THEN THERE WERE NONE

by Charles Roth ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 1977

Roth's latest variation on his thesis that European man is The Most Dangerous Animal in the Worm focuses on the concept of extinction. An early section on the dinosaur conveys only that they came and mysteriously went; later Roth attributes extinction generally to competition (though that doesn't apply to the dinosaur's sudden demise). The book begins with an artificial conversation between a class of fossil hunters and their teacher, and Roth takes the same hokey approach to individual chapters detailing how ""our European civilization reduces chances for survival of many wildlife species and non-industrial cultures"": a dramatized prehistoric bison hunt leads into man's first drift to the New World and the resultant ""great wave"" of extinction; the story of Ishi, last of the Yahi, illustrates how ""changing land-use patterns of the white man affected the Indian [as it did] wild animals""; the passenger pigeon is introduced as an ice-packed specimen being delivered to a laboratory, etc. The concept is clear but the examples are familiar; Roth adds only the off-putting skits and similarly misguided suggestions for ""What Can I Do"": Don't drive a car unnecessarily (at ten?), buy duck stamps at your post office, etc. Superfluous.

Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Addision-Wesley

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1977

Categories: NONFICTION