Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2014 -

A Golden Weed is a recent addition to the "Yale Agrarian Studies" series.  Borrowing a term coined by Jack Temple Kirby, environmental historian Swanson (Wright State Univ.) describes this work as agro-ecological history.  Focusing on the three-county Southside region of the Virginia Piedmont, the author traces the development of an economy that revolved around bright or yellow-leaf tobacco and the environmental toll that its cultivation and curing had on the landscape.  Although Swanson establishes the historical context and provides an epilogue that discusses 20th-century efforts to sustain the tobacco-based economy while combating the worst of the environmental damage, he contends that this is essentially a 19th-century story.  Regional farmers were already experiencing severe soil erosion, the iron tentacles of fertilizer debt, slumping bright tobacco prices, and few obvious alternatives by 1900; SCS [Soil Conservation Service] officials merely identified and labeled an ongoing condition.  With this thoroughly documented and engagingly written narrative, Swanson has made a solid contribution to the historians craft. A Golden Weedbelongs in every academic library and should be read by all students of agricultural, environmental, and southern history.Summing Up: Essential. All academic library collections.

Armstrong (Illinois State Univ.) has written an amazing and wonderful book.  It is so well written that it reads more like an engaging novelone that readers cannot put downthan like a science book.  Yet the style is not reduced or simplified science; instead, the author explains all this factual material with prose that is precise, accurate, and concise.  The topics range from cosmology to the flowering plants (angiosperms), but this vertical track is accomplished without deviating from the essential task of describing the evolutionary history of photosynthesizing organisms and their relations to planet Earth.  Along the way, readers are treated to a synthesis of fundamental stages in the evolution of life itself.  This includes an excellent discussion about the origin of life, an even better explanation of the origins of autotrophy in prokaryotes, and a very good description of the endosymbiotic theory.  The text is followed by a 141-page appendix that describes all the major photosynthetic groups (including bacteria).  This is an exceedingly useful resource for students, which, to this reviewer's knowledge, does not exist anywhere else in such a compact form.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

How plants defend themselves, as they cannot simply run away, is multifaceted.  InLeaf Defence, Farmer (Univ. of Lausanne, Switzerland) builds a compelling co-evolutionarybased exploration of the many tools plants use for defense.  The relatively brief book begins in a somewhat dry style but soon becomes more enthralling as Farmer rapidly moves from an explanation of herbivory, leaf patterns, and colors to stinging hairs and unpleasant ergastic contents.  By the time the author gets to chemical compounds used for defense, introducing enough chemistry for those with a background to get a deeper understanding and not overwhelming those without, readers cannot help being amazed at the complexity of plants.  The book covers the basics of insect physiology as needed.  Later chapters address modern molecular signaling pathways controlling DNA expression centered on induction by the jasmonate compounds.  Last, Farmer discusses larger-scale topics, including purposeful ant defense against herbivory and notions of space and time for plant growth as means to evade predation, and concludes with an excellent summary.  Most topics are appropriately framed in an evolutionary context without being contrived.  References to primary sources are provided at the end.  An essential resource for graduate students and faculty and valuable for upper-division undergraduates.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Botany collections serving upper-division undergraduates and above.

Rice constitutes a staple food for millions of people around the world.  Yet despite rice's important role in colonialism and the path to modern capitalism in many countries, this book is one of few global histories of this influential grain.  To reflect the interconnectedness and complexity of rices history, Bray (Univ. of Edinburgh, UK) et al. decided to organize the 15 essays in thematic sections: "Purity and Promiscuity," "Environmental Matters," and "Power and Control."  This arrangement fosters comparative analyses of various local and regional studies, allowing for new perspectives on histories and rethinking of some long-held beliefs and models.  Reflecting a good balance of experts on rice production and consumption, the contributors are from academic institutions in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe.  They incorporate innovative approaches and collaborations in their research, considering, for example, plant genetics, paleohydrology, and historical linguistics.  Of benefit not only to those interested in environmental and economic history, this comprehensive book provides another tool for those making policy decisions around food security and sustainable development through its illumination of the social, environmental, and economic history of this vital grain.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

Everetts latest book, as hisThe Tory View of Landscape (CH, Mar'95, 32-3689) did, illuminates the culture, economy, and politics of a nation by examining the natural landscape and human interaction with it.  This book is exhaustively researched and lucidly written.  A common legend of Irish history is that the island was once covered with thick oak forests, which the English felled to provide timber for the British fleet.  Thus, in this simplified version, the story of Irelands woodland is but another chapter in England's rapacious exploitation of Ireland.  Everett (independent historian) provides a detailed, nuanced account of the transformation of the Irish landscape and reveals much about Irish society from the pre-Norman period up to the Act of Union in 1800.  He examines the economic value of the woods in a clear-eyed way and the cultural attitudes, particularly of the English, to the wild, unmanaged native forests and ways those attitudes evolved over time.  This book is a must for any academic library, particularly those dealing with agriculture, arboriculture, or the management of natural resources.  It is also vital for history of Ireland and of Britain collections.  Includes 16 pages of color plates.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates and above.

Among all the books available about trees, the first edition of this book (CH, Sep'00, 38-0293) became this reviewer's favorite because Thomas (Keele Univ., UK) pulled together so much salient information about how trees and shrubs grow and function in the landscape, and presented it in an accessible, concise package.  Thus he was very pleased to learn about the updated, expanded second edition.  The new version has a slightly larger format, is about 100 pages longer, and is enhanced with color photographs and illustrations.  The chapters are organized first by parts of a treeleaves, trunk/branches, roots, flowers/fruits/seeds.  These are followed by chapters on how a tree grows, how the next generation is produced, and finally how trees defend themselves, age, and die.  If a reader has ever wondered why trees have distinctive shapes, how growth rings are used for dating old houses and understanding past climate conditions, or what causes colorful fall foliage in deciduous trees, this book summarizes current understanding of these and many more questions.  Professionals such as arborists, foresters, horticulturists, and grounds/park managers should have this book on their shelf.  Since it is written in a nontechnical style, anyone curious about how trees live and function will also find it fascinating.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

This remarkable book brings a new perspective to urban forests and green spaces as political and social constructs.  The transdisciplinary, politicized view of urban ecology in this collection of essays highlights what one author calls the commodification of biophysical green resources as a determinant of how, where, and why we interact with nature in cities.  Power-laden processes of control, decision making, and governance are framed in a critique of neoliberal capitalism where the boundaries of public and private and natural and nonnatural are challenged.  Human agency is part of the equation in which the urban forest and trees themselves are considered as co-constituents of the ecological process.  The ideas here are pivotal as a critique of urban landscape.  They will engender lots more study.  To be honest, this reviewer found it difficult to agree with all the volume's authors.  The nearly 40-word-long definition of the emerging discipline of political ecology was almost long enough for a whole review inChoice.  But more importantly, the essays opened his eyes to processes of urban cultural ecology that are hidden in plain sight.  For critical readers at any level, nothing could be more valuable.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

Stuppy, Kesseler, and Harley have reinvented the art of the historic naturalist sketch for modern times.  They relied heavily on seeds and plants from the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (where Stuppy is, and Harley was, affiliated).  Many of their images are rare scanning electron micrographs, some hand-colored by Kesseler (Univ. of the Arts, London).  Saturated with color and finely detailed, the hundreds of spectacular pictures create a stunning contrast against the black background.  In addition to its aesthetic grandeur, the book is packed with detailed captions, explanatory texts, and solid biological concepts.  Organized by topical interests, it also boasts a glossary and an extensive index of the illustrated plants, complete with their scientific names and native distribution.  The result is comparable in visual appeal and technical accuracy to Jens PetersensThe Kingdom of Fungi(CH, Dec'13, 51-2077, OAT).  A wide range of avid plant lovers, undergraduates, conservationists, botanists, and science artists will find this a favored addition to their collections.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.