Totem Salmon : Life Lessons from Another Species

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Freeman House lives in an out-of-the-way place. Tucked away where Highway 101 diverts inland from the Northern California coastline to avoid the 4,000-foot peaks of the King Range is a damp, verdant landscape of rolling hills, towering forests, and isolated pockets of humanity. The Mattole River drains much of the area, greeting the Pacific at the Lost Coast. For thousands of years, the river formed the connective tissue of human settlement--first for the native tribes, and later for Euro-American pioneers. Each year, salmon swam up the river to their natal spawning beds, marking the passage of time and providing sustenance for the people along the banks. Then, in the early 1970s, the salmon stopped returning. House found himself banding with other like-minded citizens in an effort to bring the once-prolific runs back. Their organization fought for curbs on logging in the watershed and more restrictions for the way timber can be harvested (buffer zones along streams, for example). They planted vegetation on the banks to provide shade and added structure to the river for protection.

Totem Salmon is House's memoir of river stewardship. It's also a blueprint for grassroots environmental action. And finally, it is a well-crafted and lyrical piece of writing that treats a regional problem with personal perspective and candor. --Langdon Cook

Book Description

Part lyrical natural history, part social and philosophical manifesto, Totem Salmon tells the story of a determined band of locals who've worked for over two decades to save one of the last purely native species of salmon in California. The book-call it the zen of salmon restoration-traces the evolution of the Mattole River Valley community in northern California as it learns to undo the results of rapacious logging practices; to invent ways to trap wild salmon for propagation; and to forge alliances between people who sometimes agree on only one thing-that there is nothing on earth like a Mattole king salmon. House writes from streamside: "I think I can hear through the cascades of sound a systematic plop, plop, plop, as if pieces of fruit are being dropped into the water. Sometimes this is the sound of a fish searching for the opening upstream; sometimes it is not. I breathe quietly and wait." Freeman House's writing about fish and fishing is erotic, deeply observed, and simply some of the best writing on the subject in recent literature. House tells the story of the annual fishing rituals of the indigenous peoples of the Klamath River in northern California, one that relies on little-known early ethnographic studies and on indigenous voices-a remarkable story of self-regulation that unites people and place. And his riffs on the colorful early history of American hatcheries, on property rights, and on the "happiness of the state" show precisely why he's considered a West Coast visionary. Petitions to list a dozen West Coast salmon runs under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act make saving salmon an issue poised to consume the Pacific West. "Never before, said Federal officials, has so much land or so many people been given notice that they will have to alter their lives to restore a wild species" (New York Times, 2/27/98). Totem Salmon is set to become the essential read for this newest chapter in our relations with other wild things.

Customer Reviews:

Save the salmon.......2000-12-25

Excellent book. Interesting read. Inspiring call to action.

Powerful.......2000-12-04

Briefly...as an environmentalist from both the non-profit, agency and barefoot,dreadlocked worlds I really appreciated this book. The author brings out the complexity and poetry of the technical, natural and spiritual mosaic involved in watershed work in the northwest (and eveywhere for that matter). For anyone who has ever (or even never) been through similar experiences that the author describes, it brings shivers up the spine with the descriptive imagery and his obvious intimacy with the Mattole. I highly recommend this book.

Wonderful Read Out Loud Quotes.......2000-06-20

I read a lot, but I almost never pin my husband down to read him sections of a book. When I was reading Totem Salmon, I couldn't help it. I kept saying, "Listen to this one." I owned a home in the Mattole River Watershed in the late 70's and early 80's. I was amazed at how well Freeman House captures the essence of the area and the people without caricaturing either. Over and over he writes a few sentences which really "get it right" in explaining the landscape, the weather or the people of the area. This is not an easy "how-to" book on bringing back the salmon, but it brings out why it is worth the effort for as long as it takes.

Learning from Life, Nurturing Place.......1999-12-18

The book is a first-person account telling the story of a group of people who have dedicated themselves to rehabbing a river, a watershed, and saving some special strains of wild Pacific salmon stock. They decided to use salmon-hatchery technology (and other procedures) as a way to learn from the native salmon, rather than to introduce non-native species to their river. Freeman House is a truly impressive thinker and writer. His engaging intelligence is not just wide and deep, like a rockclimber his awareness gets into some unfamiliar and little-explored crevices of life - nature and human nature. House and his cohorts are questers who may ultimately discover something as important as did William Harvey or Sir Albert Howard. I'm tempted to call the book a riveting read, but the experience is warmer than that metaphor implies. It's hopeful. A strangely wise book.

Salmon splash in your heart........1999-10-03

From "Totem Salmon - Life Lessons from Another Species" by Freeman House -

"My straining senses slow down the sound so that each of its parts can be heard separately. A hiss, barely perceptible, as the fish muscles itself right out of its living medium; silence like a dozen monks pausing too long between the strophes of a chant as the creature arcs through the dangerous air; a crash as of a basketball going through a plate glass window as he or she returns to the velvet embrace of the water; and then a thousand tiny bells struck once only as the shards of water fall and the surface of the stream regains its viscous integrity."

"I flick on my headlamp and the whole backwater pool seems to leap toward me. The silver streak that crosses the enclosure in an instant is a flash of lightning within my skull, one which heals the wound that has separated me from this moment -- from any moment. The encounter is so perfectly complex, timeless, and reciprocal that it takes on an objective reality of its own. I am able to walk around it as if it were a block of carved stone. If my feelings could be reduced to a chemical formula, the experience would be a clear solution made up of equal parts of dumb wonder and clean exhilaration, colored through with a sense of abiding dread. I could write a book about it."

And here it is.

The Mattole River, where this story takes place, flows from the northwestern tip of California's Mendocino County, first a dozen miles northeast and then about sixty miles northwest through remote rural Humboldt County to its mouth at Petrolia. What keeps the river from reaching the Pacific Ocean any sooner is the King Range rising precipitously from the "Lost Coast", a stretch of beach frequented only by hikers and the occasional small plane.

Getting to the Mattole from the freeway is at least an hour's drive on winding country roads. This area, like much of Humboldt County, was logged in the fifties and sixties, and in the late sixties and seventies a substantial portion of it was sold to urban refugees, "reinhabitants". Over the next three decades, quite a few of them committed to the task of restoring the watershed to health. Two of these were David Simpson and Freeman House who together conceived and founded the Mattole Watershed Salmon Support Group. "Totem Salmon" tells the story of this work.

Salmon are an indicator species. Their health, as a population, closely tracks the health of the watershed to which they return. If you want to know how well a river valley is doing in the Pacific Northwest, look at the salmon runs, if there are any left. The principal enemy of the salmon is silt, produced by erosion usually from badly built roads and culverts, and from logging. Salmon need clean gravel in the streambed for eggs to survive and hatch. Well forested valleys with little erosion provide the best stream habitat for hatching and rearing salmon.

In 1950, before logging, it is recalled by the older Mattole valley residents, that, when they were running, "you could walk across the river on the backs of the salmon". In 1980, before restoration work began, the runs were down to perhaps 200 fish. More, those fish were the last wild salmon run in the state.

Looking back after reading the book, one could see the first phrase, "I am alone...", as a key to the work. Rooted in an explicit sense of self, spiraling out through sensory subtleties of immediate nature, to the larger cultural complexities, Mr. House melds what are usually seen as distinct worlds into a coherent portrait of a personal and multi-species reality. Like the salmon traversing the several worlds of ocean, river, air and creek, the personal, philosophical, cultural, historical, administrative, ecological, and cosmic threads are finely woven into a narrative yielding a shimmering presence of spirit and nature.

The book is a deeply enjoyable memoir of a long personal relationship with salmon. Along the way we see the history of the Euro-American relationship with this species, and that of the Native-American people who were here managing these watersheds long before. We learn of the state and federal administrative context of salmon management and the history of our, first, ignorance, and then, study of the anadromous species and their rivers. In clear and moving images, and with affection and humor, we see the people on the Mattole River who have joined hands for eighteen years to rescue this last wild run of salmon from extinction. Lastly we see the hopeful results and the tenuous circumstances of their work.

We might expect it to be a text for salmon restoration, and while the specifics are there they are widely scattered throughout the book. More attention is given to the wider question of how we got here, and how we can get through this to a more wholesome, rooted, and appreciative life in our particular place. If it is a text -- and Mr. House would say it is not -- it is a meta-instructional one, showing a way to become a people who will do the right thing for the watershed and thus for the salmon. The personal explorations in the book demonstrate by example the message beneath the text: by immersing ourselves in the reality of our local valley we can rescue both the health of our watersheds and our sense of ourselves. In the end, we see that they are the same journey; the salmon reflect to us our understanding of self and place.

The epilogue quotes Paul Schell, Mayor of Seattle, "Ironically, as we work to save the salmon, it may turn out that the salmon save us."

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Totem Salmon: Life Lessons From Another Species
Freeman House
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N7DBLU

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Lithops;: Plantae succulentae, rarissimae, in terra obscuratae, e familia Aizoaceae, ex Africa australi
Gert Cornelis Nel
Manufacturer: Universiteitsuitg. en -boikhandelaars
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007IXMS2

Book Description

This visual guide to Barcelona combines rich and detailed text with historical facts, local anecdotes, and information about the city's colorful character. Entertainingly written, the guide will engage and inform both the armchair tourist and the visitor who wants a brief but in-depth analysis of the city-not an encyclopedia of all the city contains, but a digest of all that is best about Barcelona. Appealing to the literate and independent traveler, it includes information about Barcelona's world-renowned architecture, art galleries, musical venues, cuisine, hotels, public transportation, and four short walking tours around the city.

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Streams of civilization: Ancient history to 1600 A.D. : a world history text for junior and senior high schools
Albert Hyma
Manufacturer: Creation-Life Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006COK1M

Book Description

The first source to unite secondary fungal metabolism and morphogenesis in one volume, Secondary Metabolism and Differentiation in Fungi treats biological systems as parts of a whole rather than as a series of individual elements, highlighting research in genetics, molecular biology, and ecology. Featuring the expertise of 19 international authorities, each chapter is a rich source of experimentation ideas. The book facilitates the application of novel techniques to existing problems in molecular mycology and explores potentials for major new research. This indispensable guide to a key scientific field benefits biologists, chemists, and other scientists.

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This volume focuses on the classical theory of number-theoretic functions emphasizing algebraic and multiplicative techniques. It contains many structure theorems basic to the study of arithmetic functions, including several previously unpublished proofs. The author is head of the Dept. of Mathemati

Book Description

The Second Edition of Images of Color, Images of Crime, a reader of 22 original essays edited by eminent criminologists Coramae Richey Mann and Marjorie S. Zatz, has been updated and improved from the previous edition.

This volume explores the dynamics of race, crime, and the criminal justice system in the United States today, giving equal attention to the linkages between images of color and images of crime. In their essays, the contributors stress the diversity of experiences within racial/ethnic groups based on gender, class, and national origin/heritage. Many books about crime and the criminal justice system ignore race when it comes to crimes by whites, much as they ignore gender when discussing crimes by men. In contrast, Mann and Zatz present a critical analysis of white privilege as a central feature.

The Second Edition has been reorganized, centering on substantive areas. Within each of the four substantive sections, readers will find essays describing and analyzing the experiences of American Indians, African Americans, Latinos and Latinas, Asian Americans, and Euro-Americans. New transitional pieces have been added that tie each section together, and the contributors have updated their essays with current information.

The book opens with a general discussion of race and racism as social constructions, clarifying how images of color are structurally linked to systems of oppression and domination and are reinforced by the media and politicians. Then there is a section on personal narratives from each major color category, followed by sections on stereotyping by politicians, stereotyping by the media, and crime and punishment on color lines.

Discussion questions at the end of each chapter encourage students to confront racism in its multiple guises.

Book Description

Gardner Botsford, for years a senior editor at The New Yorker, had a childhood straight out of a Noel Coward play: a home in a Manhattan converted brownstone with eight ser-vants, summers in Europe, and a mother whose beauty and wit attracted admirers from Harpo Marx to Alexander Woollcott and Bernard Baruch. So it is a rude awakening in 1942 when young Botsford is drafted into the infantry. His chronicle then takes us to D-Day, to the Battle of the Bulge, and ultimately to a meeting with the Russian Army in Czechoslovakia. This is war writing at its best-quiet yet vivid, understated yet thrilling. Back at The New Yorker after the war, Botsford introduces readers to the ornaments of its glory days-A.J. Liebling, Maeve Brennan, Janet Flanner, Harold Ross, and, of course, William Shawn-all presented with Botsford's marvelous eye and heart.

Customer Reviews:

A LIFE OF PRIVILEGE IS A PRIVILEGE TO READ.......2003-07-02

This glimpse into the life of a gentleman is riveting. Mr. Botsford relinquishes a life to the reader of a time gone by, when a gentleman was something people aspired to be. From true gentility to personal heroism and adventure during the war, each page brings you deeper into the life of a fascinating man. This is the kind of tale that people used to sit around a cozy fire to share, when television was science fiction and storytelling was not a lost art. Mr. Botsford makes you nostalgic for that kind of entertainment, and glad that you can still find it if you know where to look. So turn off the TV and pick up "A Life of Privilege, Mostly", you'll be glad you did!

It will leave you weak with laughter.......2003-02-01

The two photographs on the cover of Gardner Botsford's extraordinary memoir explain the "Mostly" in the title: While the book gives a funny, detailed description of life in the top tier of New York society, it also takes the reader into the not-so-funny life of a young soldier who fought in the bloodiest battles of World War II. The war parts are without self-pity. The privilege parts are similarly cheerful and accepting. The author, a former top editor at the New Yorker Magazine, also gives a backstage view of some of the power struggles he witnessed there. And some of his delicious anecdotes about famous New Yorker writers leave the reader weak with laughter. This is a book to relish and buy many copies of for all your friends and relatives.

"Funny names belong to the past" - Wolcott Gibbs (p.177).......2003-01-27

As the split screen cover photos suggest, Gardner Botsford (`is this a real name?' asks my wife) chronicles two sides of his extraordinary life. First, "the feel of fear" as an infantryman entering World War II at Omaha Beach on D-Day and his surviving countless adventures as the Allies drive to Berlin. Liberation of Paris, the surrender of an entire town to him personally, meeting Patton...one begins to think he is an erudite Forrest Gump - he is simply everywhere at the important moment. Second, his colorful career in journalism, from covering death-row executions in Florida as a young beat reporter through his long career at the center of the literary world as editor of The New Yorker.

"`Before I blow out your brains' - what a way to talk! What melodrama! What had happened to me?" As a GI, Botsford wrestles in Europe with the demons of war...perhaps solid preparation for future traumas he would witness at home in New York. Booze, mental depression and suicide were to elite wordsmiths what heroin became to jazz musicians, and Botsford's life is touched repeatedly by the loss of his colleagues.

One expects chapters upon chapter of WASPy high society lifestyles, but Botsford indulges the reader only with a taste of his pre-war jaunts through Hotchkiss, Yale and the Ubangi Club. Neysa McMein, famous socialite and illustrator, (but not Botsford's mother as indicated in the PW review posted here) is featured: a fellow native of Quincy, Illinois, Neysa introduces the author's parents to New York. Alexander Wolcott, Genet (Janet Flanner), Wolcott Gibbs, AJ Leibling, and scores of famous New Yorker writers and editors are recounted. Naturally, Ross and Shawn, the great legends of the magazine serve as bookends to the Botsford career. But you don't have to be a great student of The New Yorker to appreciate this memoir.

Maeve Brennan's insouciant letter detailing a Christmas in the Hamptons ("It will be a long day before I have `house guests' again.") is a scream, and worth the price of the book alone. You'll also enjoy Wolcott Gibbs' 10 general rules for editing New Yorker writers. Equally amusing is Gibbs' editorial answer to a book publisher in Chicago with six accompanying notes ("#4. `For it was apple-blossom time in Normandy' is, I'm afraid, arch at best, and the ragtime beat is not appealing to the ear.")

Mr. Botsford's keen sense of humor echoes throughout the memoir. He constantly watches for those taking themselves too seriously, and finds a treasure trove of these unfortunates in the US Army, in American politics, and in the editorial corridors of New York City. Even his best friend before the war, Bill Verity, (aka, Monsieur Calvini) does not escape his wit...alas "he took up the corporate ladder, became more stone-minded, was appointed as Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Commerce - he was lost forever." Those who are too officious find little room in the privileged life of Gardner Botsford. Thank you, Robert, this was a treat.

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Life Of Privilege, Mostly
Gardner Botsford
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N6P14G

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A Life of Privilege, Mostly
Gardner Botsford
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTPXPO

Book Description

Lon O. Nordeen has completely updated his 1985 chronicle of military aviation's evolving role in warfare, now covering the major conflicts of the past four decades through the addition of chapters on the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War, and the Bosnia-Kosovo conflict, and new material concerning past and recent actions in Afghanistan. He presents the historical and political background of each conflict and includes in-depth discussions of the aircraft, weapons, tactics, training, new systems, and other factors that influenced the outcome of each war. New and existing chapters have been enhanced with information based on recently declassified material--especially regarding Vietnam--and new sources in Egypt, Israel, and the former Soviet Union. As "smart" bombs have become more successful in reducing the risks for pilots and frontline troops, air-missile warfare has become the central player in military conflicts. Air Warfare in the Missile Age, Second Edition, is a valuable resource for understanding the evolution of modern air warfare.

Customer Reviews:

Comprehensive and fascinating!.......2003-09-09

This is a top-notch review of the evolution of air power in recent decades. The background and course of each conflict covered is clearly and succintly discussed. Nordeen is a good writer with an impressive command of the facts. Anyone familiar with the world of military aviation will devour this book, and will find it useful for constant future reference. The chapters on the Indo-Pakistani conflicts, the War of Attrition, and the Iran-Iraq war are fascinating and valuable, especially because they are not well-covered elsewhere.
However, I offer a few minor criticisms that are not intended to take anything away from the work, but may be of interest to buyers. First, do NOT plan on using this book as a primer. The author assumes a readership with a good knowledge of military aircraft, weapons, and systems. A book of this type could do with a lot more illustrations, and the maps are almost worthless. If you are not familiar with all this, the book could be just a dense laundry list of alpha-numeric designations and names. On the other hand, if you are familiar with the subject, you will not find much new in the book, although it is one of the better single volume comprehensive works in the field.
Second, certain conflicts are omitted. The 1986 USN action against Libyan ships and SAM sites is ignored (except for one photo caption), when I believe the HARM was used for the first time(?). The Russian actions in Chechnya are not mentioned. 1988's PRAYING MANTIS is not discussed (and I am sure I have missed a few lesser conflicts). The Iraqi No-Fly-Zone activity is lightly brushed over, and the Soviet air war in Afghanistan is given short shrift. However, I realize including every minor action may not add anything to the author's overall goal.
Third, the book has a half-dozen or so small errors, some inaccurate dates, and the rare typo.
None of these criticisms are in any way meant to denigrate an excellent work. I only offer them as a heads-up to buyers.

For the initiated, I give the book a strong endorsement.

Outstanding Analysis of Air Warfare Since the Missile.......2003-04-25

Lon Nordeen has been a writer in various defense and aviation magazines for more than twenty years. I first became aware of him after reading his book "Fighters Over Israel," a very cogent and incisive account of the rise of Israel's air force and the many battles they have fought. Mr. Nordeen has done no less with this book; he has turned out one of the best overviews of the effect that missiles have had on aerial warfare since the Vietnam conflict until the Falkland Island War and the various wars in the Middle East as of the book's 1985 publishing date.

The book has an introduction, ten chapters, two appendices, notes, a glossary, an index, and a very comprehensive bibliography. The book devotes the first two chapters to the Vietnam conflict detailing the constantly evolving tactics between North Vietnam's excellent air force and air defenses versus the combined air forces of the United States. The next two chapters detail the little-known conflicts between Pakistan and India, which were a paradigm for the shape of aerial warfare to come. The next four chapter detail the many Arab-Israeli wars as well as inter-Arab warfare such as the conflict between Iraq and Iran. The book's last two chapters detail the short but intense Falkland Islands conflict and draws conclusions about the effect and direction missiles have had on military aviation.

The supplemental material at the end of the book is extremely useful: lists of aircraft, aerial cannon, missiles, and bombs. The notes reference all of the hard data that Mr. Londeen uses. If you want to know where he read that information, look it up by footnote and you'll find it. The glossary is of immense use to those of us studying military aviation who weren't a part of military aviation. For instance, do you know what an Ironhand flight is? If you don't, both the text and the glossary have ready explanations / definitions for you.

The bibliography is very comprehensive and uses books from both sides of every conflict where they were available. When reading about the Arab-Israeli conflict, for example, Mr. Londeen has made every effort to quote both Arab and Israeli sources. In fact, rather than state that "so many aircraft were shot down on this day," Mr. Londeen states both sides' claims and often additionally references other sources that support those claims. For example, during the 1973 Yom Kippur War (known popularly in the Arab world as the Ramadan War), he states at one point the combined claims of the Arab air forces accounted for more aircraft than the Israel Air Force flew! He quotes an Egyptian Air Force officer who explained that the Israelis have more aircraft than anyone knows. Very interesting. I also want to mention that Mr. Nordeen has written not only a history of Israel's air force, but also a history of Egypt's air force called: "Phoenix over the Nile: A History of Egyptian Air Power 1932-1994." I would also like to mention that my edition is the older 1985 printing and that a more up-to-date 2002 version has been published, but I haven't seen or read that edition.

At any rate, Mr. Londeen has done an excellent job of telling the rise of missile warfare without taking a strong bias for any side. He points out, from a very even keel, the strengths and weakness of the various combatants in major conflicts involving aerial warfare since the advent of the missile.

I highly recommend this very well written book for anyone wanting to learn more about the effect that the missile has had on military aviation.

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan.

An exhaustive and thrilling study!.......2003-03-26

Nordeen et al. took a thorough look at the evolution of missile technology, air defense systems and tactics since World War II. This capturing book describes in a very detailed way the air operations over Vietnam, during the Arab-Israeli wars, the battle around the Falkland Islands, the Indian-Pakistani wars and Operation "Desert Storm". The appendices are full of interesting technical details on weapon systems. I definitely recommend this book.

Insightful.......2002-12-11

This work provides a very useful background in developing a perspective for the evolution of aircraft and strategic utilization of aviation assets post-WWII. It is easy to read and will keep you interested throughout. As a former military pilot (USMC) my 1985 edition was never far from reach. Unfortunately I let a friend borrow it aboard ship and never saw it again! I'm ordering the updated edition today.

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Air Warfare in the Missile Age
Lon O. Nordeen
Manufacturer: Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VZTPSM

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Air Warfare in the Missile Age
Nordeen Lon O. Jr.
Manufacturer: Smithsonian
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UF0CFI

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Air Warfare in The Missile Age
Nordeen Lon O. Jr
Manufacturer: Smithsonian Institution Pres
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UCL2V4

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AIR WARFARE IN THE MISSILE AGE.
Lon O., Jr. Nordeen
Manufacturer: Wash., Smithsonian Institution, 1985. 265 pp., illus. Fine copy of first edition in dust jacket.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UDX1OY

Book Description

In May 2001, two dozen Mexican workers struck out across the U.S. border, plunging into the forbidding desert of southern
Arizona with little water. Three days later, following a frenzied search by U.S. Border Patrol agents, fourteen were found dead. The Yuma tragedy seized national headlines, but it was just one more example of the high-stakes game that crossing and guarding America's southern border has become.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, the U.S.-Mexico border has been rife with intrigue, lore, and tragedy. In Hard Line, Ken Ellingwood brings this region to life with an intimacy that eludes the daily news. A former border correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Ellingwood tells the stories of undocumented immigrants, American ranchers, and townspeople overwhelmed by an influx of border crossers; of the Native Americans whose land is cut in two by this modern boundary; and of border agents and human-rights workers struggling to prevent more tragedies. He captures the symbiotic relationships between towns on opposite sides of the border, where residents have long crossed between countries as easily as crossing a street.

As immigration reshapes the face of America, what happens at our borders is increasingly relevant to the rest of our nation. Hard Line offers a vivid and informative portrait of the people and the difficult issues that lie at the heart of the region.

Please note: On page 229 of Hard Line by Ken Ellingwood, there is an inaccurate description of the role played by Humane Borders in a federal lawsuit against the government. Humane Borders did not file a legal claim as the book states; it was filed by Yuma attorneys. This has been corrected for future printings. We regret the error.

Customer Reviews:

Hard Line: Life and Death on the US-Mexico Border.......2005-07-26

The most thorough and unbiased study of the US/Mexico border issues I have read. Ken Ellingwood recreates the history as well as the projections for this controversial problem. He permits readers to view all aspects of the issue and to develop a thoughtful awareness of their own personal opinion based on fact, not conjecture or propaganda.

Engrossing.......2004-07-29

This is a fascinating book about an incredibly complicated subject. Ellingwood lets the people on both sides on the border and all sides of the issue tell their stories. I don't think it is possible to be more fair or thorough or compelling in reporting on this topic. The reader that considered this a biased work must be confusing it with another book.

Biased.......2004-07-17

While there is some good (but all too brief) information presented in this book about the U.S.-Mexican border (including some interesting history of the region) and the results of the government's implementation of Operation Gatekeeper, it is mostly an account of how left-wing Americans have reacted to the border and to the operation. Overall, I found the book to be biased toward a very liberal point of view. The lefties who break the law and stoop to immigrant smuggling are portrayed in a very sympathetic light (and their party affiliations go unnoted), while the ranchers who round up immigrants on their property at gun point (possibly also breaking the law) are portrayed as overzealous, bug-eyed gun nuts (and invariably described as Republicans).

Much better (and more objective) books to read regarding this fascinating and important issue are Dead In Their Tracks, Coyotes, Crossing Over and Shadowed Lives.

A Fair Discussion of the Life-and-Death Impacts of U.S. Immi.......2004-06-22

This book should be read by anyone interested in an impartial discussion of the human consequences -- namely the deaths of thousands of migrants -- of the great increase in U.S. border enforcement in the 1990s. Hard Line presents in a readable fashion the perspectives of all the groups directly affected -- from Border Patrol officers to migrants to ranchers in southern Arizona -- by Operation Gatekeeper and the varous other military-style operations designed to reduce illegal immigration from Mexico. Among other things, we learn that the expendiuture of billions of dollars has not resulted in a reduction in immigration but simply directed migrant traffic through dangerous and inclement conditions where many migrants suffer gruesome deaths as a result of the simple pursuit of the American dream.

Book Description

Since humans first appeared on the earth, we've been cutting down trees for fuel and shelter. Indeed, the thinning, changing, and wholesale clearing of forests are among the most important ways humans have transformed the global environment. With the onset of industrialization and colonization the process has accelerated, as agriculture, metal smelting, trade, war, territorial expansion, and even cultural aversion to forests have all taken their toll.

Michael Williams surveys ten thousand years of history to trace how, why, and when human-induced deforestation has shaped economies, societies, and landscapes around the world. Beginning with the return of the forests to Europe, North America, and the tropics after the Ice Ages, Williams traces the impact of human-set fires for gathering and hunting, land clearing for agriculture, and other activities from the Paleolithic through the classical world and the Middle Ages. He then continues the story from the 1500s to the early 1900s, focusing on forest clearing both within Europe and by European imperialists and industrialists abroad, in such places as the New World and India, China, Japan, and Latin America. Finally, he covers the present-day and alarming escalation of deforestation, with the ever-increasing human population placing a possibly unsupportable burden on the world's forests.

Accessible and nonsensationalist, Deforesting the Earth provides the historical and geographical background we need for a deeper understanding of deforestation's tremendous impact on the environment and the people who inhabit it.

Deforesting the Earth: From Prehistory to Global Crisis, An Abridgment

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A very good essay

Deforesting the Earth: From Prehistory to Global Crisis, An Abridgment
Michael Williams
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0226899470

Book Description

“Anyone who doubts the power of history to inform the present should read this closely argued and sweeping survey. This is rich, timely, and sobering historical fare written in a measured, non-sensationalist style by a master of his craft. One only hopes (almost certainly vainly) that today’s policymakers take its lessons to heart.”—Brian Fagan, Los Angeles Times

Published in 2002, Deforesting the Earth was a landmark study of the history and geography of deforestation. Now available as an abridgment, this edition retains the breadth of the original while rendering its arguments accessible to a general readership.

Deforestation—the thinning, changing, and wholesale clearing of forests for fuel, shelter, and agriculture—is among the most important ways humans have transformed the environment. Surveying ten thousand years to trace human-induced deforestation’s effect on economies, societies, and landscapes around the world, Deforesting the Earth is the preeminent history of this process and its consequences.

Beginning with the return of the forests after the ice age to Europe, North America, and the tropics, Michael Williams traces the impact of human-set fires for gathering and hunting, land clearing for agriculture, and other activities from the Paleolithic age through the classical world and the medieval period. He then focuses on forest clearing both within Europe and by European imperialists and industrialists abroad, from the 1500s to the early 1900s, in such places as the New World, India, and Latin America, and considers indigenous clearing in India, China, and Japan. Finally, he covers the current alarming escalation of deforestation, with our ever-increasing human population placing a potentially unsupportable burden on the world’s forests.

Customer Reviews:

A very good essay.......2007-04-02

Very good book. It analyses encompasses both local aspects of deforestagin as regional/glaobal aspects.

Deforesting the Earth: from Prehistory to Global Crisis.(Book Review): An article from: The Canadian Geographer

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Deforesting the Earth: from Prehistory to Global Crisis.(Book Review): An article from: The Canadian Geographer
Graeme Wynn
Manufacturer: Canadian Association of Geographers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0008GG5VE
Release Date: 2006-07-14

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Canadian Geographer, published by Canadian Association of Geographers on December 22, 2003. The length of the article is 1394 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Deforesting the Earth: from Prehistory to Global Crisis.(Book Review)
Author: Graeme Wynn
Publication: The Canadian Geographer (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 2003
Publisher: Canadian Association of Geographers
Volume: 47 Issue: 4 Page: 514(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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