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The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
by Pollan, Michael
- Used
- Very Good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0375760393
- ISBN 13
- 9780375760396
- Seller
-
Webster, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
New York: Random House, 2002. Reprint. Trade Paperback. Very Good. 5x0x7. Reprint. Ink gift note on front cover verso. 2002 Trade Paperback. xxv, 271 pp. Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom
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
- Yesterday's Muse Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 2332159
- Title
- The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
- Author
- Pollan, Michael
- Format/Binding
- Trade Paperback
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- Reprint
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0375760393
- ISBN 13
- 9780375760396
- Publisher
- Random House
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2002
- Size
- 5x0x7
- Keywords
- SCIENCE BOTANY PLANTS NATURE NATURAL HISTORY HORTICULTURE
- X weight
- 11 oz
Terms of Sale
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About the Seller
Yesterday's Muse Books
Biblio member since 2005
Webster, New York
About Yesterday's Muse Books
Yesterday's Muse Inc. is an independent used & rare bookseller that has been in operation for over 15 years. We opened our first 'brick and mortar' storefront in December of 2008 in our hometown of Webster, NY.Owner Jonathan Smalter is a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America (ABAA), former vice president of the Independent Online Booksellers Association (IOBA), both of which are trade organizations created to promote ethical online selling practices, and to encourage continuing education among fellow booksellers. He is also a 2011 graduate of the Colorado Antiquarian Book Seminar (CABS). He has nearly 20 years of experience in the book trade, during which time he has become adept at evaluating used and collectible books.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Trade Paperback
- Used to indicate any paperback book that is larger than a mass-market paperback and is often more similar in size to a hardcover...
- Reprint
- Any printing of a book which follows the original edition. By definition, a reprint is not a first edition.
- Verso
- The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
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