The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
by Michael Pollan
- Used
- Good
- Hardcover
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Good/Good
- ISBN 10
- 0375501290
- ISBN 13
- 9780375501296
- Seller
-
Waynesboro, Virginia, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
In 1637, one Dutchman paid as much for a single tulip bulb as the going price of a town house in Amsterdam. Three and a half centuries later, Amsterdam is once again the mecca for people who care passionately about one particular plant -- thought this time the obsessions revolves around the intoxicating effects of marijuana rather than the visual beauty of the tulip. How could flowers, of all things, become such objects of desire that they can drive men to financial ruin?In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan argues that the answer lies at the heart of the intimately reciprocal relationship between people and plants. In telling the stories of four familiar plant species that are deeply woven into the fabric of our lives, Pollan illustrates how they evolved to satisfy humankinds's most basic yearnings -- and by doing so made themselves indispensable. For, just as we've benefited from these plants, the plants, in the grand co-evolutionary scheme that Pollan evokes so brilliantly, have done well by us. The sweetness of apples, for example, induced the early Americans to spread the species, giving the tree a whole new continent in which to blossom. So who is really domesticating whom?Weaving fascinating anecdotes and accessible science into gorgeous prose, Pollan takes us on an absorbing journey that will change the way we think about our place in nature.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Stone Soup Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 60516
- Title
- The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
- Author
- Michael Pollan
- Format/Binding
- Hard Cover
- Book Condition
- Used - Good
- Jacket Condition
- Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0375501290
- ISBN 13
- 9780375501296
- Publisher
- Random House
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2001
- LCCN
- 00066479
Terms of Sale
Stone Soup Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Stone Soup Books
About Stone Soup Books
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Inscribed
- When a book is described as being inscribed, it indicates that a short note written by the author or a previous owner has been...