Kategoria BISAC: History >> Historical Geography

The traditional image of New Zealand is one of verdant landscapes with sheep grazing on lush green pastures. Yet this landscape is almost entirely an artificial creation. As Britain became increasingly reliant on its overseas territories for supplies of food and raw material, so all over the Empire indigenous plants were replaced with English grasses to provide the worked up products of pasture -- meat, butter, cheese, wool, and hides. In New Zealand this process was carried to an extreme, with forest cleared and swamps drained. How, why and with what consequences did the transformation of...

As the world's population continues to grow apace and an increasing number of countries aspire to a twenty-first century lifestyle so the question of access to water resources becomes ever more critical. This timely volume shows how the struggle to control water is an issue of growing geopolitical importance. Drawing on a wealth of examples, and revealing how current problems are not necessarily new as often suggested, the international contributors provide a deeper theroetical analysis of the issues, enabling a clearer understanding to be obtained of how experience in one region can...

The glaciers creep

Like snakes that watch their prey, from their far fountains,

Slow rolling on.

? Percy Shelley, ?Mont Blanc, ? 1816

Glaciers in America's far northwest figure prominently in indigenous oral traditions, early travelers? journals, and the work of geophysical scientists. By following such stories across three centuries, this book explores local knowledge, colonial encounters, and environmental change.

Do Glaciers Listen? examines conflicting depictions of glaciers to show how natural and social histories are entangled. During late stages...

The first Europeans to set foot on North America stood in awe of the natural abundance before them. The skies were filled with birds, seas and rivers teemed with fish, and the forests and grasslands were a hunter's dream, with populations of game too abundant and diverse to even fathom. It's no wonder these first settlers thought they had discovered a paradise of sorts. Fortunately for us, they left a legacy of copious records documenting what they saw, and these observations make it possible to craft a far more detailed evocation of North America before its settlement than any other place...

"If I have saved one dingle fact of the far off past from being lost, or have thrown any light on that which was doubtful on our local traditions, I shall not have spent the time occupied in writing this record altogether in vain."

A wonderful record of the rich history of West Bromwich and the surrounding area. A fine addition to the bookshelf of any one interested in the local history of the Black Country. Originally published in 1882. It includes a wealth of information of the families connected with the town, parish records, the history of Sandwell House and much more.