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OUR CONTINENT Natural history of North America NG (nr aukcji: 4029311)

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AUKCJA ZAKOŃCZONA( 2016-06-22 15:06:58)
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OUR CONTINENT
A natural history of North America    
Seymour L. Fishbein (red.)
 
Twarda oprawa. Książka nie zniszczona.

National Geographic Society
Washington 1976
stron: 398


 

Imponujący opis warunków naturalnych kontynentu północnoamerykańskiego z pięknymi zdjęciami. Książka zawiera obszerne rozdziały dotyczące geologii oraz paleontologii opisywanych obszarów. Wydana przez National Geographic.



"Our Continent: A Natural History of North America," is a fascinating, user-friendly, beautifully photographed and illustrated volume. It is divided into two sections: "The Kingdoms of Life," which is devoted to discussions and reconstructions of various animals from our continent's remote past; and "The Living Land," an amazing survey of the geological eras through which our vast land has passed.

The chapter-length essays are all carefully organized, highly accessible, and often liberally festooned with poetic quotes about nature, drawn from a panoply of philosophers and poets.

The section on (formerly) living beings has a wide range of specially commissioned paintings, of ancient animals, many of which are extinct today. We don't just see the dinosaurs, however. Ample attention is paid to the period between the dinosaurs and the present, famously portrayed in the BBC/Discovery Channel's classic "Walking with Prehistoric Beasts." If you enjoyed that film, I can guarantee that you'll find a lot to smile about in this excellent volume... In fact, if you're coming to this review from my review of the "Walking with Prehistoric Beasts" DVD, I'll tell you right now that the sections of this book most germane to that topic lie between pp. 118 and 160. The 120s have the most helpful charts, etc., in my opinion. One useful part of this chapter explains in detail how artists have sought to reconstruct the appearance of extinct creatures. The book is full of helpful explanations of such things, which is why I chose to refer to it as "user-friendly."

As a child, my favorite parts of this book were the evolutionary development charts, on pages 59, 81, and 122. These charts show the branches of life developing, and evolving, from one era of prehistory to the next. These charts would make FANTASTIC visual aids for any classroom discussion on evolution. If you choose to pick up a copy of this great book, I hope you take it to your local school system's A/V Department, and ask them to make some visuals for the school science department. Seriously, you should think about doing this. I sometimes review multimedia educational products for "Library Journal," and this book has always stood out in my eyes as something special. I often use it as a sort of inner yardstick, to gauge my reaction to other science products.... Another useful part of this tome is the detachable "Wheel of Time," a cardboard sleeved disc which can be manipulated in such a way as to visually pair up various long-lost animals with their concurrent relatives from ancient times. It's a little tricky to explain, but take my word for it, you'll love it.

The section on geology is quite interesting as well, albeit in a more stately way. We are treated here to beautiful photographs, and intelligently compiled diagrams, delineating the forces that have shaped the very underlying rock upon which we walk, sit, build, and sleep. Canyons are discussed here, and coastlines. Deserts, the Canadian Shield, and the Great Lakes are all made comprehensible. This is all done quite concisely, I should add. Indeed, were it not for the host of full-page photographs that adorn so many of these pages, this book would be perhaps a quarter as many pages. The chapters are, without exception, readily digestible.

My only caveat is that, becaue this book came out in the 1970s, the authors were as yet unaware of one or two major events in our continent's past. Particularly, I'm thinking of Yellowstone Park's disconcerting tendency to simply explode in a truly titanic volcanic eruption, every 600,000 years or so. When this happens, most of North America west of the Mississippi gets crushed under several feet of ash, and a "nuclear winter," lasting a few years, ensues. People didn't understand this nearly as well when this book came out, and the topic is not well covered. If you'd like to read more about this important topic, go to your favorite search engine and just type in the search terms "yellowstone" and "supervolcano." By the way, if you enjoy reading about our geological heritage, I would like to recommend that you seriously contemplate possessing yourself of a volume of John McPhee's "Annals of the Former World." Actually, you can't go wrong with anything at all by McPhee, but that's the best place to start.

I am very happy to find that this fine book can still be purchased. We had a copy of "Our Continent" as a coffee table book in the late 70's, when I was in 4th-6th grade or so. This is a terrific coffee table book to leave around the home, if your aim is, with an artful pretense of carelessness, to surreptitiously foster a love of science in your own, or in someone else's, unsuspecting offspring. It was a cherished, educational-yet-fun part of my childhood, and I'm very pleased to recommend to you that you help me pass the good karma along.

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