An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms

Book Description

Cowritten by the author of the award-winning The Tropical Look, An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms offers a definitive account of palms that may be grown in the garden and landscape. Because palms are often underutilized as a result of their unfamiliarity — even to tropical gardeners — Robert Lee Riffle and Paul Craft have exhaustively documented every genus in the palm family. Approximately 890 species are described in detail, including cold hardiness, water needs, height, and any special requirements. Generously illustrated with more than 900 photos, this volume is as valuable as an identification guide as it is a practical handbook. It even contains photos of several palm species that have never before appeared in a general encyclopedia. Interesting snippets of history, ethnobotany, and biology inform the text and make this a lively catalog of these remarkable plants.

Customer Reviews:

Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms.......2007-04-04

This is was excellent and easy to read and follow. I really enjoyed this book.

An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms.......2007-03-17

Very good colour plates, many showing the inflorescences and fruits useful in the identification of the palms. Clean, concise descriptions of genera.

For the Palm Enthusiast and collector.......2007-02-08

Of all the publications that I have acquired for understanding growing conditions and idenfication of palms, An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms is the motivation that I use to proceed searching out and adding to my collection. I have purchased through Amazon two additional copies as gifts. My only complaint is that the book is not available in Spanish as our quest continues here in Costa Rica. Puravida Kevin

As much as you care to know about palms.......2006-11-10

If you have trouble making up your mind, this otherwise excellent guide will frustrate you. There are 2,500 species of palms in the world, and Floridians Robert Riffle and Paul Craft almost never met one they didn't like -- a lot.
Like mothers who love all their children but have a favorite, Riffle and Craft do praise some palms more than others. This is what they have to say about Cyrtostachys renda from Southeast Asia:
"The slender diaphanous trunks are heartbreakingly beautiful and so thin and lissome as to often bend as if they were long stalks of big blossoms in a bouquet. . . . The younger stems add incredibly beautiful tiers of leaves from top to bottom; however it is the magnetic attraction of the long, red crownshafts that makes this species irresistible."
Not every entry in "An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms" involves quite so much heavy breathing. Of the Samoan palm Clinostigma samoense, they say merely, "There is no more beautiful palm species."
But they say that about lots of species.
Ceroxylon quindiuense of the Columbian Andes, for example, is the tallest palm in the world, and Craft and Riffle label it "beyond spectacular."
In truth, they make the reader believe that palms are underappreciated.
For a plant family that is the essence of the tropics, it is surprising how few species like real heat. Like humans, almost all palms like to be warm but not hot.
Only a few can stand even a short while at below freezing temperatures, but equally few are able to stand the scorching desert the way the date palm can.
Hawaii would have been a paradise for palms, but only one or perhaps two ever made it here on their own.
It is still undetermined whether the coconut floated here by itself or came with the Polynesians. The only native palms are the Pritchardias, all evolved from (probably) one migrant that made its way up from somewhere in the South Pacific.
Once here, Pritchardias radiated into more than two dozen species, but many of these are either extinct or heading that way. They are commonly called fan palms, or loulu in Hawaiian, and a few species are regularly encountered in landscaping.
Many, many of the species in this encyclopedia are either extinct in the wild or probably going. The center of palm extinction is Madagascar, where a rapidly expanding, desperately poor population is eating its way through its forests and the 200 species of native palms.
Elsewhere, the expansion of agriculture, coastal development and an extravagant taste for eating the growing tips of large trees are threatening many species of palms.
There is -- or was -- a palm for just about every situation between the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer, from salty marsh to high desert, though rainforest is the favorite setting.
Mature palms range down from Ceroxylon's 200 feet to just a few inches. The longest, some of the rattan palms, grow over 300 feet, but they have to climb over other trees.
Palms are amazingly spindly. Even the most robust come nowhere near the girth of deciduous trees like, say, monkeypod, and some species in New Guinea are more than 500 times taller than they are thick. How these hold themselves up is a wonder.

Beautiful reference.......2006-04-15

The photographic plates are indeed very beautiful but having the descriptions in another section of the book does make for an inconvenient flipping from the front of the book that has the photographs to the back of the book with the textual information.

It has an informative section named "Seed Germination Notes for Selected Genera." I would have liked to see more growing notes...like suggested soil mixtures for best germination results.

Average customer rating:

Great Photograghy
What a Beautiful Book
A wonderful gift for palm lovers
Beautiful pictures--very informative.

Palm Trees: A Story in Photographs
David Leaser
Manufacturer: Westwood Pacific Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Trees | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms
Ornamental Palm Horticulture
Betrocks Guide to Landscape Palms
Palms Won't Grow Here and Other Myths: Warm-Climate Plants for Cooler Areas
Betrock's Cold Hardy Palms

ASIN: 1595880100

Book Description

Palm Trees: A Story in Photographs is a visual masterpiece filled with spectacular images of palm trees from around the world. From the formal gardens of Versailles to a lush tropical rainforest in the South Pacific, you'll enjoy the vast diversity of palms that inhabit our planet.

• Beautiful hardcover binding with more than 130 photos.

• Filled with images of rarely photographed species.

• An ideal gift for landscapers, gardeners and palm lovers.

Customer Reviews:

Great Photograghy.......2007-10-02

I bought this as a gift for someone. However, I got to look through the book and the photography is beautiful!

What a Beautiful Book.......2007-06-02

I read about this book in a local newspaper and was dying to get my hands on it and I was not disappointed. I love palm trees and living in California (southern) we enjoy seeing many types. If you are looking for a reference book or field guide this is not it. It is a gem of a coffee table book that everyone who has sat on my couch has been tempted to thumb through.

A wonderful gift for palm lovers.......2007-03-26

While "Palm Trees: A Story in Photographs" does not contain the detailed information that experts and amateur enthusiasts would refer to for guidance or research, it is an esthetic jewel of a book whose magnificent photos render it the perfect "coffee table" item for palm lovers everywhere.

Beautiful pictures--very informative........2007-02-18

We really like this book. It has a lot of the different types of palm trees in it with beautiful pictures and good, dscriptive information.

Field Guide to the Palms of the Americas

Average customer rating:

The American palm compendium
a must have
A must for all palm enthusiasts
A must have!
There are two more authors for this book!!!

Field Guide to the Palms of the Americas
Andrew Henderson , Gloria Galeano , and Rodrigo Bernal
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Outdoors & Nature | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms
Betrocks Guide to Landscape Palms
World Checklist of Palms
Ornamental Palm Horticulture
Palm Trees: A Story in Photographs

ASIN: 0691085374

Book Description

This user-friendly and authoritative book will serve scientists, growers, and sightseers as a guide to the 67 genera and 550 species of naturally occurring palms found in the Americas. Its purpose is to give an introduction to the diversity of palms and allow almost anyone to identify a palm from this part of the world. Providing scientifically accurate descriptions and a rich supply of illustrations, including color photos taken in the wild of over 256 species, this guide is extraordinary in its coverage of the plant that has become for many people the symbol of the tropical landscape.

Palms are not only aesthetically pleasing, but they also make up an economically and ecologically important family of plants. In industry, for example, the coconut, oil palm, and date palm have a wide and varied use. In the lowland rain forest, palms are usually one of the most abundant and diverse families of plants. Field Guide to the Palms of the Americas will appeal to professional scientists or students working in the tropics-including agronomists, anthropologists, ecologists, entomologists, natural historians, and zoologists-as well as to amateur and professional growers of palms, to "eco-tourists" who visit tropical regions, and to inhabitants of these regions who are interested in the native flora.

Customer Reviews:

The American palm compendium.......2005-11-16

Palms are a very conspicuous feature of the tropical landscape, whether in the wilds of Central and South America or in the suburban environments further north. They are also important economically (usually as fruit crops) and culturally (having uses as diverse as roofing, as material for weaving hammocks as fodder for edible beetle larvae!). Since everyone knows what a palm is, yet most non-specialists cannot get much beyond that, this guide to their identification should fill a niche.

This is a field guide to the 550 species of palm occurring naturally in the American tropics. The taxonomic treatment seems to this non-specialist to be eminently sensible and many knotty systematic probems appear to have been carefully resolved. A 40 page appendix of accepted names helps clarify what has happened to some of the older synonyms, hybrid names and such.

The authors have crammed an awful lot of new and useful information into the three-hundred and fifty odd pages. A main key permits identification to genera with further keys sprinkled throughout the body of the book. There are handy introductions to families and genera. The text is succinct and well oriented towards field identification while the 236 photographs at the back allow the user to quickly narrow down the search by visual means. Maps are provided for every species - this must have been a huge task! - and country checklists provide a further tool for homing in on the plant in question.

In resume, this is a master work which will be seen in the field for decades to come. It should be high on the list of any tropical landscape gardener, horticulturalist, anthropologist, botanist or naturalist.

a must have.......2005-10-07

if you're interested in neotropical palms, you ought to buy this excellent guide. all three authors are considered to be highly esteemed authorities who know their stuff very well. the description said it had approximately 380 pages, but together with all the appendices and photo pages, the total number of pages gets to 500.

A must for all palm enthusiasts.......1999-12-16

Overall it would say that it 's the excellent job that authors has put together all the description of American palm species. It would be welcome among serious palm collectors as well as reserchers.

The only thing I don't like about this book and I think it is controversial among palm colleectors is that the book tends to lump down many named species into a synonymous for example, a genus Coccothrinax or the palms in the Attalea Group. Though not all of the recorded species are really distinct from each other, many of them are quite different and should be separately treated at least in a variety level i.e., genus Acrocomia which authors has lumped from 26 recorded species inot only 2 species. This is however not explicitly stated there at all.

A must have!.......1998-04-30

This is probably the most useful book for anyone involved in plant identification, such as Forest Engineers, specially those working in tropical America, where one often encounters many kinds of palms in the field, but until now it was not easy to identify them, and palms are mostly overlooked because they have the reputation of being difficult to identify. This book changes it all, and it's definitely a must-have.

There are two more authors for this book!!!.......1998-02-12

I use this book for field work, and it seems not fair that a book of three authors, appears as a one-author book, I know the other two people and they are scientist and work in the palms (Arecaceae) as well as Mr Henderson.

Average customer rating:

Ornamental Palm Horticulture
Ornamental Palm Horticulture (Broschat, Meerow:2000)
An Excellent Comprehensive Treatise
Limited cultural information
Correcting misunderstandings about this book

Ornamental Palm Horticulture
Timothy K. Broschat , and Alan W. Meerow
Manufacturer: University Press of Florida
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Shrubs | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Trees | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Horticulture | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms
Betrocks Guide to Landscape Palms
Palm Trees: A Story in Photographs
Palms Throughout the World
The Tropical Look: An Encyclopedia of Dramatic Landscape Plants

ASIN: 0813018048

Customer Reviews:

Ornamental Palm Horticulture.......2006-08-16

A pure technical book, great for the farmers of palms. Everything you want to know about palms but not a palm's identification book. This book have only a few photos.

Ornamental Palm Horticulture (Broschat, Meerow:2000).......2006-06-28

The book was written in attempt to gather scientific literature on palm horticulture together in a single reference text. Broschat and Meerow have done that in a very simple and effective way. This is quite an comprehensive book that tackles the main aspects of palm horticulture from propagation to pests and interior maintenance of palms. Particularly useful are the sections on mineral nutrition and propagation. The different chapters of the book are well-complemented by over 100 illustrations which give you a better idea which disease or deficiency might affect your palm.

I have read the book in less than two days and I was able to immediately diagnostic nutrional deficiencies with my Spindle, Christmas and Phoenix palms. This book is not intended to describe how to grow a specific palm. Rather, it teaches general principles to grow and maintain healthy palms. This is the most complete and useful book on palms I have read so far. Every serious palm amateur should have one at home.

An Excellent Comprehensive Treatise.......2004-08-15

Brimming with detailed, useful information on all aspects of palm horticulture.

Limited cultural information.......2004-05-28

This book is an attempt to guide those interested in palm horticulture. However, finding that palm horticulture varies widely between the species, I found this title a disappointment. Some palms can't take iron for instance, but the authors neglect to give specific information on those species which would be helpful. The same applies to those palms that need iron. As a general guide, the book is ok, but if you really need to know how to care for your exotic and rare palms you may need advice from the local botanical garden or a nursery that specializes in growing palms to determine the nutritional requirements of a specific genus.

Correcting misunderstandings about this book.......2001-10-05

The authors clearly had no intention in writing yet another book filled with photos of palm species that would instruct readers on what palms to plant. There are already many books that provide the service that two of these reviewers ask for ("Betrock's Landscape Palms," "Betrock's Cold Hardy Palms," "Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms") that give detailed horticultural information on palm species. The intent of this book is made very clear in the introduction: this a book on how to deal with palms horticulturally, not a guide on which palms to choose in a landscape.

Average customer rating:

Not just for Floridians
Florida's Fabulous Trees
Really great pictures
Great Picture Book

Florida's Fabulous Trees
Winston Williams
Manufacturer: World Publications (CA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Trees | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Florida's Fabulous Flowers
Florida's Fabulous Waterbirds: Their Stories
Florida's Fabulous Birds
Florida's Fabulous Reptiles and Amphibians
Florida's Fabulous Butterflies & Moths (Florida's Fabulous Series Vol 2)

ASIN: 0911977023

Customer Reviews:

Not just for Floridians.......2004-10-26

This slim (64 pages), oversize book is crowded with photos of flowering Southern trees and a wide variety of palms. It would be better if it included a full picture of a tree showing it's growth pattern and not just pictures of the flowers or seeds. It is more inclusive for the palms, showing full-length photos besides the leaves.
It is indexed inside the back cover. The descriptions are interesting, telling some of the growth habits, and uses of each tree. One problem arises when 3 or 4 trees are shown on one page; it is difficult to tell which block of text matches which photo.
Overall, a useful and fairly comprehensive photo album of Florida's trees, filled with lovely, colorful pictures.

Florida's Fabulous Trees.......2003-11-12

This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn to identify the different trees common to Florida. I got this book when I bought a house and started thinking about landscaping, and wanted to be able to identify trees around here. Great photos, helpful text, I would definitely recommend it.

Really great pictures.......2003-04-22

This book has really great pictures in glorious color. That is just about all that can be said for or about this book.

The text is so-so: The worst offense appears (p43) "bansai trees" where they mean "bonzai trees", but the rest of the text is not nearly that bad. For a book on trees there are remarkably few trees in it. Something like half the book is palms.

The oversized pages make this a somewhat clumsy book. But the pictures are really, really great!

Great Picture Book.......2003-02-01

This is a great photo guide to Florida's trees. I wanted to identify some of the trees that we see on our annual vacations to Florida over the years and this book did the trick. It's not a technical horticultural guide but just a book with lots of pictures of hundreds of different species with foliage, flowers, shape, color and anything else you need to sucessfully identify tropical trees.

Average customer rating:

An Excellent General Guide
Needs updating
You need this book.
Very Pleased
Great Book

Palms Throughout the World
David L. Jones
Manufacturer: Smithsonian
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Trees | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms
Ornamental Palm Horticulture
CYCADS OF WORLD 2E
Palm Trees: A Story in Photographs
Betrock's Cold Hardy Palms

ASIN: 1560986166

Customer Reviews:

An Excellent General Guide.......2004-08-15

This book, with all its faults, nevertheless contains much valuable info on palm horticulture that is lacking in the other popular books.Still worthwhile having.

Needs updating.......2004-05-28

At the time of publication this book was the only encyclopedic reference on palm trees. However, the passage of time and new titles such as An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms by Craft and Cultivated Palms of the World by Betrocks with updated information have made this title outdated as well as errors on some of the species and reclassifications. For an update to reference seek the newer publications. My copy sits on my shelf and hardly gets pulled as I prefer the newer publications on this topic.

You need this book........2002-06-25

I have been reading books on palms for the last 2 years. Many are extremely superficial treatments of appearances only. Others are extremely detailed and not very useful to the non-botanist/horticulturalist. This book has a satisfying combination of background on a variety of palms, basic palm information, and excellent photographs. I would have liked more horticultural information regarding seed propagation, light and soil requirements for the specific species. Overall, however, you need this book.

Very Pleased.......2002-05-20

I use this wonderful book on a regular basis for identifing species on catalog lists. I consider this one of my primary palm books. Great for the novice or nurseryman. Easy to read. I would love to see more cultural information in the next edition. However, I would be lost without this book.
...John TexasGardenCenter.com

Great Book.......2002-02-18

This book is great for those interested in learning about palms. It has great information and pictures on many types of palms. I look forward to any upcoming editions to this one.

Average customer rating:

Good general overview

Hardy Palms and Palm-Like Plants
Martyn Graham
Manufacturer: Guild of Master Craftsman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Ornamental Plants | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Trees | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Betrock's Cold Hardy Palms
Palms Won't Grow Here and Other Myths: Warm-Climate Plants for Cooler Areas
Palm Trees: A Story in Photographs
An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms
Hot Plants for Cool Climates: Gardening Wth Tropical Plants in Temperate Zones

ASIN: 1861082673

Book Description

Make the most of the versatile palm with a photo-packed introduction to varieties for every climate and landscape. An extensive directory covers more than 100 species of palm, yucca, agave, cordyline, phormium, and astelia; as well as mixed plantings; hard landscaping; and the use of tubs, planters, and other containers. Simple instructions for planting, maintenance, and propagation come with close-up drawings.

Customer Reviews:

Good general overview.......2004-01-28

Book has a good general overview of palms and some other desert plants. Good pictures and information on commercial availability of featured palms.

Average customer rating:

A Definitive Book on Sonoran Trees

The Trees of Sonora, Mexico
Richard Stephen Felger , Matthew Brian Johnson , and Michael Francis Wilson
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0195128915

Book Description

The definitive treatment of the trees and tree-like plants of Sonora, a remarkably diverse and biologically important region, ranging from some of the driest and hottest areas in North America to cool, temperate woodlands and the northernmost tropical regions in the New World. The majority of the trees in this semi-arid region are at their northern limits in the Americas in this state and many range to South America. Thus, this book will be important to biologists in regions well outside of the area covered. Felger is the recognized expert in the area, and the book contains an enormous body of information nowhere else obtainable. The introductory chapter contains biotic and climatic information and an analysis of the geographical distributions of the trees of a state that is poorly known biologically. Two hundred eighty-five species of native and naturalized trees are covered, featuring extensive identification keys and illustrations, most of them newly produced for this book. The descriptive species accounts include common names, indigenous names, and synonyms, detailed botanical descriptions, ecological and geographic data, geographic ranges, natural history, economic uses, and, in many cases, other information such as horticultural uses and conservation status.

Customer Reviews:

A Definitive Book on Sonoran Trees.......2003-12-17

Sonoran tree communities range from coastal mangroves along the Gulf of California to pine forests atop the Sierra Madre on the continental divide, with thornscrub and tropical deciduous forest filling many of the gaps. While many genera familiar to gringo tree-watchers can be found in Sonora's 285 species-dendroflora -- such as pines, oaks, junipers, alders, ashes,cottonwoods and willows -- most are tropical Americans pressing on their northern boundaries. This new sylva, the first of the state of Sonora, documents the tree species of this enormous oft-overlooked region.And it does so with extraordinary grace and style, blending careful plant science with elegant botanical illustrations and photographs, and clear, accessible writing. For example, "The acorns are eaten fresh and are often consumed in local cantinas - the floors becoming littered with the empty shells" (Emory oak) and "No other Sonoran oak has leaves so densely velvety and fuzzy on both surfaces" (Chihuahua oak).
Among the ecological,historical, and descriptive information in the species narratives are the English, Spanish, and local Indian names of the taxa, as well as shrewd evaluations of the numerous nomenclatural and taxonomic issues that surround many of the species. As a writer of tree books who values reliable, original, and clear information on the dendroflora of botanical regions, I consider this book a rare find. Its authors have spent many years in fruitful field study of a rugged and undervalued region and have produced a volume of the highest quality. Their publisher has done a fine job of designing and manufacturing this attractive contribution to the Mexican flora.

Florida Trees and Palms: Trees are Permanent - How to Choose and Grow Them

Average customer rating:

Too bad it isn't in color

Florida Trees and Palms: Trees are Permanent - How to Choose and Grow Them
Lewis S. Maxwell
Manufacturer: Lewis S. Maxwell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Florida Plant Selector: A Guide to Choice and Use of Over 100 Landscape Plants
Your Florida Landscape: A Complete Guide to Planting and Maintenance : Trees, Palms, Shrubs, Ground Covers and Vines
Florida Insects: Their Habits and Control
An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms
Florida Landscape Plants: Native And Exotic

ASIN: 0961324015

Product Description

Concise guide to the selection of the most suitable landscape trees and larger palms for homes and parks. Choice photographs of the trees, their landscape use, salt and cold tolerances, and extensive additional information are provided.

Customer Reviews:

Too bad it isn't in color.......2007-07-11

This is a wonderful, comprehensive listing - with lots of useful info - of trees for cultivation in Florida. I could only wish that the illustrations were more detailed and in color to make identification a little bit easier. Great book though - highly recommended.

Surviving the Iron Curtain: A Microscopic View of What Life Was Like Inside a War-Torn Region

Average customer rating:

A must-read book on surviving in Biafra
Surviving the iron curtain by Chief Uche Jim Ojiaku

Surviving the Iron Curtain: A Microscopic View of What Life Was Like Inside a War-Torn Region
Chief Uche Jim Ojiaku
Manufacturer: PublishAmerica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1424170702
Release Date: 2007-03-26

Book Description

The NIGERIA-BIAFRA war started in mid 1967 when a tiny region of Nigeria seceded from Nigeria to become Biafra. With the complete support of the British government, Nigeria instituted a very powerful and effective blockade on Biafra. The only communication that Biafra had with the rest of the world was through the RED CROSS and CARITAS relief flights that were flown into Biafra at nights under heavy attacks from Nigerian forces. Some of the planes were shot down. With no powerful nation backing Biafra, coupled with the blockade and the consequent lack of food and medicine, surviving in Biafra became a matter of improvisements for both Biafran forces and citizens. In an area that was replete with diseases like malaria, typhoid and kwashiorkor, this book explains how the Biafran citizens were able to survive for almost three years until Biafra was defeated in January 1970.

Customer Reviews:

A must-read book on surviving in Biafra.......2007-05-07

Chief Jim Ojiaku has written a fantastic and excellent expose' of the events of the Nigerian civil war from the home perspective. The rendition of his experiences, his free style of writing, enabled him to compress a large volume of facts with eloquence and details, thus, reminding the reader about why 'war is raw'. Chief Ojiaku wrote from the heart--a testament of the originality that would be a point of reference for future writers, hence there were no bibliographical references. The book portrayed how a determined people (Biafrans) courageously persevered over a thirty-month bloody civil war in the face of adversity perpetrated by world super-powers who coerced the international community to look away while they helped the Federal Government of Nigeria in its failed effort to win the war in forty-eight hours, then resorted to blockade and blanket the Biafrans both by sea, air, and land and executed the blood-letting and starvation that led to an eventual surrender to peace in 1970.
Chief Ojiaku indicated that although the battle ended in the war front, the war rages on as people from the Biafran side continue to be marginalized in almost all aspects of Nigerian life--politics, university admissions, road constructions and what have you! This book showed that Chief Jim Ojiaku can successfully make use of good advice. Thanks to his brother in law--Professor Joe Akunna who sincerely advised him to put down his thoughts in black and white.
Surviving the iron curtain exemplified how Biafra was killed in a genocidal civil unrest, but the people refused to die. The planned extermination of the Biafrans from the surface of the earth--how civilians were tortured and starved, the poor state of Biafra, how ill-equipped young people joined the war to save their people, how the Biafrans used improvises to fight valiantly as the Biblical David against Goliath. Chief Uche Jim Ojiaku did not forget the benevolence of the Red Cross and other relief organizations in breaking the iron curtain despite enemy attack. Worst still was the only twenty pounds which Biafrans received from the Nigerian Government who had any bank account in Biafran banks--being the only rehabilitation received since after the war.
Chief Jim Ojiaku deliberately refused to deal with the blame game that characterizes every war. He was right to blame both sides in order to allow the reader to understand his reason for writing the book. Finally Biafra surrendered through the courage and bravery of Colonel Philip Effiong who helped to salvage the human skull that was left of Biafra--in 1970. I strongly recommend this book to all who profess to the Biafran cause-both old and young--a reminder of the indelible scar--that was Biafra.

Surviving the iron curtain by Chief Uche Jim Ojiaku.......2007-04-23

In reading Chief Uche Jim Ojiaku's book I learned a piece of history that needs to be read by everyone and the world needs to remember the horrors of the war between Nigeria and The Republic Of Biafra and a war that tore apart a country.
He tells of one story about his brother Emmanuel who is killed at the front at the young age of 19 and the beautiful touching letter his father writes to his dead son, "An Epitath To Lt. Emmanuel Ojiaku."

This letter is heart breaking and no one would forget reading it. He writes very lovingly about his mother, father, brothers and sisters and especially about his love for his people. He brings forth in his book many beautiful photographs and diagrams on the many foods in his region and explains in great detail on each food and how they're prepared.

This book is a must read. Jim brings forth the great love he has for his people, his family and most of all his great country.

I give Chief Uche Jim Ojiaku five stars ***** for a book well written.

Joseph Frank Baraba

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books