A lively, richly detailed account of exploration, conservation, and natural history.
If Peabody’s impassioned, vividly written chronicle of how Yellowstone became a national park does not make readers want to visit, nothing will.
After introducing the Yellowstone area as the homeland and hunting ground of Plains American Indians, Peabody’s narrative begins in the summer of 1871, when a team of men led by Ferdinand Hayden set out on the first scientific expedition across the uncharted territory of Yellowstone. The dramatic, picturesque descriptions of the expedition read very much like an adventure story. These scientists and artists explored, sampled, and photographed the extraordinary wonders they found. Their dispatches, describing boiling springs, burping mud pots, pools of molten magma, huge mountains of sulfur, and erupting geysers, confirmed earlier reports of the region’s distinctiveness. As proof was offered, would-be entrepreneurs schemed of ways to exploit these natural wonders. Peabody describes how, with the support of such conservationists and naturalists as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederick Law Olmstead, and John Muir, the surveyors were able to convince Congress to preserve the land from commercial development and set aside over 2 million acres as a national park. Peabody packs a lot of information into this narrative, somewhat to its detriment. She has a large cast to juggle, and frequent fact boxes on topics ranging from grizzly biology to profiles of specific features break up her account.
A lively, richly detailed account of exploration, conservation, and natural history. (photos, maps, endnotes, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63450-204-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
While this book does not serve as an introduction to Darwin’s life and ideas, readers wanting to know more will discover two...
This rich, insightful portrait of Charles and Emma Darwin’s marriage explores a dimension of the naturalist’s life that has heretofore been largely ignored.
Emma was devoutly religious while Charles’s agnosticism increased as he delved deeper into his studies of natural history, but they did not let this difference come between them. While unable to agree with Charles’s theory that essentially eliminated God from the process of creation, Emma remained open-minded and supportive, even reading drafts of The Origin of Species and suggesting improvements. Using excerpts from correspondence, diaries and journals, Heiligman portrays a relationship grounded in mutual respect. The narrative conveys a vivid sense of what life was like in Victorian England, particularly the high infant mortality rate that marred the Darwins’ happiness and the challenges Charles faced in deciding to publish his controversial theory.
While this book does not serve as an introduction to Darwin’s life and ideas, readers wanting to know more will discover two brilliant thinkers whose marital dialectic will provide rich fodder for discussions of science and faith. (introduction, source notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 12 & up)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8721-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2008
An informative, insightful account of a fascinating period of American history.
When Congress passed the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcohol, supporters were convinced it would create a stronger, more moral nation. Instead, it ushered in an era of corruption and lawlessness, here brought to life with a fast-paced, gripping narrative and period photographs.
The story opens dramatically in 1929 with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the murder of seven Chicago men that epitomized the gangland violence that became a routine by-product of bootlegging. Blumenthal then chronicles the rise of the temperance movement in the late 1800s, the passage of and life under Prohibition and its repeal in 1933. The story is populated with colorful and notorious characters, such as the hatchet-wielding Carry Nation, gangster Al Capone and Morris Sheppard, the golden-tongued senator and champion of Prohibition. Drawing from period newspaper accounts, personal anecdotes and other primary sources, the author puts a human face on history, chronicling how parents brewed booze in their bathtubs and children smuggled the hooch. Blumenthal acknowledges that Prohibition was successful in some notable ways: Arrests for public intoxication declined as did alcohol-related diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver. Whatever positive outcomes there were, however, were eclipsed by the widespread corruption and violence of bootlegging.
An informative, insightful account of a fascinating period of American history. (glossary, bibliography, source notes) (Nonfiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: May 24, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59643-449-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Flash Point/Roaring Brook
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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