Sahara: A Natural History |
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Sahara: A Natural History
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by Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle
Sales Rank: 301330
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$27.00
At Amazon
on 6-17-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 320 pages
Published by: Walker & CompanyEdition: 1st Edition September 2002
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0007148208
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0802713728
ASIN: 0802713726
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
Weighs: 1 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
After navigating the physical and political properties of the world's oceans, lakes, rivers and aquifers in his last book, Water, Canadian journalist de Villiers is back on (very) dry land in this new volume but his writing is every bit as fertile. Co-written with Hirtle (with whom he also wrote Into Africa), the book is part travel memoir, part history lesson and part archeological dig, bringing to life the stark landscape of the earth's largest desert. The first half describes how sand dunes take shape so suddenly and travel, wavelike, so quickly; why stands of petrified forests developed; and how relatively mild shifts in the earth's ecosystem and weather patterns transformed the once-verdant grasslands of a mere ten centuries ago into today's austere environment. The book's second half discusses the ebb and flow of great cities and civilizations along both the northern (Berber and Arab) and southern (black African) edges of the desert, as well as the Moor, Tuareg and Tubu nomads who roamed between them. It also details trade patterns and tribal groupings that have existed over many centuries and takes the reader on a contemporary camel-powered salt-trade caravan. Though this book doesn't have the political urgency or current-events hook of Water, the authors' evocative blend of reportage and concise historical overview makes it a fine read for both armchair travelers and those interested in natural history.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
South African-born de Villiers (Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource) and Hirtle (his coauthor on Into Africa: A Journey Through the Ancient Empires) offer a thoroughgoing account of the world's largest desert. They include a complex history (both natural and human), as well as a look at the complicated ethnology and present-day life of the various tribes (Tauregs, Berbers, Moors, and Tubu) that have adapted to this incredibly harsh climate. On occasion, the authors tend toward the overly dramatic ("mountains as black as a sinner's heart"), and the organization seems a bit complex and convoluted, but chapters on the Sahara's natural history and modern conditions as well as a fascinating account of a caravan crossing the desert make this a worthy purchase for greater academic and natural history collections. Tim Markus, Evergreen State Coll. Lib., Olympia, WA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Reader Reviews
Here is a very intriguing travel book about a land that few Westerners have ever traveled through. The Sahara has a fearsome reputation as a sterile deathtrap that lasts for thousands of miles, and some areas really do live up to that stereotype. But as this book unfolds we learn that the Sahara is far from just never-ending sand dunes without a trace of vegetation or water to be found over entire nations. In fact the dunes alternate with fascinating and unexpected landscapes - like vast plains as hard and featureless as a parking lot, dry riverbeds where water obviously flowed not long ago, huge and imposing mountain ranges, large fields of bizarre rock formations, and even the occasional trickling waterfall or scraggly forest. We also learn of the curious people who inhabit the Sahara, many of whom are still nomads and even continue the caravan tradition in this day and age. The authors take a clinical approach to describing this eerie region, giving a chapter-by-chapter dissertation on natural features, and then people and politics. This research-oriented approach to writing leads to a plethora of fascinating facts and anecdotes, but prose that is about as dry as the landscape itself, with the authors never peeking out from behind their reporting to add a little humanity to their work. This trend is alleviated a little toward the end of the book, especially during the study of the enigmatic Tuareg people. While this book is definitely high on surprises and fascinating facts on the true nature of the Sahara, it's a little low on personality too.
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Sahara: A Natural History
Available from Amazon
Price: $27.00
Updated on 6-17-2008.
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