fine" art.
That said, this is a beautiful and well-written book about a noble, if often neglected, realm of art and natural history. If you've read through a long review like this one about a book on this subject, I promise you won't regret owning it.
Beautiful........2007-05-12
Stephen Christopher Quinn, Windows on Nature: The Great Habitat Dioramas of the American Museum of Natural History (Abrams, 2006)
Dioramas are amazing things. Looking at them may not make it seem so, but that, more than anything, is testament to the artistry practiced by the men and women who construct them. Windows on Nature goes behind the scenes of the construction of the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History in New York City.
This is a coffee-table book, so there are a large number of excellent pictures of the dioramas themselves accompanying the text on how they were created. Both are as fantastic as they are fascinating. If you're a fan, this is a must-have. ****
great nature book.......2007-01-16
This was a gift for my mother who visited this museum years ago. It brought back great memories we had when we went. The book was very well done.
unbeatable and unique book on the Museum.......2006-07-26
I am not a scientist nor museum professional, simply a museumgoer. This book is a clear and attractive presentation about the dioramas that have helped define this wonderful museum for decades. Anyone who has ever visited the American Museum of Natural History will be captivated by the behind-the-scenes perspective presented. Understanding this background adds depth to our appreciation of the habitats. Quinn must have dug up old diaries, records and I wonder if he even listened in on some conversations as well because he offers little known factoids which are fascinating to read about and which enhance our experience as a museumgoer. I highly recommend this volume to anyone who has visited the museum. For those who have not visited, the book provides a wonderful view of what you've been missing!
What a Gem!.......2006-06-04
I found this treasure at my local bookstore (could have got it cheaper here!), looked it over, walked away, came back and looked again, walked away again, but couldn't find anything else I wanted as badly. It is an elegant masterpiece. I happen to thrill at anything remotely connected to taxidermy, but this book will also interest those who like nature, museums, or art.
This book is specifically about the dioramas of one museum, but in telling how they were constructed - taxidermy, foreground, and background painting - it is enlightening to anyone who loves natural history museums in general. There are color photos of the dioramas today, and black-and-whites of the artists working on various stages of their development decades ago. The step-by-step pictures of how a huge elephant mount is put together are nothing short of fascinating. Then, in addition, there are behind the scenes stories about how each diorama came together, and some hair-raising tales of specimen collecting in Africa.
If I have a complaint, it is this: the author has written the text as if only addressing fellow New Yorkers, assuming his readers have already been to this museum and seen these dioramas in person. "Think back to your memories of visits to the grand diorama galleries of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City." I can't help but feel a bit excluded, having never been there, although I am perfectly able to appreciate the exhibits based on the museums I have had the pleasure to visit. Perhaps he underestimated the broader appeal this book would have, but at any rate he unknowingly sparks a desire in the rest of us to try to get there someday!
Customer Reviews:
Perfect manual.......2005-11-08
The author brings the skill and wisdom of 50 years of teaching to bear on his subject. This is very detailed, and richly illustrated. The publisher has given it very generous packaging and binding.
An excellent purchase.
I recommend Maltzman's other book as well.
As close to a class as you can get!.......2000-04-03
This book gives the artist a special perspective from which to view and draw nature. Stanley Maltzman focuses on the basics of different seasons, weather, water, rocks, etc., but also takes the reader into specific shapes and characteristics of individual elements. For example, he shows you the differences between drawing an oak and a maple tree. This is the strength of the book over other landscape drawing books.
There are demonstrations and samples on almost every page in a variety of mediums. He even shows the student how to mock up a natural setting in the studio for practice. Having taken a class from this author, I can easily say it is like having him explain the material in person!
Book Description
This remarkable book introduces us to four unforgettable Apache people, each of whom offers a different take on the significance of places in their culture. Apache conceptions of wisdom, manners and morals, and of their own history are inextricably intertwined with place, and by allowing us to overhear his conversations with Apaches on these subjects Basso expands our awareness of what place can mean to people.
Most of us use the term sense of place often and rather carelessly when we think of nature or home or literature. Our senses of place, however, come not only from our individual experiences but also from our cultures. Wisdom Sits in Places, the first sustained study of places and place-names by an anthropologist, explores place, places, and what they mean to a particular group of people, the Western Apache in Arizona. For more than thirty years, Keith Basso has been doing fieldwork among the Western Apache, and now he shares with us what he has learned of Apache place-names—where they come from and what they mean to Apaches.
"This is indeed a brilliant exposition of landscape and language in the world of the Western Apache. But it is more than that. Keith Basso gives us to understand something about the sacred and indivisible nature of words and place. And this is a universal equation, a balance in the universe. Place may be the first of all concepts; it may be the oldest of all words."—N. Scott Momaday
"In Wisdom Sits in Places Keith Basso lifts a veil on the most elemental poetry of human experience, which is the naming of the world. In so doing he invests his scholarship with that rarest of scholarly qualities: a sense of spiritual exploration. Through his clear eyes we glimpse the spirit of a remarkable people and their land, and when we look away, we see our own world afresh."—William deBuys
"A very exciting book—authoritative, fully informed, extremely thoughtful, and also engagingly written and a joy to read. Guiding us vividly among the landscapes and related story-tellings of the Western Apache, Basso explores in a highly readable way the role of language in the complex but compelling theme of a people's attachment to place. An important book by an eminent scholar."—Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.
Explores the connections of place, language, wisdom, and morality among the Western Apache.
Customer Reviews:
Moral sites.......2007-09-13
What do people make of places? Basso's opening sentence is a good example of what the Apache call `letting one's mind have room'. As we read through the chapters of the book Basso continues to add layers to the meaning of this opening question. It allows us to reflect on various uses of the word `make'. We make sense of places by interpreting them. We make places intelligible by foregrounding them. We make use of places; as sign posts or land-marks through the use of descriptive naming. We make places or constitute them as sites or repositories of learning; we invest them as placeholders for morality tales or homilies. We make places vital; we invest them with agency, we enchant them, animate them, in the spirit of golems; we take a piece of earth and through magic or metaphysics we bring it alive, giving it a mission and a life of its own.
Wisdom sits in places. The Apache are a good example of virtue ethics. This is a theory of ethics, usually based on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, which argues against an ethical universalism and in favor of a particularism. It foregoes the quest for nomothetic foundations and looks instead to the development of certain skills or character traits. Aristotle created a catalogue of areas of behavior or traits with a continuum of possible dispositions. The virtuous behavior was the means between the two extremes of each continuum. Thus the virtue of bravery was somewhere in the range between cowardice and foolhardiness or irrational voluntarism in the face of impossible odds or a meaningless risk.
Aristotle's concept of phronesis finds an interesting parallel in the Apache moral imagination. Phronesis is a meta-virtue; it is the ability to choose the right action for each particular event; the ability to find the virtuous means between vicious poles. It is the essential skill for particularism which is the theory that the right action, the correct moral choice is particular to each unique event. It is opposed to the universalist proposition that there are sets of moral propositions or codes that we can apply in a covering law model. Universalism holds that when two of our moral codes clash we resolve the dilemma by applying a meta-rule, most commonly a deontological (Kantian) or utilitarian proposition.
The Apache's sense of wisdom is a good example of a pragmatic ethics informed by a set of virtues that are learned and continually developed throughout their life's journey. In the first chapter we note how each speaker brings the homily (the moral lesson associated with a place name) forward, making it their own, fleshing it out. One imagines that each speaker and hearer of place names is expected to silently immerse themselves in each homily; making it real by seeing it happen. The act of giving vision to the oral narrative is a process of developing layers upon layers of particular exemplars of the lesson. It is thus internalized and carried forward for the next use. As one gains wisdom one becomes more proficient at seeing when and where to apply these lessons.
This is similar to the thought of the American pragmatist and logician, C. S. Peirce, who proposed a fallibilism about knowledge, truth, and scientific results. He felt that we were always discovering more and that a full statement of any putative universal law was always deferred. Peirce's original pragmatism differed from what James and Dewey later made of it. For Peirce we expanded our sense of a truth through a process of discovering layers upon layers of particular applications and gradually gaining more of an understanding of the wider truth. But his sense of fallibilism posited rich moral concepts such as justice or duty as essentially contested concepts.
We have maps in our heads. There are other interesting parallels with the ancient Greeks besides virtue ethics. There is a significant body of study regarding Plato's thought on the spoken and written word. Plato argued that reality resides in absolute and eternal forms. Thus the impressions available to our senses are imitations that is but a shadow of these eternal truths; they confuse us and should not be trusted. Worse still are the imitations of imitations; thus his polemics against poetry, art, and the written word. It would be interesting to combine this with the study of texts in the 20th century to look at the Apache's preference for maps in the head. Barthes, Derrida and others all expanded our notion of what can serve as texts and it might be interesting to look at Apache use of places through some of those lenses.
In addition there are interesting parallels with the sophists. Although Plato and Socrates succeeded in creating our contemporary disdain for sophism, recent work in the study of Isocrates and others brings a new appreciation of certain tenets of sophism. The sophists exhibited some similarities to the Apache notions of epistemology. They both saw the elders and ancestors as the source of wisdom and warrants for knowledge to be used for current problems. They both argued that the knowledge of the past resided less in universal laws than in practices of the ancestors; actual responses to past dilemmas that are best accessed through interpretation rather than a rote use of the covering law model or a slavish rehearsal of rigid and dogmatic rituals.
They both thought that knowledge (as justified true belief) was discovered and ultimately ratified and warranted by the voice of the majority; the interpretation that found the most general favor. The sophists proposed that vigorous debate in an open forum of citizens is the most epistemologically sound form of inquiry. Their best speakers would take both sides on various propositions of what the ancestors would have done in the current crisis. The goal was to make the best possible argument for all options and let the citizenry decide.
Both the ancient Greeks and the Apache continued to observe religious rituals but it would also be interesting to compare characteristics of their religious cosmology, the role of the gods, and their associations with natural entities and nature in general.
A Must Own for collectors of Apache Culture.......2006-08-20
Anthropologists, language students, and Native American culture afficionados will find this book, and any by Keith Basso, written links into a cultural past which struggles to exist today. As the Western Apache tribes become more modern, the information found in this and other Keith Basso writings, become necessities in the preservation of traditional Apache culture; with the exception of the knowledge of a few hundred very traditional Apaches still living in Arizona.
Wisdom Sits in Places.......2005-09-26
This book was mediocre at best. Although Keith Basso did provide some insight into why the Apache people cherish their land, I felt that Basso kept on saying the exact same thing in every sentence. I had the point of the entire book by the time I was ten pages into it, and it kept on going, therefore making me lose my concentration on what I was reading.
strong and thorough examination.......2004-12-01
What do people make of places? This is the central question examined by Keith Basso in his ethno-linguistic study of the relationship between language and landscape among the Apaches of Cibecue, on the Fort Apache Reservation in central Arizona. Basso, a professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, has spent over 30 years conducting field work among the Western Apaches. His publications concerning this group include articles on language, patterns of silence in social interaction, witchcraft beliefs, and ceremonial symbolism, among others. The idea for Wisdom Sits in Places stemmed from a study conducted between 1979 and 1984, in which Basso, with the help of a grant from the National Science Foundation and the guidance of the Apaches, conducted a study of Apache places and place-names; how the Apache refer to their land, the stories behind the place-names, and how these place-names are used in daily conversation by Apache men and women. The result is a stunningly informative account of the use of landscape and language in the social interactions of the Western Apaches.
Basso divides his book into four sections: Quoting the Ancestors, Stalking with Stories, Speaking with Names, and Wisdom Sits in Places. Each chapter's focus is to examine how landscape and language serve distinct purposes in Western Apache society. Basso incorporates the oral history of, and discussions with, local Apaches, as well as his formal training as an ethnographer-linguist, to explain the underlying themes of this book.
First, Basso introduces the reader to the idea of place-names and in the Western Apache construction of history. As conceived by the Apaches, the past is a "well-worn `path' or `trail' which was traveled first by the people's founding ancestors and which subsequent generations of Apaches have traveled ever since" (31). The ancestors gave names to places, based on events that occurred there. Regardless of the physical changes in the landscape that occurred over time, the story of what took place, as well as the place-name, was passed down through generations and serves as a connection between the people and their ancestors.
Second, Basso examines how the language and the land are "manipulated by Apaches to promote compliance with standards for acceptable social behavior and the moral values which support them" (41). The historical tales of place-names are without exception morality tales, intended to influence patterns of social action. Their purpose is to serve as warnings, criticisms, and enlightenment for those who are behaving improperly; not in accordance with the Apache way of life. The telling of a historical tale is "intended as a critical and remedial response" to an individual's having committed one or more social offenses. Apaches contend that if the message is taken to heart, a lasting bond will have been created between that individual and the site at which the events in the tale took place. In short, the land, accompanied with its historical tale, "makes the people live right" (61).
Third, through the act of "speaking with names", place-names can be condensed "into compact form their essential moral truths" (101). "Speaking with names" is considered appropriate only under certain circumstances, generally to enable those who engage in it "to acknowledge a regrettable circumstance without explicitly judging it, to exhibit solicitude without openly proclaiming it, and to offer advice without appearing to do so" (91). Evoking images of a particular place and narrative thus replaces a more direct form of advice or criticism, with "a minimum of linguistic means" (103).
Finally, with the guidance of his Apache friend, Dudley Patterson, Basso examines the path of wisdom in Western Apache society. Patterson explains there are two mental conditions, "steadiness of mind", and "resilience of mind", which lead to a third and most desirable condition, smoothness of mind. These three conditions are not innate; therefore, one must work on one's mind in order to gain wisdom. To work on one's mind, "one must observe different places, learn their Apache place-names, and reflect on traditional narratives that underscore the virtues of wisdom" (134). A resilient mind, according to Patterson, does not "give in to panic or fall prey to spasms of anxiety or succumb to spells of crippling worry" (132). A steady mind is "unhampered by feelings of arrogance or pride, anger or vindictiveness, jealously or lust" (133). Steadiness and resilience give way to a sense of "cleared space" or "area free of obstruction", conditions necessary for smoothness of mind. Only those who continue on the trail of wisdom their whole lives come closest to having a smooth mind, and are "able to foresee disaster, fend off misfortune, and avoid explosive conflicts with other persons" (131). Thus, wisdom is intertwined with the idea of survival through the consistent and thoughtful evocation of landscape and language.
Keith Basso and the Western Apaches of Cibecue have provided readers with an insightful and provocative account of the connection between language, land, and a people's cultural history. Wisdom Sits in Places opens the door for future research on place-names by shedding light on a previously overshadowed topic in anthropological studies. Basso's dissection of certain stories and social interactions can be overwhelming and a bit dry, but his purpose is made clear when his examinations are added together with the Apache narratives. What results is a clear picture of what language and landscape mean to the Western Apaches, the functional versatility of place-names, and the importance of being aware of one's sense of place.
Places and Stories.......2004-01-26
Basso's writing is extraordinary. This great book consists of engaging articles that merge linguistics with cultural anthropology in an approach called the "ethnography of speaking." Placing this jargon aside, the approach is to demonstrate how Apaches use names, stories, and other ways of speaking to create and maintain their culture. Basso's work provides deep insight into Apache life, and it also serves as a model for ways to understand how language plays an important role in everyday life.
Book Description
Beautifully illuminated with drawings and paintings by noted artist Mary Frank, Williams, one of the West's most intense and lyrical writers, invokes the lure and drama of the landscape. This is an incandescent meditation--in word and image--on the physical vastness and beauty of the desert and the spiritual place one woman finds for herself there.
Customer Reviews:
Great things come in small packages.......2000-08-12
Williams has put together a visceral, haunting, beautiful stream of consciousness aria here. This little tiny book has become one of my very favorite works over the past few years I have owned a copy of it. It is one of those books that tends to find itself hidden on my bookshelf, and when I rediscover it I am in for a real treat. This is the story of a woman who is so aware of her soul that it is almost ethereal. Walking the slot canyons of Utah and Arizona has always brought out powerful emotions within me, but after reading this book a few times I literally lose myself in the earth when hiking there now. Yes, this is a tale of love and love-making, but on such a spiritual level that it is easy to fall asleep and drift into a dreamy, watery place of serenity after reading it. What more can a book offer than that???? Save yourself the money usually spent on a "relaxing vacation" to a crowded get-away and set a fire in the fireplace, put on some Loreena McKennit and lose yourself in this treasure of a book. Mary Frank's sketches and watercolors set the stage and Terry Tempest Williams provides the magic carpet.
Fascinating, Erotic Travelogue of the Mind.......2000-06-27
This book is short: 62 pages is an exaggeration, since many of those pages are filled with sketches and since the book itself is only about the size of a CD case. But what it lacks in length it more than makes up for in beauty. Terry Tempest Williams is an incredible, widely respected writer, and this book was released to much critical acclaim. Her book details a woman hiking in the canyons of southern Utah, and the thoughts that flash through her mind as she walks, and the freedom she feels in nature: the kinds of thoughts we all have when we go hiking, but aren't able to put down on paper as well as she.
The thoughts the author has are the reason those of us who love the outdoors love them so much. The solitary, beautiful, amazing feeling of being alone - literally or figuratively - with the earth (or God - your pick) in its magnificent splendor, and of the thrill of being alive.
Average customer rating:
- The Other Reviews Are Not About The Book
- People should really learn Yosemite Native American history
- A thrilling excursion into the heart of the West
- Savage Dreams
- No romanticism here
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Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Landscape Wars of the American West
Rebecca Solnit
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0520220668 |
Book Description
In 1851, a war began in what would become Yosemite National Park, a war against the indigenous inhabitants that has yet to come to a real conclusion. A century later--1951--and about a hundred and fifty miles away, another war began when the U. S. government started setting off nuclear bombs at the Nevada Test Site, in what was called a nuclear testing program but functioned as a war against the land and people of the Great Basin. Savage Dreams is an exploration of these two landscapes. Together they serve as our national Eden and Armageddon and offer up a lot of the history of the west, not only in terms of Indian and environmental wars, but in terms of the relationship between culture--the generation of beliefs and views--and its implementation as politics.
Customer Reviews:
The Other Reviews Are Not About The Book.......2007-03-02
Wow, take a moment to read the other reviews of this book.
I picked this book up off a bargain table, and months later happened to take it with me when I was visiting Yosemite without knowing 1/2 the book was about Yosemite. That was kind of a thrill.
Solnit's historical and writing skills, her ability to build a world stage of activity and its interconnectedness with her narrative are extraordinary.
As a landscape artist and photographer, I find this book to be a great resource. Understanding the history of Yosemite is frankly consciousness shifting.
As the other reviewer says, nuclear weapons are our oyster.
Indians, big bangs, Central Park, Fremont and the Heart of Darkness. How about that.
People should really learn Yosemite Native American history.......2007-01-10
If people would really read the TRUE history of Yosemite Indians they would find something interesting. First the Miwoks in the area were friends and workers for James Savage and Charles Webber, the founder of Stockton. The Miwoks had a working relationship with both white men and they dug gold for them. The real Indians of Yosemite were Mono Paiutes who tried to fight off the invasion, and not Miwoks. They were allied with the white invaders and they called James Savage "White father". I am a descendent of the original Indians of Yosemite and there is a problem. The defintion "Some of them are killers" for Yosemite was fabricated in 1978 and is not the original meaning of Yosemite. The real meaning was "The Killers" or "The Grizzlies" because the Miwoks were afraid of the Ahwahnees. It was Chief Bautista and Russio, who were helping the Mariposa Battalion, who coined that term "Yosemite" for the Indians in Yosemite Valley which they were afraid to enter. It is because the Miwoks were once enemies of Chief Tenaya and the Ahwahnees. 30 years Yosemite National Park Service hired a person named Craig Bates who was married to a Miwok woman and had a 1/2 Miwok son who created that new defintion. So it is increble that ONE person changed the meaning and defintion of one of the most important and well known parks in the whold world...and no one noticed. The Miwoks were actually the scouts and guides for James Savage and the Mariposa Battalion, but you would not know it because the information was controlled by the "Indian expert" at Yosemite, which causes wrong information to be written...like the actual defintion of Yosemite. For the real story read Lafayette H. Bunnell's Discovery of the Yosemite to find out the truth.
A thrilling excursion into the heart of the West.......2004-05-19
If you have an open and inquisitive mind, no matter what your political outlook, you will enjoy this exploration of western America and our relationship with this unique landscape. Solnit weaves discussions about the settlement of the west by Euro-Americans, native American rights, nuclear testing, and other critical issues, with ruminations about H.D. Thoreau, John Muir, country music, landscape painters, and other intriguing topics. This is an excellent book about an important subject that will delight you if you let it.
Savage Dreams.......2004-01-15
This book is classic eco paganistic 1/2 truths and full tripe. Solnit carries on a dreamy and irresponsible massive 'feel good' opinion piece about the handfull of people harmed by our successfull development of our deffensive nuclear weapons. The author fails to note that our development and limited use of our weapons saved millions of lives.
If you are currently a eco pagan, here is more for your religion. If you want a full account of the history of our deffensive development of nuecs, don't waste your time reading this novel. However, if you want further insight into the basis that drives our planet's new pagan eco religion, then this book will help you to understanding their factualy fictionist journey into politics.
No romanticism here.......2000-02-06
Solnit's juxtaposition of the insidious nuclear poisoning of Nevada to the making of Yosemite National Park (that she shows has been "loved to death" since it was first discovered by whites more than 150 years ago)makes this book a must for all environmentalists. Solnit deals directly with themes of conquest and redemption in historic efforts to both tame and use these lands. Readers gain specific understanding about two places that are, after all, national icons. However, the deeper themes so well-developed in this book are being played out no less dramtically all across the country.
Customer Reviews:
Quite a good book.......2007-01-04
This is a quite good book to paint different types of landscapes, even I find it is difficult for a person without experience drawing landscapes. I usually draw other kind of things and I'm not bad at all, but with this book it isn't very easier, even it has a lot of drawings and projects, I think it should have more step by step explanations in some of them.
Alright for beginners.......2006-10-05
This book was adequate for a beginner learning to paint with pastels.
Realistic Artists Beware.......2004-10-26
This book was obviously meant for Impressionists. Being a realistic artist, I realized this mistake too late. The pictures and demonstrations had little to no detail, and colors seemed to be often used incorrectly. It was not quite abstract, but it definentaly did not look real. On the other hand, I must admit this is a great book for Impressionists. There are a ton of demonstrations and examples, and it really is, like the title says, a "big book." It covered materials and other basics relatively well. Overall, I am not saying that this is a bad book, this review is simply a warning to realistic artists.
Pretty But I Didn't "Get" The Organization.......2000-08-09
If you are willing to just float along, Zen-like, with the way the material is presented, you'll be just fine. However, there appear to be no thematic groupings or progression of information in this book. There's working with white, then using a limited value range, then emphasising texture, then monochrome, then a focal point.
It would have been better if it started with how to handle to materials, then how to compose the work, then how to edit the image (simplifying the composition), then form, then color.
If you already know what you are doing, it's a nice book to flip through. If you feel discouraged because you think "it can't be done" when you are looking at some complex pattern in nature or a photo, just look at the illustrations. The artist can handle some pretty dicey things like complex foliage.
The desert scenes, I'd like to say, are yummy. Wonderful. I think that desert scenes are the illustrator's forte. If he or she did a book just on desert painting, I'd get it.
Great reference book, 72 lessons, excellent instruction.......2000-05-02
This is a great reference book for anyone interested in pastel painting. It has really helped me improve my pastel skills. It covers materials, color and techniques for every kind of nature subject.
Included are 72 different lessons. Each lesson covers a different topic. Some include handling a detail close up, painting all kinds of water, choosing a focal point, describing diverse textures, & underpainting.
Each lesson contains a color photograph & the artwork in various stages along with written step by step instructions. Some of the artwork subjects include clouds, sunsets, frozen landscapes, desert vistas, & autumn scenes.
Many animals covered include an elk, a swan, a monarch butterfly, & a robin's nest. Moreover, some plants studied include sunflowers, junipers, many trees, & cactus. Mountains, fields, rocks, & a cabin are covered as well.
Book Description
In this wonderful exploration of the American Landscape, 17 distinguished writers and photographers create a vivid, perceptive portrait of our nation's natural beauty. Highlighted by 120 breathtaking images and featuring thoughtful, evocative prose by award-winning authors, Heart of a Nation ranges from Vermont to Alaska, from the Appalachian foothills to the lofty peaks of the Sierra, from the still ponds of our southeastern wetlands to the stormy shores of the Pacific Northwest. It's a magnificent portrait of our majestic land -- and a journey of discovery no reader will ever forget.
Customer Reviews:
Inspirational.......2000-10-20
Photography has always been an outlet to certain visionaries in our society. Giving them a way to express to others the way they interpret somewhat ordinary and sometimes not so ordinary sights. This collection of images inspires all those who look at them. And then combining these with words of inspiratin and thought provoking prose makes it a treat to the soul as well as the eyes.
Book Description
Using highly specialized, advanced digital satellite imaging-first made possible in the year 2000 with the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission-this book presents an astounding collection of images of the Earth's mountain ranges carefully compiled over the course of five years by the German Remote Sensing Data Center. Now available to the public for the first time here, the most majestic peaks on all seven continents are visible as they never would be to the naked eye-in views taken from 500 to 15 miles above the Earth that reveal the entire mountain range at once, unobstructed by clouds, haze, and the refraction of light.
Mountains from Space is much more than a collection of extraordinary pictures; it is a serious work of nonfiction about every important aspect of these fascinating geological formations, from their genesis by volcanic activity to their specific sociological features. Contributions by esteemed scientists and mountaineers alike highlight this provocative study of our planet Earth.
Customer Reviews:
The Beauty From Above........2005-12-21
These spectacular pictures taken from different media (Space.cam using Shuttle Radar) are a unique collection of Earth's mountain ranges on all seven continents, some as seen from Space during the Shuttle Radio Topography Mission. Stefan Dech, professor at the University of Wurzburg in Germany where these 120 images were compiled, as head of the Remote Senisng Data Center over a five year course concludes: "distance creates clarity."
These views of Earth's "natural sculptures" taken by highly technical instruments available only to the Space program, are from a distance of only fifteen miles above the Earth to five hundred miles out in Space. Dech felt awe in processing this geophysical data into actual photographs and now is able to share the marvel for the first time. They allow us to see the beauty and vulnerabilty, and "appreciate its wholeness without boundaries."
Of all the coffee-table books of photos from Space on the market all at once, this shows our planet's craters caused by volcanoes in Hawaii and glaciers caused by global warming like the Malaspina Glacier in Alaska. The world's tallest mountain is Hawaii's Mauna Kea, and the snow is visible on Mt. Kilmanjaro in Tanzania which reaches 19,340 feet (eighty percent of its glacier mass has melted away).
Some of these scientific images are digitally enhanced to make details free of haze, light refraction and clouds. Vast panaromas taken by astronauts from the International Space Station are shown in their glory. The first photos taken during the Apollo missions, particulary 8 and 11, showed the whole Earth as seen from Space.
There is a good view of Anarctica's Vinson Massif, as are Russian, European, Australian, South American (Andes and Aconcagua), the Himalayas in India, and the Rockies and Mr. McKinley in North America. Dech is assisted in this presentation to the public by Glaser, a climate researcher who teaches at the University of Freiburg.
Accompanying the breath-taking photographs, we have some personal acounts of mountain climbers such as Alexander Huber, Chris Profit, Stephen Venables and Reinhold Messner. He holds the claim-to-fame of being the first man to climb Mt. Everest 'without supplemental oxygen.' A great admire of Sir Edmund Hillary (the original conqueror who used an ice pick to cut the last steps 'on the roof ridge of the earth,' Messner was the first to climb all fourteen of the world's 8,000 meter peaks and wrote a book about it, ALL FOURTEEN 8,000ers. He worries about global warming, calling the tall mountain ranges "ecological fever thermometers."
Mr. Dech's conclusion, looking down at those same mountains as seen from Space, agrees with Messner: "the view that extends out from a great distance is a gift." This book would make a wonderful gift.
Messner has also written REINHOLD MESSNER, FREE SPIRIT: A CLIMBER'S LIFE, THE NAKED MOUNTAIN, and THE CRYSTAL HORIZON: EVEREST - THE FIRST SOLO ASCENT.
A reminder that we live on planet Earth.......2005-12-15
These photographs of our planet Earth show an enormous view, however, the details provide an intimate look into our world. The book is a "Oh, look at that.." resource for everyone. The images will draw you back to the book over and over again.
Don't own yet.......2005-12-10
I haven't purchased this book yet. I saw just one picture, of the Hawaiian Islands, and I intend to purchase this book as a gift soon. The picture was amazingly beautiful, ethereal, what the world must have looked like at creation.
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- Poison Arrow Frogs: Their Natural History and Care in Captivity
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- Quantitative Methods In Aquatic Ecotoxicology (ADVANCES IN TRACE SUBSTANCES RESEARCH)
- Regulating Toxic Substances: A Philosophy of Science and the Law (Environmental Ethics and Science Policy Series)
- Sea Salt: Memories & Essays
- Singing to the Sound: Visions of Nature, Animals and Spirit
- Solar Radiation and Daylight Models, Second Edition: For the Energy Efficient Design of Buildings
- Songs of the Earth: A Tribute to Nature, in Word and Image (Running Press Miniature Editions)
- Statistics for Management and Economics ( student solutions manual)
- Stream Ecology: Structure and Function of Running Waters
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