Aliens in the Backyard: Plant and Animal Imports into AmericaUniv of South Carolina Press, 15 жовт. 2012 р. - 248 стор. A fresh look at the origins of our iconic immigrant flora and fauna, revealed with wit and reverence for nature Aliens live among us. Thousands of species of nonnative flora and fauna have taken up residence within U.S. borders. Our lawns sprout African grasses, our roadsides flower with European weeds, and our homes harbor Asian, European, and African pests. Misguided enthusiasts deliberately introduced carp, kudzu, and starlings. And the American cowboy spread such alien life forms as cows, horses, tumbleweed, and anthrax, supplanting and supplementing the often unexpected ways "Native" Americans influenced the environment. Aliens in the Backyard recounts the origins and impacts of these and other nonindigenous species on our environment and pays overdue tribute to the resolve of nature to survive in the face of challenge and change. In considering the new home that imported species have made for themselves on the continent, John Leland departs from those environmentalists who universally decry the invasion of outsiders. Instead Leland finds that uncovering stories of alien arrivals and assimilation is a more intriguing—and ultimately more beneficial—endeavor. Mixing natural history with engaging anecdotes, Leland cuts through problematic myths coloring our grasp of the natural world and suggests that how these alien species have reshaped our landscape is now as much a part of our shared heritage as tales of our presidents and politics. Simultaneously he poses questions about which of our accepted icons are truly American (not apple pie or Kentucky bluegrass; not Idaho potatoes or Boston ivy). Leland's ode to survival reveals how plant and animal immigrants have made the country as much an environmental melting pot as its famed melding of human cultures, and he invites us to reconsider what it means to be American. |
З цієї книги
Результати 1-5 із 45
... York City to make soup for his sick sister. By the time they arrived, she was well and the man released the fish into the pond, where they multiplied into hundreds, each a sawtoothed, topofthefoodchain predator with no enemies, save ...
... and first families. Some letter writers to the New York Times declared themselves “KnowNothings” in their intolerance of the ailanthus tree at the time when the KnowNothing Party, or American Party, was in bloom in the 1850s.
... York Times reported in 1882 of “The Terrible Chinee,” warning against allowing these “weeds” into the country. Currently, antiArab terrorist Web sites discuss “the wild weeds” of disaffected Arab youths. In what may have been ...
... York, Downing wrote his classic Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America in 1841 at the age of twentysix, began editing the Horticulturist in 1846, and published Architecture for Country ...
... York's Central Park. The park's landscapes are heavily indebted to Downing's advice: “Plant spacious parks in your cities, and unclose their gates as wide as the gates of morning to the whole people.”4 But it was Olmsted and Vaux's 1868 ...
Зміст
What Grandmother Grew in Her Backyard | |
Malarias Gifts to America | |
Older Than You Think | |
And Their Alien Habits | |
Less Native Than You Think | |
Roadside Weeds | |
Some of Those Who Share Your Quarters | |
The WellIntentioned Ecological | |
As Rootless as the Humans Who Invited Them | |
An Unnatural Pastime | |
Index | |
Інші видання - Показати все
Aliens in the Backyard: Plant and Animal Imports Into America John Leland Попередній перегляд недоступний - 2005 |
Aliens in the Backyard: Plant and Animal Imports Into America John Leland Попередній перегляд недоступний - 2005 |