Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 704 pages
- Published by: Scribner April 14, 1997
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0684827123
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0684827124
-
Book Dimensions:
9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
- Weighs: 1.8 pounds
Product Review
In a wonderful weave of science, metaphor, and prose, David Quammen, author of
The Flight of the Iguana, applies the lessons of island biogeography - the study of the distribution of species on islands and islandlike patches of landscape - to modern ecosystem decay, offering us insight into the origin and extinction of species, our relationship to nature, and the future of our world.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Quammen (Natural Acts) has successfully mixed genres in this highly impressive and thoroughly enjoyable work. The scientific journalism is first-rate, with the extremely technical field of island biogeography made fully accessible. We learn how the discipline developed and how it has changed conservation biology. And we learn just how critical this field is in the face of massive habitat destruction. The book is also a splendid example of natural history writing, for which Quammen traveled extensively. The Channel Islands off California and the Madagascan lemurs are captivatingly portrayed. Equally impressive are the character studies of the scientists who have been at the forefront of island biogeography. From his extended historical analysis of the journeys and insights of 19th-century biologist Alfred Russell Wallace to his field and laboratory interviews with many of the men and women who have followed in Wallace's intellectual wake, Quammen delightfully adds the human dimension to his discussion of science and natural history. Using a canvas as large as the world, he masterfully melds anecdotes about swimming elephants, collecting fresh feces from arboreal primates in Brazil and searching for the greater bird of paradise on the tiny island of Aru into an irreverent masterpiece. That a book on so technical a subject could be so enlightening, humorous and engaging is an extraordinary achievement. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews... As someone who has spent nearly a quarter of a century studying birds on islands I normally welcome new insights on the subject, especially when they are written in a comprehensible fashion that will appeal to a wide audience, and to give Quammen due credit he writes in an engaging style that draws his reader along. Unfortunately the book is to my mind fatally flawed by the remarkably one-sided and one-dimensional approach that Quammen brings first to the subject of Darwin & Wallace (In his attempt to push Wallace he accepts without question any and all attacks upon Darwin) and secondly in his un-critical acceptance of MacArthur and Wilson's "Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography". The first is mean-spirited, un-needed, and on occasion downright nasty, the second is scientifically questionable & may do harm to the very causes that Quammen (and I for that matter) hold dear. While Wallace WAS left out of the popular iconography for a good chunk of the 20th century he has since been widely re-habilitated, credited, anthologized, and discussed. His enormous contributions to biogeography rightly overshadow his role in the Natural Selection debate, and it is significant that he himself never in ANY way suggested that he thought ill of Darwin -in fact, quite the opposite. Just who is Mr. Quammen to say otherwise? As far as MacArthur and Wilson go, the idea was hardly original (significant portions of "their" theory had been published years earlier, a point that Quammen is either unaware of or chooses to ignore -odd, considering his attack on Darwin) the evidence presented was -to be kind- HIGHLY selective, and almost immediately the whole issue was immersed in controversy and critique. While Quammen acknowledges the controversy & even interviews some of the key players, he tends to dismiss the counter-arguments with ad hominem remarks or simply changes the subject. While I applaud the amount of good science that the theory generated as irritable sceptics set to to rebut the whole notion of "equilibrium" and "turnover" the remarkable FAILURE of the "Equilibrium Theory" to address much of importance in conservation (it was NEVER even INTENDED to be applied to conservation of specific species)really isn't discussed in DODO. In summary, folks who have already made up their minds about conventional notions of ecology & conservation will find lots of "feel good" support here, but readers looking for a more comprehensive & critical viewpoint will have to go elsewhere.
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