| With Broadax and Firebrand: The Destruction of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest First Edition, Edition Contributor(s): Dean, Warren (Author), Schwartz, Stuart B. (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 0520208862 ISBN-13: 9780520208865 Publisher: University of California Press OUR PRICE: $36.58 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 1997 Annotation: "An unprecedented historical account of the destruction of Brazil's Atlantic Forest, a required reading for those committed to its preservation, written with genuine love and knowledge."--Jose Roberto Borges, Brazil Program Director, Rainforest Action Network "After reading this volume, no one could fail to realize the uniqueness and importance of these coastal forests, which have played such a fascinating role in the history of Brazil."--Ghillean T. Prance, Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Latin America - South America - Nature | Environmental Conservation & Protection - General - Science | Environmental Science (see Also Chemistry - Environmental) |
| Dewey: 304.280 |
| LCCN: 94005681 |
| Series: Centennial Book |
| Physical Information: 1.25" H x 6.03" W x 9.01" (1.60 lbs) 504 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Latin America |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Warren Dean chronicles the chaotic path to what could be one of the greatest natural disasters of modern times: the disappearance of the Atlantic Forest. A quarter the size of the Amazon Forest, and the most densely populated region in Brazil, the Atlantic Forest is now the most endangered in the world. It contains a great diversity of life forms, some of them found nowhere else, as well as the country's largest cities, plantations, mines, and industries. Continual clearing is ravaging most of the forested remnants. Dean opens his story with the hunter-gatherers of twelve thousand years ago and takes it up to the 1990s-through the invasion of Europeans in the sixteenth century; the ensuing devastation wrought by such developments as gold and diamond mining, slash-and-burn farming, coffee planting, and industrialization; and the desperate battles between conservationists and developers in the late twentieth century. Based on a great range of documentary and scientific resources, With Broadax and Firebrand is an enormously ambitious book. More than a history of a tropical forest, or of the relationship between forest and humans, it is also a history of Brazil told from an environmental perspective. Dean writes passionately and movingly, in the fierce hope that the story of the Atlantic Forest will serve as a warning of the terrible costs of destroying its great neighbor to the west, the Amazon Forest. |