Voices in the Wilderness: American Nature Writing and Environmental Politics

Book Description

American nature writers as literary artists and political catalysts.

Book Description

Enlightenment botany was replete with sexual symbolism -- to the extent that many botanical textbooks were widely considered pornographic. Carl Linnaeus's controversial new system for classifying plants based on their sexual characteristics, as well as his use of language resonating with erotic allusions, provoked intense public debate over the morality of botanical study. And the renowned Tahitian exploits of Joseph Banks -- whose trousers were reportedly stolen while he was inside the tent of Queen Oberea of Tahiti -- reinforced scandalous associations with the field. Yet Linnaeus and Banks became powerful political and scientific figures who were able to promote botanical exploration alongside the exploitation of territories, peoples, and natural resources. Sex, Botany, and Empire explores the entwined destinies of these two men and how their influence served both science and imperialism.

Patricia Fara reveals how Enlightenment botany, under the veil of rationality, manifested a drive to conquer, subdue, and deflower -- all in the name of British empire. Linnaeus trained his traveling disciples in a double mission -- to bring back specimens for the benefit of the Swedish economy and to spread the gospel of Linnaean taxonomy. Based in London at the hub of an international exchange and correspondence network, Banks ensured that Linnaeus's ideas became established throughout the world. As the president of the Royal Society for more than forty years, Banks revolutionized British science, and his innovations placed science at the heart of trade and politics. He made it a policy to collect and control resources not only for the sake of knowledge but also for the advancement of the empire. Although Linnaeus is often celebrated as modern botany's true founder, Banks has had a greater long-term impact. It was Banks who ensured that science and imperialism flourished together, and it was he who first forged the interdependent relationship between scientific inquiry and the state that endures to this day.

Customer Reviews:

Linnaeus' tercentenary.......2007-03-27

May 23rd will be the 300th anniversary of Carl Linnaeus' birth so I purchased this little book to become familiar with him and to honor his memory. However this book is more about Banks than Linnaeus, altho' Banks did much to promote Linnaeus' system of classification not only in England but thru-out the world. In some ways, Banks was to Linnaeus what Huxley was to Darwin and Bateson was to Mendel. Not only did Linnaeus and Banks promote science (and themselves), but they promoted their respective country's agricultural economy before the Industrial Revolution. Yet both men were largely forgotten soon after their deaths.

In large part the successful promotion of Linnaeus' system was due to his use of animal genitalia (in an uptight society) as an analogy to describe the reproductive organs of plants and as the basis for naming and classifying them. Add to that, Banks' well-known promiscuity while in Tahiti on Captain Cook's first voyage there (to record the Transit of Venus) and you have a sure-fire salacious combination (sex sells!).

Fara also describes how the English used scientific exploration as a cover for colonization which they justified in the belief that Europeans were a superior race and must help the other races. Both Linnaeus and Banks brought in non-native plants and tried to adapt them to their countries but Banks was far more successful. Indeed Banks had plants and animals transplanted from one colony to another fairly successfully.

So eventho' I bought the book for Linnaeus, the inclusion of Banks rounds out the story. While Wikipedia has more facts on Linnaeus it has less of the personal. I gave the book only four stars because Fara doesn't include an index, tho' Amazon's `Search Inside' feature provided an alternative.

Read this for a science project.......2006-04-17

Carl Linnaeus was responsible for revolutionizing the way modern science classifies and organizes all living organisms. His simple system based on the sexual characteristics of plants shocked society and inspired other scientists including Joseph Banks, whose voyages around the world to find and classify new organisms included an interesting array of sexual exploits with the natives he came across. In her novel, Patricia Fara presents a solid and well supported thesis on how botany contributed and was inexplicably tied into the imperialism of European society, most especially the British Empire.

This book is a quick read and not overly bogged down with the intricacies of scientific classification. It presents the story of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks's enormous contributions to the beginnings of modern classification while discussing the political, social, and economic incentives behind their science. Patricia Fara has written several other books concerning Enlightenment era science and this book is a prime example of her ability and specialty in tying in the role of science as a part of society and government in the 18th and 19th centuries. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in biology or botany as well as anyone interested in the workings of early modern science and their place in the development of modern English society.

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Interesting yet disappointing
The Intrepid Englishman, Sir Joseph.
An Interesting Piece of Work, But...
O'Brian's "Banks" presages Aubrey & Maturin

Joseph Banks: A Life
Patrick O'Brian
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226616282

Amazon.com

Joseph Banks (1743-1820) led a life of great adventure. As a naturalist, he accompanied Captain James Cook on expeditions to Australia and Tahiti, where he cataloged new species of plants and animals; as an explorer, he helped chart sea passages along the coast of Canada to the Arctic. He was also at the center of power in his time, enjoying an on-again, off-again friendship with King George III and cultivating acquaintances with the leading scientists and statesmen of his time. Patrick O'Brian, well known for his captivating seafaring novels, brings dramatic flair to retelling the incidents of Banks's life, which are closely tied to the expansion of the British empire.

Book Description

One of our greatest writers about the sea has written an engrossing story of one of history's most legendary maritime explorers. Patrick O'Brian's biography of naturalist, explorer and co-founder of Australia, Joseph Banks, is narrative history at its finest. Published to rave reviews, it reveals Banks to be a man of enduring importance, and establishes itself as a classic of exploration.

"It is in his description of that arduous three-year voyage [on the ship Endeavor] that Mr. O'Brian is at his most brilliant. . . . He makes us understand what life within this wooden world was like, with its 94 male souls, two dogs, a cat and a goat."--Linda Colley, New York Times

"An absorbing, finely written overview, meant for the general reader, of a major figure in the history of natural science."--Frank Stewart, Los Angeles Times

"[This book is] the definitive biography of an extraordinary subject."--Robert Taylor, Boston Globe

"His skill at narrative and his extensive knowledge of the maritime history . . . give him a definite leg up in telling this . . . story."--Tom Clark, San Francisco Chronicle

Customer Reviews:

Interesting yet disappointing.......2007-03-21

This biography is obviously a collection of study material for Aubrey & Maturin. Sea travel combined with geographical exploration as well as botanizing and zoologizing, plus English society bickering is what the series is about just like this book on Banks. The whole O'Brian is there in the material.
Unfortunately only in the material. The flow of the prose is sadly lacking. The wit and humour comes through occasionally, but not the brillant dialogues, nor the elegant story telling, nor the gripping passages on nature and human encounters with it.
This is far too lean, relying on the accumulation of facts. Too much of the narrative is told in Banks' own stunted language. I have a hard time going through these condensed and stumbling diary entries. This is mostly a probem in the first half of the book. It gets much better at the time after Banks' travels, when he becomes a 'barnacle' and presides over the Royal Society.
A good biography ought to be more than material and information. It ought to tell us a story. The story is visible, but not fully told.
A good biography, on the positive side now, is always also a history of something larger than the main hero. This is a history of science and exploration in the 18th century, with some noteable supporting cast like James Cook and Linnaeus, with King George III and Benjamin Franklin. And awful Captain Bligh of Bounty fame, later Governor of Ossiland. And Jane Austen, but she more by association and less by personal appearance.
All that is fine.
But what about poor Solander? The man is there for much of the narrative, but does he ever get a chance to become a person? I don't think so, only in wee little asides. Just a tertiary cast member. Does Solander deserve that? Possibly not, but since O'Brian treats him with scarce attention, I may never know.
Disappointing.

The Intrepid Englishman, Sir Joseph........2005-09-16

Joseph Banks served forty years as president of the Royal Academy, Britain's oldest scientific institution. His legacy survives as a result of his scientific enterprise; he helped to transform an "insular" monarchy to an "industrial powerhouse."

He sailed on expeditions to North America and Iceland as well as the Pacific, and established Kew Gardens as one of the world's greatest botanical centers. His 'Florilogium' about his botanical studies in the South Seas is there in the library.

He was a naturalist, a young botanist, in addition to being an explorer. He was one of Australia's founding fathers. He accompanied Captain Cook as he circumnavigated the globe to discover that country.

His Last Will & Testament requested no monument, but forty-seven years after his death in 1820 at the age of 77 years, a tablet was erected showing his grave. He was portrayed as forthright, cheerful and a hospitable man, an intrepid explorer abroad who investigated all he encountered as a genius journalist. He left all of his possessions to wife, Dorothea, with his library at Kew under the direction of Robert Brown, who would have the leasehold house after her death.

Jason Wilson wrote in 'London Magazine' that "this leisurely and witty biography brings the 'genuine' Englishman fully to life." P. O'Brian used Banks' letters to such luminaries as Edward Gibbon, Samuel Johnson, Cuvier and Watt -- and his journals. He wrote a biography of Picasso and resided in southern France.

An Interesting Piece of Work, But..........2000-06-21

I, on the other hand, have never read any of the Aubrey & Maturin books, but I'm extremely interested in the Cook expeditions of which Banks played so much a part. I think it must be because I can see Banks Island right outside my window. Anyway, I must say that, after reading this book, I was prepared to believe Banks walked on water. Founder of modern botany (and modern science generally), explorer, developer of Kew and on and on. Certainly one of the giants of British naval exploration.

Alas! Cook biographers have been a little less kind to Banks. While often portrayed as a hard driving scientist, he has also been portrayed as a bit of an upper-class twit, always petulent and silly. Which is it? Probably somewhere in the middle. Read this book, but keep an open mind about the hagiography!

O'Brian's "Banks" presages Aubrey & Maturin.......1999-02-20

Having read every one -- all 18, I think -- of the wonderful Aubrey & Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, coming across O'Brian's earlier "Joseph Banks" is a special pleasure. The same wonderful O'Brian dry wit is there, the same fascinated and fascinating focus on the late 18th century, British politics and society, and the sea. O'Brian's "Banks" is an easy read, compared with many scholarly biographies. That is because, actually, it doesn't really qualify as a "scholarly" effort. It is more discursive, easy-going, unpretentious. Delightful is the word that most aptly describes O'Brian's writing in general, and that applies here. Of special interest, though, is that the character of Jack Aubrey is prefigured, very briefly, in the description of a sea-captain acquaintance of Banks's, and Stephen Maturin himself, while not found in person here, is prefigured by the career of Banks himself: explorer, biologist, botanist, collector, and man of the world. O'Brian's "Joseph Banks" is not for everyone, but is certainly for any one of the thousands of O'Brian addicts. Which makes one muse and wonder: when, oh when is "The Hundred Days" coming out in paperback so I can line it up with the other eighteen volumes?

Average customer rating:

The Life of Sir Joseph Banks
Edward Smith
Manufacturer: University Press of the Pacific
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1410200965

Book Description

Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), as a naturalist, accompanied Captain James Cook on expeditions to Australia and Tahiti, where he cataloged new species of plants and animals. He subsidized botanists and explorers all over the world; his natural history collections were at the service of everybody; he made Kew Gardens the botanical Mecca. As an explorer, he helped chart sea passages along the coast of Canada to the Arctic. It was Banks who inspired the famous adventure of Captain Bligh for transplanting the breadfruit, and ultimately made it successful. He was President of The Royal Society, and a friend of King George III.

The life of Sir Humphry Davy: Bart., LL. D., late president of the Royal Society, foreign associate of the Royal Institute of France, &c

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The life of Sir Humphry Davy: Bart., LL. D., late president of the Royal Society, foreign associate of the Royal Institute of France, &c
John Ayrton Paris
Manufacturer: H. Colburn and R. Bentley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00088V48G

A letter to the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, K.B., president of the Royal Society of London, containing strictures on his letter to the National Institute of France

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A letter to the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, K.B., president of the Royal Society of London, containing strictures on his letter to the National Institute of France
Samuel Horsley
Manufacturer: Cobbett and Morgan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00088KR84

The life of Sir Joseph Banks,: President of the Royal society, with some notices of his friends and contemporaries,

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The life of Sir Joseph Banks,: President of the Royal society, with some notices of his friends and contemporaries,
Edward Smith
Manufacturer: John Lane
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00086MPF4

A short account of the life of the right honourable Sir Joseph Banks, K.B., president of the Royal Society of London

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A short account of the life of the right honourable Sir Joseph Banks, K.B., president of the Royal Society of London
Andrew Duncan
Manufacturer: printed by P. Neill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00088LHLU

Customer Reviews:

Great Walking tours of Pragure.......2000-04-01

Praguewalks is like having a friend who lives there and knows this wonderful city well giving you a private walking tour. Inside you will find 5 different tours showing you sights that you would never find on your own. Unlike tour books that give you just the highlights of the city, this guide will take you on a pleasant stroll through five different neighborhoods, telling you a bit of history along the way.

You cover little out of the way streets finding a wonderful statue that can only be seen by going around to the back of an embassy. Enjoy reading about the female patron saint of unhappily married women who grew grew a beard to be unattractive to her promised husband. These and other interesting stories are covered as you explore the sights of this beautiful city.

Book Description

Electron Diffraction in the Transmission Electron Microscope explains the basic methods of how to obtain images and patterns with the TEM, and how to interpret them. The TEMs are used in many labs, and allow users to explore the structure of a specimen of interest (e.g. a section through a particular material, crystal or tissue). This introductory-level guide looks at the patterns produced by diffracted electrons to study the appearance, orientation and structure of the sample. The book discusses useful case studies and examples to guide the new user and offers a user-friendly approach with simple explanations and informative illustrations.

$Transmission Electron Microscopy and Diffractometry of Materials$
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wrote by TEM expert

Transmission Electron Microscopy and Diffractometry of Materials
Brent Fultz , and James M. Howe
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accessories:

ASIN: 3540437649

Book Description

This textbook develops the concepts of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and x-ray diffractometry (XRD) that are important for the characterization of materials. It emphasizes themes common to both techniques, such as scattering from atoms, wave interference, and the formation and analysis of diffraction patterns. It explains the uniqueness of each technique, especially imaging and spectroscopy in the TEM. Simple citations of rules are avoided as much as possible, and both practical and theoretical issues are explained in detail. The book can be used as both an introductory and advanced-level graduate text since sections/chapters are sorted according to difficulty and grouped for use in quarter and semester courses on TEM and XRD. Numerous problems are provided at the end of each chapter to reinforce key concepts, and solutions are available to instructors. Appendices provide procedures for introductory laboratory exercises, and up-to-date tabulations of physical data useful for TEM and XRD.

Customer Reviews:

wrote by TEM expert.......2006-02-06

This book is concise and comprehensive. Own it if you want to master TEM.

$Electron diffraction and transmission electron microscopy study of the effect of 0-4 weight percent chromium on transformations of alpha phase Ni-Mo-Cr ... equal to 4:1: A Ph.D. dissertation proposal$
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Electron diffraction and transmission electron microscopy study of the effect of 0-4 weight percent chromium on transformations of alpha phase Ni-Mo-Cr ... equal to 4:1: A Ph.D. dissertation proposal
K Vasudevan
Manufacturer: The Dept
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006YHW2Y

Structural characterization and gas reactions of small metal particles by high-resolution, in-situ tem and ted (SuDoc NAS 1.26:176905)

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Structural characterization and gas reactions of small metal particles by high-resolution, in-situ tem and ted (SuDoc NAS 1.26:176905)
NASA
Manufacturer: Eloret Institute National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Technical Information Service, distributor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00010OVJK

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A manual of volumetric analysis for the use of pharmacists, sanitary and food chemists,: As well as for students in these branches,
Henry W Schimpf
Manufacturer: J. Wiley & sons; [etc., etc.]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B0006AFL6M

Book Description

Equations of the Ginzburg–Landau vortices have particular applications to a number of problems in physics, including phase transition phenomena in superconductors, superfluids, and liquid crystals. Building on the results presented by Bethuel, Brazis, and Helein, this current work further analyzes Ginzburg-Landau vortices with a particular emphasis on the uniqueness question.

The authors begin with a general presentation of the theory and then proceed to study problems using weighted Hölder spaces and Sobolev Spaces. These are particularly powerful tools and help us obtain a deeper understanding of the nonlinear partial differential equations associated with Ginzburg-Landau vortices. Such an approach sheds new light on the links between the geometry of vortices and the number of solutions.

Aimed at mathematicians, physicists, engineers, and grad students, this monograph will be useful in a number of contexts in the nonlinear analysis of problems arising in geometry or mathematical physics. The material presented covers recent and original results by the authors, and will serve as an excellent classroom text or a valuable self-study resource.

Book Description

Amiri Baraka - dramatist, poet, essayist, orator, and fiction writer - is one of the preeminent African-American literary figures of our time. The Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader provides the most comprehensive selection of Baraka's work to date, spanning almost 40 years of a brilliant, prolific, and controversial career, in which he has produced more than 12 books of poetry, 26 plays, eight collections of essays and speeches, and two books of fiction. This updated edition contains over 50 pages of previously unpublished work, as well as a chronology and full bibliography.

Customer Reviews:

An Awesome Artist and Philosopher.......2006-11-21

I would not take anyone's word uncritically or unexamined about anything really important. Amiri Baraka is a flawed man. At times he has sounded anti-semitic and other times in his life he has sounded homophobic.

There is plenty in his life to contradict those seemingly mean spirited expressions. However, he was friends to the end with both Allen Ginsberg and James Baldwin among others and had children with Hattie (Cohen?)Jones. And I still don't get the "20 Volume Suicide Note"...musings of somebody not really ready to go quietly into that night?

All that being said, I also find Baraka to be vigorous, rigorous, intellectually and spiritually adventuresome and brave of heart. I have learned MUCH from him. If you don't get it, maybe he isn't talking you or you are not willing to listen...

He has written some beautiful, brilliant poetry that functions through many channels of communication. His essays about African based music are seminal, required, necessary.

Baraka deserves criticism. None of the criticism here so far expresses anything of substance that I can discern.

Personally, I experienced one of my rebirths though the Black Arts Movement. Baraka was one of the leading "midwives". I am VERY thankful for his presence in this crazy, cruel, wonderous world. If you really want to know the truth of what we call "America", the stench and the free-for-all wildflowers, you need to pass by his way.

Reviewing THE BOOK, Not The Controversy Surrounding Its Author.......2006-02-07

As a native of Newark, N.J., I grew up taking Amiri Baraka for granted. It wasn't until I moved to Maryland and finally read this book that I understood who I had met all those times.

This is an EXTRAORDINARY work that details the growth and development of a significant American artist. Its editor takes much care in selecting samples that allow us to see divergent aspects of Baraka.

Especially significant among the many gems within is the text of his eulogy for James Baldwin and his essay on Jesse Jackson. Those works are required reading for those needing to understand the 20th century African-American experience, particularly those who wish to do so as writers.

This book has guided my view of the (African-)American writer's role.

A worthless book.......2003-08-29

I read this book and all I know is that Leroi Jones changed his name to Amiri Baraka.

But all he is... is a frustrated angry man. Full of hate and spite.

not deserving much attention.......2003-08-19

I think this book took me five minutes to read--a lot of talking, no ideas. Original ones, anyway.

An amazing man!.......2003-04-24

Buy this book. It's that simple. This book provides the reader with a developmental history of one of the greatest LIVING revolutionary minds this country has ever produced. He hits you in the heart without bashing you over the head. You may not agree with everything he says, or how he may have lived portions of his life, but you will be affected (in some capacity) by his wit, intelligence and the fierceness of his conventions. A must for anyone who thinks that they are " a radical" or "an activist."

This book is rated UR and may not be suitable for un-realistic audiences.

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The LeRoi Jones /Amiri Baraka Reader.
LeRoi / BARAKA, Amiri. JONES
Manufacturer: NY: Thunder's Mouth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UG12RO

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The LeRoi Jones / Amiri Baraka Reader
LeRoi / Amiri Baraka] Harris, William J., editor in collaboration with Amiri Baraka [Jones
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1991
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J0PNDU

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The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader
Amiri; Jones, LeRoi] Harris, William J., editor [Baraka
Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1995
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VJ2NN2

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