Doing Business with Libya (Global Market Briefing)

Book Description

Doing Business with Libya is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to developments in all aspects investment and commercial engagement in Libya, a country with one of the highest GDP per capita in the developing world. The guide examines the legal structure and business regulations, including finance, accountancy and taxation issues. Although Libya's economic mainstay is still the oil and gas industry, the government increasingly pursues economic diversification. Profiles of key industry sectors are also provided by expert contributors including the law firms Eversheds and Mukhtar,Kelbash & Elgharabli.

Product Description

Build a great personnel department with this all-in-one resource. Complete Do-It-Yourself Human Resources Department, 2005 Edition is everything a small to mid-size business needs to establish a professional, legal, efficient HR office.

Book Description

We live in a world of wide pendulum swings regarding management policies for protected areas, particularly as they affect the involvement of local people in management. Such swings can be polarizing and halt on-the-ground progress. There is a need to find ways to protect biodiversity while creating common ground and building management capacity through shared experiences. Diverse groups need to cooperate to manage forests in ways that are flexible and can incorporate feedback. Biological Diversity: Balancing Interests Through Adaptive Collaborative Management addresses the problem of how to balance local, national, and global interests in preserving the earth's biological diversity with competing interests in the use and exploitation of these natural resources. This innovative book examines the potential of adaptive collaborative management (ACM) in reconciling a protected area's competing demands for biodiversity conservation, local livelihood support, and broader-based regional development. It clarifies ACM's emerging characteristics and assesses its suitability for a variety of protected area situations. Features o Presents a better understanding of an emerging new management paradigm for balancing interests in biodiversity conservation and livelihood sustainability o Provides interdisciplinary analysis and strategies for success involving social and biological scientists, natural resource practitioners, policy makers, and citizens o Includes cases from around the world that illustrate how effective conservation programs can be developed though the use of adaptive management and social learning

Product Description

Eilhard Mitscherlich (1794-1863), one of the founders of modern chemistry, held the first chair of chemistry at Berlin University for over 40 years. His life mirrors the development of chemistry in its classical period.

Book Description

In 1954, Charles Townes invented the laser's microwave cousin, the maser. The next logical step was to extend the same physical principles to the shorter wavelengths of light, but the idea did not catch fire until October 1957, when Townes asked Gordon Gould about Gould's research on using light to excite thallium atoms. Each took the idea and ran with it. The independent-minded Gould sought the fortune of an independent inventor; the professorial Townes sought the fame of scientific recognition. Townes enlisted the help of his brother-in-law, Arthur Schawlow, and got Bell Labs into the race. Gould turned his ideas into a patent application and a million-dollar defense contract. They soon had company. Ali Javan, one of Townes's former students, began pulling 90-hour weeks at Bell Labs with colleague Bill Bennett. And far away in California a bright young physicist named Ted Maiman became a very dark horse in the race. While Schawlow proclaimed that ruby could never make a laser, Maiman slowly convinced himself it would. As others struggled with recalcitrant equipment and military secrecy, Maiman built a tiny and elegant device that fit in the palm of his hand. His ruby laser worked the first time he tried it, on May 16, 1960, but afterwards he had to battle for acceptance as the man who made the first laser. Beam is a fascinating tale of a remarkable and powerful invention that has become a symbol of modern technology.

Customer Reviews:

Fun to Read.......2006-09-28

I thought that Jeff Hecht's "City of Light" was a better book but the race became better and better when you get further into it. The writing was casual, informative and descriptive and the technical information slowly evolved (not overbearing) as progress was made by the various principals. Yes, it was a science telenovela. However, I think he should have written a Chapter 20 to give a Wikipedia-like roundup or summation of laser theory and applications. I think the author was persuasive on his remarks on Maiman missing out of the Nobel.

Book Description

Kenneth Trachtenberg, the witty and eccentric narrator of More Die of Heartbreak, has left his native Paris for the Midwest. He has come to be near his beloved uncle, the world-renowned botanist Benn Crader, self-described “plant visionary.” While his studies take him around the world, Benn, a restless spirit, has not been able to satisfy his longings after his first marriage and lives from affair to affair and from “bliss to breakdown.” Imagining that a settled existence will end his anguish, Benn ties the knot again, opening the door to a flood of new torments. As Kenneth grapples with his own problems involving his unusual lady-friend Treckie, the two men try to figure out why gifted and intelligent people invariably find themselves “knee-deep in the garbage of a personal life.”

Customer Reviews:

Another Bellow Surprise: Turning the Tables Men vs Women.......2006-01-09

Just when you think that you understand Bellow, this book comes along. This is a new version with an interesting 17 page introduction by Martin Amis. It is based on a talk that he gave at a Bellow conference in Haifa, Israel.

I am a Bellow fan, read all of his novels, and wrote an Amazon guide: "A Guide to Reading Bellow." The present book is excellent. If I had to recommend just one, it would be "Herzog." but saying that, the present book is a surprise, like a breath of fresh air. Some of his novels have a warmth and charm, and have a certain tongue in cheek approach in describing the trials and tribulations of the narrator. The humour is mixed in with the meaning of our short lives, and the future of our souls. Bellow thought that the development of realism was the major event of modern literature. That includes how we view subjects such as sex, life and death, etc. Having said that, we see two changes here. One is that in most Bellow novels the men dominate the women, or they are equal. Yes, the women often divorce our hero in other works, but here the men are like putty in the hands of the women. The story is about their attempts to get married, each to quite a different type of woman. Also, instead of one narrator, the present narrator, Kenneth, is so close to his uncle Benn that it seems like the story about two people not one. There lives are interconnected by close communication.

In case you are new to Bellow, his novels reflect his life, his writings, and his five marriages during his five active decades of writing. He hit his peak as a writer around the time of "Augie March" in 1953 and continued through to the Pulitzer novel "Humbolt's Gift" in 1973. He wrote from the early 1940s through to 2000. His novels are written in a narrative form, and the main character is a Jewish male - usually a writer but not always - and he is living in either in New York or Chicago. Bellow wrote approximately 13 novels and a number of other works.

Bellow's style progressed over the five decades. The early novels "Dangling Man" and "The Victim" were written in the 1940s, 20 years before his peak. Some compare his style in "Dangling Man" with Dostoevsky's "Notes from the Underground." Having read both I would say that "Notes" is brilliant while "Dangling Man" is at best average and sometimes a bit slow, but the prose is excellent. Changes could be seen in his second book "The Victim" in 1947. The first half is slow, but then the pace intensifies in the second half. This increase in tempo and lightness carries on in his next book "The Adventures of Augie March" - his breakthrough book in 1953 that won a National Book Prize. He changes his style in "Henderson the Rain LKing" in 1959, and then returns to the New York-Chicago theme after "Henderson." Bellow hits a new high with "Herzog" in 1964, and that book sets the tone for a number of novels that follow. The present books follows later and came out in 1987.

In interviews, and from reading the early works, Bellow said that it was difficult to make the transition to becoming "uninhibited" in his writings. That transition ended in 1953 with "Augie March" and it was refined with "Herzog." After that, there is a certain sameness to the novels. We see a bit of a break in the present novel. I will not give away the plot, but it is about two professors in the mid-west, uncle and nephew, probably in Indianapolis, not Chicago this time. There is a bit of laziness evident: he seems to use a number of quotations. But the plot is interesting, and he seems to take delight in exploring and reversing the role of man versus women. They women either ignore or try to manipulate the men, and at least one woman, Matilda, far out-classes our heroes (or as in Bellow novels, anti-heroes).

This is an interesting and unusual novel, and for myself, yes, Bellow is perhaps less brilliant, but this is still good stuff.

Not his best, but still remarkable .......2005-01-03

This isn't the one to choose if you've never read Bellow. Seize the Day (think brevity) is the place to start. From there, Henderson the Rain King, Humboldt's Gift, or Herzog make the best long reads. Augie March is the most renowned, but a good 200 pages too long if you ask me. After that, Mr. Sammler's Planet rounds out the best of Bellow. Dangling Man and The Victim are quite different from the rest, and are most interesting (I think) as points of reference to watch the evolution of a great mind.

More Die of Heartbreak ranks with The Dean's December and Ravelston as books to read only if you've already fallen for Bellow. Or, I suppose, if you're interested in reading what a Nobel Laureate thinks about sex. (For there is no book in which he tackles the topic more directly than this). There are times when the author seems to lose even himself in the mad confusion that spills from Ken Trachtenberg's head. This, I believe, would be enough to drive impatient readers away from Bellow.

But More Die of Heartbreak, like all of Bellow's work, lifts the reader above the mundane. Its force doesn't come from plot, but observation. His gift is to take the ordinary, the accepted, and acceptable and expose it for something extraordianry, corrupt, or even contemptible. His success, I think, comes from a steadfast and good-natured optimism in the face of Western decline.

Average customer rating:

Another Bellow Surprise: Turning the Tables Men vs Women
Not the best Bellow- but every Bellow has something good
Did I read the same book as the previous reveiwers?
Brilliant start, the rest is boring
On the vulnerability of the intellectual in the real world

More Die of Heartbreak
Saul Bellow
Manufacturer: Delta
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0385318774
Release Date: 1997-09-08

Book Description

Kenneth Trachtenberg, narrator of Nobel Prize-winner Saul Bellow's tenth novel, is a witty, eccentric Russian-literature nut who leaves his native Paris to be near his famous American uncle, Benn Crader. Uncle Benn is a world-class genius in botany but a total duffer when it comes to women. Now his erotic escapades and disastrous marriage are about to lead him and Kenneth into a wonderful romp through America's mind-body dilemma...and into a Bellovian masterpiece of great wisdom and good fun.

Customer Reviews:

Another Bellow Surprise: Turning the Tables Men vs Women.......2006-01-09

Just when you think that you understand Bellow, this book comes along. By the way, do night buy this book, there is a newer version from Penguin in 2003 with a better introduction: ISBN 0142437743

I am a Bellow fan, read all of his novels, and wrote an Amazon guide: "A Guide to Reading Bellow." The present book is excellent. If I had to recommend just one, it would be "Herzog." but saying that, the present book is a surprise, like a breath of fresh air. Some of his novels have a warmth and charm, and have a certain tongue in cheek approach in describing the trials and tribulations of the narrator. The humour is mixed in with the meaning of our short lives, and the future of our souls. Bellow thought that the development of realism was the major event of modern literature. That includes how we view subjects such as sex, life and death, etc. Having said that, we see two changes here. One is that in most Bellow novels the men dominate the women, or they are equal. Yes, the women often divorce our hero in other works, but here the men are like putty in the hands of the women. Also, instead of one narrator, the present narrator, Kenneth, is so close to his uncle Benn that it seems like the story about two people not one.

In case you are new to Bellow, his novels reflect his life, his writings, and his five marriages during his five active decades of writing. He hit his peak as a writer around the time of "Augie March" in 1953 and continued through to the Pulitzer novel "Humbolt's Gift" in 1973. He wrote from the early 1940s through to 2000. His novels are written in a narrative form, and the main character is a Jewish male - usually a writer but not always - and he is living in either in New York or Chicago. Bellow wrote approximately 13 novels and a number of other works.

Bellow's style progressed over the five decades. The early novels "Dangling Man" and "The Victim" were written in the 1940s, 20 years before his peak. Some compare his style in "Dangling Man" with Dostoevsky's "Notes from the Underground." Having read both I would say that "Notes" is brilliant while "Dangling Man" is at best average and sometimes a bit slow, but the prose is excellent. Changes could be seen in his second book "The Victim" in 1947. The first half is slow, but then the pace intensifies in the second half. This increase in tempo and lightness carries on in his next book "The Adventures of Augie March" - his breakthrough book in 1953 that won a National Book Prize. He changes his style in "Henderson the Rain LKing" in 1959, and then returns to the New York-Chicago theme after "Henderson." Bellow hits a new high with "Herzog" in 1964, and that book sets the tone for a number of novels that follow. The present books follows later and came out in 1987.

In interviews, and from reading the early works, Bellow said that it was difficult to make the transition to becoming "uninhibited" in his writings. That transition ended in 1953 with "Augie March" and it was refined with "Herzog." After that, there is a certain sameness to the novels. We see a bit of a break in the present novel. There is a bit of laziness evident that he seems to use a number of quotations. But the plot is interesting, and he seems to take delight in exploring and reversing the role of man versus women. They women either ignore or try to manipulate the men, and at least one woman, Matilda, far out-classes our heroes (or as in Bellow novels, anti-heroes).

This is an interesting and unusual novel.

Not the best Bellow- but every Bellow has something good .......2005-01-10

I felt a certain tiredness in this work, a certain contrivance of a kind I did not feel in the most gripping Bellow works, Herzog, Seize the Day, Henderson the Rain King. But I also felt that old Bellow gift for inspired insight into life, a kind of reflectiveness on the everyday which makes a poetry of ' seeing'. The story here of the aging botanist in disappointed love as told by his botanist nephew does not in my judgment touch us in the deepest way .It's not the greatest Bellow but every Bellow has much to give.

Did I read the same book as the previous reveiwers?.......2003-11-10

The only thing that impressed me was the number of sentences, paragraphs--pages, even--that this guy wrote without saying anything at all.

Brilliant start, the rest is boring.......2002-12-26

This is the story of the relationships of a young faculty in a midwestern university with his uncle, a professor at the same university, with a sort of an ex-girlfriend, with whom he has a child, and with his parents, who live in Paris (where he grew up).

The first 70 pages or so of this novel are brilliant. Saul Bellow's gift for telling stories is depicted in them in both - plot and structure. He uses the English language and grammar as a musician uses notes to compose a beautiful and flowing piece of music.
Only after the first 70 pages the book becomes boring. The story is dragged and the beautiful usage of English turns into a demonstration of technique that doesn't really serve anything.

The verdict: Read the brilliant first 70 pages and then move to your next book...

On the vulnerability of the intellectual in the real world.......2001-11-30

An man long devoted to intellectual pursuits comes down from his ivory tower in a final bid for love, but finds himself defenseless in the real world, where people do not understand him but are happy to harness his prestige for their own purposes. Benn Crader is a world famous botanist, but he also is a soft-hearted man, as you will know when you encounter the quotation that includes the book's title. Will the great scientist protect his special intellectual gifts, or will he allow the pressures of his new, very materialistic adopted family to destroy him? It's a great premise for a novel, and Bellow covers many, many of its implications and takes the story to a logical yet surprising ending. Bellow's narrator, Crader's admiring nephew, often takes off on tangents to ruminate on current events, the contemporary intellectual scene and various intellectual pursuits. Some of these tangents seem to fit into the story better than others, and once in a while I got frustrated and found myself paging ahead to see when he would stop ruminating and start telling the darn story again. Yet Bellow's intellectual meanderings include many interesting observations about life, and taken as a whole, they help to build a textured world around the story. "More Die of Heartbreak" is not a literary classic, but it is worth reading.

5 Titles By Saul Bellow : The Victim Herzog Humboldt's Gift The Dean's December More Die of Heartbreak

Average customer rating:

5 Titles By Saul Bellow : The Victim Herzog Humboldt's Gift The Dean's December More Die of Heartbreak
Saul Bellow
Manufacturer: various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000NTMBZU

Product Description

5 Titles By Saul Bellow : The Victim Herzog Humboldt's Gift The Dean's December More Die of Heartbreak. five mmpb books.

Average customer rating:

MORE DIE OF HEARTBREAK
BELLOW SAUL
Manufacturer: William Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HDOTOS

Average customer rating:

More Die of Heartbreak
Saul Bellow
Manufacturer: New York: William Morrow & Co. 1987
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NVDPHG

Average customer rating:

More Die of Heartbreak
Saul Bellow
Manufacturer: Penguin Putnam~trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ1TDE

Average customer rating:

More Die of Heartbreak
Saul Bellow
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0140104488

Son mas los que mueren de desamor/ More Die of Heartbreak (Contemporanea)

Average customer rating:

Son mas los que mueren de desamor/ More Die of Heartbreak (Contemporanea)
Saul Bellow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books

Contemporáneo | Romance | Libros en español | Formats | Books
ASIN: 8497938631

7 Books by Saul Bellow: Herzog, Seize the Day, More Die of Heartbreak, The Dean's December, Mr. Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift, Henderson the Rain King.

Average customer rating:

7 Books by Saul Bellow: Herzog, Seize the Day, More Die of Heartbreak, The Dean's December, Mr. Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift, Henderson the Rain King.
Saul Bellow
Manufacturer: Dell, New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VOQ2JS

More Die of Heartbreak (Penguin Classics)

Average customer rating:

More Die of Heartbreak (Penguin Classics)
Saul Bellow; Martin..
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJ7E5G

Product Description

This work concentrates on the longstanding and significant factors of regionalism and sectionalism in the voting for the U.S. chief executive. Even after the Civil War restored the nations wholeness, the first postwar election showed the persistence of regional voting patterns. These patterns became even more pronounced in the succeeding elections of the 19th century and beyond. For the 35 presidential elections from 1868 to 2004, a narrative describes how the regions, states, and, in some instances, counties responded to the issues and personalities of the presidential contest. The geography of each election reveals how the party coalitions were developed. Realignments can be traced to regional appeals. In addition to the narrative, coverage for each election includes a table of the electoral vote, a map showing how the nation voted, and a table indicating where the parties received their highest level of support. The second part of the book is a series of charts showing which party carried each United States county in each election during this period. These charts reveal at a glance which counties reliably voted Republican or Democratic over the yearsand which ones became breakthrough counties where the opposition party first convinced the electorate that it should break with the past in a particular election. Such information, previously unavailable without extensive searching through dozens of diverse sources, is crucial to an understanding of how geography has affected elections over the years.

Book Description

On the night of March 7, 1623, the prince of Wales and the duke of Buckingham knocked on the door of the British embassy in Madrid. Their unsolicited arrival began one of the most bizarre episodes in British history, as the Protestant heir to the Stuart throne struggled to win the Spanish Infanta as his bride. The prince's visit marked the end of a decade of high-level negotiation to secure a marriage between the leading Protestant and Catholic royal families and heal Europe's century-old division into warring Christian camps. The effort was a diplomatic disaster. It split political and religious opinion in Britain, alienated much of Italy and Germany, confused the Spaniards (who thought that the English crown was about to convert), and failed to secure a marriage or to resolve the Thirty Years' War. Drawing on archival material from five countries, Glyn Redworth provides the definitive explanation of this pivotal moment and tells a fascinating story of early modern politicking, cultural misunderstanding, and religious confusion.

The Prince & the Infanta: The Cultural Politics of the Spanish Match

Average customer rating:

The Prince & the Infanta: The Cultural Politics of the Spanish Match
Glyn Redworth
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MC4H6O

The Prince and the Infanta. The Cultural Politics of the Spanish Match.

Average customer rating:

The Prince and the Infanta. The Cultural Politics of the Spanish Match.
Glyn. REDWORTH
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORUAN6

Average customer rating:

Terror in the Sky

Why no maps?

Two different books in one volume

The mystery of the missing Melanoplus

As engrossing as "The Da Vinci Code" but true

Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect That Shaped the American Frontier
Jeffrey A. Lockwood
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | 19th Century | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Insects & Spiders | Animals | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Prairie S-O-U-L: Finding Grace in the Earth Beneath My Feet

Grasshopper Dreaming: Reflections on Killing and Loving

Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America

Life in the Undergrowth

The Smaller Majority

ASIN: 0465041671
Release Date: 2005-05-10

Amazon.com

Imagine looking up to see an ominous black cloud on the horizon. Now imagine your growing horror as you watch that cloud reveal itself as an immense, miles-wide swarm of ravenous insects. In Locust, entomologist Jeffrey A. Lockwood reveals the bizarre history of a bug responsible for killing countless settlers on the American plains. First-hand accounts of the Rocky Mountain locust's horrific depredations are reproduced in the book, and Lockwood adds his own vivid reconstructions:

We expect grasshoppers and locusts to consume our gardens and fields, but when these insects begin to feed on fabric and flesh something seems demonically amiss.... Although the settlers may have been astonished by the locusts' voracity, they were appalled by the insects' fierce cannibalism.

Swarms of locusts would touch down like tornadoes on homesteads and farms, stripping away every growing thing and desperately eating other insects in search of much-needed fat and protein. These hordes were thought by many, including the Mormon settlers in Utah, to be divine punishments, or at least signs from above. After describing the effects this insect had on the American frontier, Lockwood delves into the entomologic mystery of the locusts' abrupt disappearance. Had they become extinct? Or gone into hiding in some ecological refuge? When Lockwood abandons history for science, his glee for his subject keeps the book moving, albeit slower than in the first few chapters. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

In 1876, the U.S. Congress declared the locust "the single greatest impediment to the settlement of the country between Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains." Throughout the nineteenth century, swarms of locusts regularly swept across the American continent, turning noon into dusk, devastating farm communities, and bringing trains to a halt. The outbreaks subsided in the 1890s, and then, suddenly-and mysteriously-the Rocky Mountain locust vanished. A century later, entomologist Jeffrey Lockwood vowed to discover why.

Locust is the story of how one insect shaped the history of the western United States. A compelling personal narrative drawing on historical accounts and modern science, this beautifully written book brings to life the cultural, economic, and political forces at work in America in the late nineteenth century, even as it solves one of the greatest extinction mysteries of our time.

"Lockwood makes a compelling case that he has solved what he calls 'perhaps the greatest ecological mystery of modern times.' Along the way, he tells a tale of the Old West that few of us have heard before, and he tells it exceedingly well." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Customer Reviews:

Terror in the Sky.......2006-09-20

In the 19th century swarms of locusts regularly devastated the farms in the West. Some wondered if it was divine punishment or personal failures. The Federal Government established a commission to study the problem. A few decades later the Rocky Mountain locust disappeared like an extinct species. Jeffrey Lockwood decided to investigate this long-lost pest and try to solve this ecological mystery. The `Introduction' describes a plague of locusts in July 1875 Nebraska. One famous account is in Laura Ingalls Wilder' book "On the Banks of Plum Creek". Once the locusts laid their eggs a new plague would erupt the next year, and the year afterwards. Chapter 1 tells of the diseases of the 19th century: cholera, lice and typhus, parasitical worms. Famine and hunger were real threats. While poultry feasted on locusts, this left their flesh and eggs inedible. Turkey gorged themselves to death. The stench from dead locusts created a problem. Locusts cannibalized the wounded or dead. The people were terrorized by these events. Hot dry weather made locusts flourish (p.22). The low-level jet stream spread them for hundreds of miles (p.23).

Chapter 4 tells of the methods used to destroy locusts. One of the simplest was a ditch; the little locusts fell in but couldn't get out (p.54). Dead locusts were used to fertilize root crops (p.55). Farmers diversified into corn, peas, and beans from just the vulnerable wheat. Livestock grazed the grasslands and denied these lands to locusts. Native birds consumed great numbers of locusts (p.58). The Rocky Mountain locust was a national threat because it caused economic havoc (Chapter 5). In those days Darwinian theory blamed the victims for their problems (pp.65-67)! Some states gave aid to the devastated counties (p.68). States offered a bounty for eggs and nymphs (p.72), and called upon Washington for federal disaster funds (p.75). The US Entomological Commission was funded to study the locust problem (p.91). Increasing mobility of people also spread insects, weeds, and pathogens. Chapter 7 tells of this Commission, who discovered the uniqueness of the Rocky Mountain locust. Their destruction was best done by destroying eggs (p.114). They also recommended the a diversified agriculture. After the locusts disappeared they were replaced with grasshoppers (p.130). They were as damaging as the dust storms of the 1930s. But the Rocky Mountain locust became extinct (p.137).

Chapter 9 tells how Boris Uvarov described the changes in locusts as phases (pp.146-147). [Does this explain crime and violence in city life?] The spread of alfalfa was followed by the disappearance of locusts (p.160). Could a warming climate have ended the locusts (p.170)? Forested areas were a barrier to locusts (p.177). The disappearance of bison was followed by the disappearance of locusts (p.179). Chapter 11 tells of the Grasshopper Glacier north of Yellowstone National Park. Modern science could reveal unknown facts about locusts (p.184). Chapter 12 tells how melting glaciers provide water for agriculture (p.210). Lockwood imagines swarms of locusts carried north by winds. Falling temperatures then killed them and encased them in ice (p.214). Curved lines across the width of glaciers marked annual deposits of ice; this showed locusts going back 300 years, long before settlers arrived. A high degree of inbreeding and narrowing genetic diversity leads to extinction (p.223). This was not the case of the Rocky Mountain locusts. "Extinction happened suddenly and without warning to a normal, healthy species" (p.224). There was a great influx of people after the financial panic of 1873. Crop land displaced the living areas of locusts. The irrigation of land by settlers destroyed locust eggs (p.242). Alfalfa could not be eaten by young locusts (p.243). Plowing and harrowing destroyed locust eggs (p.246). Grazing cattle affected vegetation and streams (p.247). The resulting flooding killed locust eggs (p.248), as did the rooting and tramping of cattle (p.249). People were also menaced by financiers (p.253).

Lockwood's theory on the extinction was published in a 1990 journal. Chapter 14 concludes with remarks on other species. Species are being lost faster that the "normal" rate of extinction [not defined here]. Lockwood wonders if the elimination of the Rocky Mountain locust could have been "the result of unplanned, uncoordinated, and unintentional human activity" (p.260)? No, the prior pages tell how this was accomplished. Could this locust have survived in some refuge (p.261)? This is a very rich book that can't be adequately summarized here. It is another argument against the Darwinian theory of evolution which denies cataclysmal changes. Lockwood seemed to have failed to research old publications from the 1880s-1900s to discover what they said about locusts. Arguing for an unplanned extinction may have a political motive.

Why no maps?.......2006-08-06

I actually really like the book and would normally be happy giving it 5 stars. But, I couldn't figure out why he didn't include any actual quantitative information. No maps. No tables. He mentions a couple of times how good the maps were in the original reports he uses as references, but he doesn't include any of them (except once as a small chapter opening illustration). Even just an inside cover map of the Permanent Zone and the range of the Locusts would have been a really nice addition.

I still recommend the book very highly.

Two different books in one volume.......2006-07-09

...Or maybe three.

It starts out as a history, first talking in general terms and then focusing on the lives and work of a number of 19th century entomologists. Then midway through, the book shifts gears and becomes the story of the field research done by a modern team of entomologists. This is not a criticism, it just was a very different approach from the first half of the book. I personally found both halves very interesting, but I am equally interested in both history (where my primary interest lies) and science (when written for lay people).

My only complaint is that I would have liked more general background on the history of various types of locusts in other parts of the world. This is probably unfair, as the author makes clear that he is telling the story of one species on one continent.

If you are not interested in the scientific end, I nevertheless urge you to read all the way through. Not only is the writing very well done, but the author's proposed solution to the mystery of the locust's disappearance is one of those "aha!" moments that we all live for.

And I strongly, strongly urge everyone to pay special attention to the final chapter. At that point the author starts to turn away from hard science again, and begins almost a meditation on ecology and the value of biodiversity. But there's one final, thought-provoking twist in the story that MUST NOT be missed.

Well done!

The mystery of the missing Melanoplus.......2006-04-03

Once the scourge of the North American West, the Rocky Mountain Locust had disappeared before World War I. When settlers had built homes and planted crops, the locust would appear in clouds that would blot the sun. In their billions they swept through fields, stripping them bare. Well fed, they would breed, spreading eggs across the land in preparation for another swarm. In this highly personalised and informal history, Jeffrey Lockwood recounts the effect of the swarms and the struggle to understand and learn to cope with them. Yet this "biblical scourge" tapered off mysteriously, ending after driving many from the frontier. Lockwood led the studies investigating the why the Rocky Mountain Locust [Melanoplus spretus] is no longer seen. He arrives at surprising conclusions regarding both the extinction and the lessons we may gain from it.

The impact of this insect pest on farming was highly significant wherever it occurred. With pleas for controls, as well as relief, governments floundered before the onslaught. Lockwood treats the appeals for divine intervention lightly, but his account of scientific efforts to cope with the plague are serious. There are some heroes in his story, most notably, Charles Valentine Riley. Riley, although lacking academic credentials, made the locust his crusade. With two associates, Riley led a campaign to deal with locust outbreaks. With Charles Darwin's theory as one of their tools, the trio made progress in understanding the life cycle of the locust. From far away, another researcher was coping with similar infestations. Boris Uvarov introduced an entirely new concept in entomology, the "phase" cycle - insects could exhibit different appearances and habits under varying conditions.

Lockwood's own quest came long after the Rocky Mountain Locust had withdrawn from human ken. Indeed, it was that disappearance the piqued his interest. An insect that had numbered in the trillions now reduced to zero was a mystery he felt compelled to solve. He deduced that so many flying insects would leave traces in the glaciers scattered about the Rocky Mountains and centred his quest there. To say there were adventures is grave understatement. There's even a murder involved. More significantly, specimens retrieved from the ice offered few clues to the disappearance, although significant information was gathered. Since Lockwood chooses to depict the extinction as a mystery, it would be inappropriate to reveal the conclusion here. Suffice to say that Lockwood's analysis makes for compelling reading, both in the circumstances of the locust's extinction and the lesson derived from it. The assessment is far-reaching in both time and place and is well worth your time to learn. What has been learned has implications for the future. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

As engrossing as "The Da Vinci Code" but true.......2006-03-23

Locust swarms of literally incredible size swept through the Midwest in the nineteenth century, when homesteaders were settling, and then, toward the end of the century, disappeared. The volume of a swarm is hard for us to comprehend; if the swarm were square it would have been 450 miles on a side and a quarter to a half a mile deep-about 3.5 trillion locusts, corresponding to 600 locusts to every human then living on the earth. The destruction created was commensurate. Technological ways of destroying the insects failed but resourceful farmers turned from wheat to crops that survived the infestation better and to cattle. (Lockwood notes in a footnote the dangerous present return to monoculture in the prairies.) The response of religious leaders was ambiguous-were these swarms God's punishment on a sinful people? Government response was equally ambiguous-were the distressed farmers lazy mendicants or victims of a disaster? One compelling argument for giving aid was the threat that the Midwest would be abandoned. Besides the aid finally delivered a second government response was the establishment of a commission to do research and find a solution to the locust problem-Lockwood identifies this as the first government effort to harness science to the common good. The commission did much good science and built a scientific infrastructure but the locust swarms ceased on their own. In 1904 a Montana entomologist reported not having collected one in five years. Grasshopper plagues did occur but they were not nearly as traumatic, partly because farmers and government agencies had learned from the locusts. Theories abounded about what had eliminated the locusts: widespread planting of alfalfa? the demise of the Bison? climate change? removal of Indians? It would not be fair to the reader to give the secret away. Part of the research leading to the explanation involved digging locust bodies out of glaciers in nearly inaccessible parts of Wyoming. Certainly one of the most engrossing books I have read in a long time. History, religion, biology, public policy come together in Locust; the most important lesson, though, has to do with the fragility of the environment.

Locust The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect That Shaped the American Frontier

Average customer rating:

Locust The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect That Shaped the American Frontier
Lockwood Jeffrey A.
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UF532U

Average customer rating:
Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Asia and the Pacific 2000: Ministerial Declaration, Regional Action Programme (2001-2005) and

Manufacturer: United Nations Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 9211200237

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books