The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions

ISBN-13: 9780684827124 / Angielski / Miękka / 1997 / 704 str.

David Quammen

Opis

David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo, is a brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope, far-reaching in its message -- a crucial book in precarious times, which radically alters the way in which we understand the natural world and our place in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment and wonders.
In The Song of the Dodo, we follow Quammen's keen intellect through the ideas, theories, and experiments of prominent naturalists of the last two centuries. We trail after him as he travels the world, tracking the subject of island biogeography, which encompasses nothing less than the study of the origin and extinction of all species. Why is this island idea so important? Because islands are where species most commonly go extinct -- and because, as Quammen points out, we live in an age when all of Earth's landscapes are being chopped into island-like fragments by human activity.
Through his eyes, we glimpse the nature of evolution and extinction, and in so doing come to understand the monumental diversity of our planet, and the importance of preserving its wild landscapes, animals, and plants. We also meet some fascinating human characters. By the book's end we are wiser, and more deeply concerned, but Quammen leaves us with a message of excitement and hope.

Recenzje

"Magnificent . . . intelligent, playful . . . an epic adventure of the mind and spirit . . . Here is what a book can be." -The New York Times Book Review

"As close as science writing gets to a thrilling adventure yarn." -Newsweek

"Stunning." -Barry Lopez, author of Of Wolves and Men

"Compulsively readable-a masterpiece, maybe the masterpiece of science journalism." -Bill McKibben, Audubon

Spis treści

CONTENTS
I Thirty-Six Persian Throw Rugs
II The Man Who Knew Islands
III So Huge a Bignes
IV Rarity unto Death
V Preston's Bell
VI The Coming Thing
VII The Hedgehog of the Amazon
VII The Song of the Indri
IX World in Pieces
X Message from Aru
GLOSSARY
AUTHOR'S NOTE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SOURCE NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

O autorze

David Quammen's books include Breathless, The Tangled Tree, The Song of the Dodo, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, and Spillover, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and recipient of the Premio Letterario Merck, in Rome. He has written for The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Outside, among other magazines, and is a three-time winner of the National Magazine Award. Quammen shares a home in Bozeman, Montana, with his wife, Betsy Gaines Quammen, author of American Zion, and with two Russian wolfhounds, a cross-eyed cat, and a rescue python. Visit him at DavidQuammen.com.