About this title: Seasoned garden writer Michael Pollan explores the histories of apples, tulips, potatoes, and marijuana, showing in the process how humanity and plants intersect and affect each other.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN-13:9780375760396ISBN:0375760393
Description: Fair. 0375760393 Textbook Student edition. CD NOT INCLUDED. FRONT COVER ABSENT. Cover has used book stickers or residue. Good binding. NO apparent loose pages. NO apparent missing pages. May have unnoticed missing pages, as this is a USED book and pages get lost easily. Heavy writing and highlighting. Marker on cover or bottom edge of book. aj. read more
Edition: NEW ED
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780747563006ISBN:0747563004
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 320 pages. (320 pages) a book which brilliantly twists our perception of nature by showing us nature's perspective of us. edition new ed (Paperback) read more
Description: Acceptable. 2002-Paperback----Used-Acceptable-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Date Published: 2002-05-28
ISBN-13:9780375760396ISBN:0375760393
Description: Good. What's the difference between fiction and reality? Ficton has to make sense. Tom Clancy. If you buy this book, it will ship from Kentucky. It may have some writing and highlighting. If this is a book for class, it might not have some of the extra materials it originally came with like the CD or any access codes. You probably don't need those anyway, but you might want to check with your professor first just in case. Please email us if you have any questions, and thanks for checking us ... read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Date Published: 03/03/2002
ISBN-13:9780747563006ISBN:0747563004
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Date Published: 2002-05-28
ISBN-13:9780375760396ISBN:0375760393
Description: VERY GOOD SOFTCOVER. Size: trade paperback; Working in his garden one day, Michael Pollan hit pay dirt in the form of an idea: do plants, he wondered, use humans as much as we use them? While the question is not entirely original, the way Pollan examines this complex coevolution by looking at the natural world from the perspective of plants is unique. The result is a fascinating and engaging look at the true nature of domestication. In making his point, Pollan focuses on the relationship ... read more
Description: Good. Book shows minor use. Cover and Binding have minimal wear and the pages have only minimal creases. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date Published: 2001-05-08
ISBN-13:9780375501296ISBN:0375501290
Description: Good. YOUR MOM CALLED and said you should buy our book, and if you do we will ship it from Kentucky. We are a small family business and do our best to keep you happy and more money in your pocket. The cover has normal wear and may have some stickers on the cover/spine from the bookstore. It may not include the CD/Access code from the publisher if there was one. E-mail with questions. Oh and your mom said to call her back. : ) read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: New York: Random House, 2001
ISBN-13:9780375760396ISBN:0375760393
Description: Gently used trade paperback. Light wear. There is a dog-ear crease on one page in the introduction. Pages are unmarked. ISBN 0375760393. read more
"A brief but compelling history of four plants whose genetic destiny has been markedly altered by man - the apple, the tulip, cannabis, and the potato. Pollan's argument is that, though we see domestication as a strictly top-down, subject-to-object process, there really may also be some co-evolutionary force at work. Johnny Appleseed's efforts were to the overwhelming advantage of apple genetic proliferation, and the science of mass potato farming means more seeds are planted every year. But we'll get to the argument bit in a minute.
As quirky, offbeat history, this is fabulous. It turns out botany is an incredibly versatile vehicle in which to travel from social psychology to religion to bioethics. Pollan makes fascinating detours through early American advertising schemes, pauses briefly to describe the hallucinogenic mixture of mushrooms and opium European witches would administer via dildo, and then hops blithely on to the cost-benefit economics of potato plants engineered to make their own pesticide. It's a wonderfully engaging trip, made all the more so by Pollan's lucid, thoughtful, frankly lovely writing. I haven't enjoyed a spot of nonfiction prose on a purely esthetic level in a long time, and for that pleasure alone I could recommend this book.
As for the argument - how best to put this - it's not so much one. This whole co-evolution idea occurred to Pollan one day as he was gardening, and it never really leaves the realm of warm afternoon, busy hands, strange and intriguing thought. The whole thing comes out interesting, undeniably pretty, but ultimately nothing more than an intellectual exercise. An exercise I enjoyed, mind you, but I'm really not after musings over the Apollonian and Dionysian paradigms in my discussions of anything related to evolution: I'm after, you know, scientifically sound genotypic mechanisms. But like I said, I was perfectly happy to go along. I just fervently hope no one came away from this book believing this is what is meant by "theory of evolution."
Eclectic, engaging subject matter. A bit of pleasant but deeply fluffy intellectual masturbation tacked around the edges for an excuse. Wonderful writing. A good time, all around."
"I couldn't get into this book at all and gave up reading it after the first chapter. The premise was a good one, but Pollan's writing style drove me up the wall. I called it quits when he started analogizing Johnny Appleseed and Dionysius. Too much navel-gazing and not enough substance."
"I thought this was an interesting but long winded book. The author discusses 4 different plants and how they have 'coevolved' with humans to reap the benefits of human interaction. It is best summed up in one of the first chapters of the book as the author ponders if he planted potatoes in his garden out of his own accord of did the potatoes, by virtue of their deliciousness, pursuade him to plant them?
One of the main things I learned from this book is the value of diversity. From the loss of heritage apple varieties due to the desire for sickly sweet varieties to the monsanto NewLeaf potatoes that are themselves registered with the EPA as a pesticide i was introduced to this monoculture idea that I didnt know existed.
I was shocked to learn about the stringent potato requirements of the fast food industry - only 1 type of potato without blemish is acceptable for french fry production. With the razor slim profit margins of farming a farmer selling to these companies nearly HAS to use GMO crops and/or huge amounts of pesticides to make ends meet.
This definitely changed the way I think about organic vs non organic foods. I used to think buying non-organic potatoes was alright, but faced with the fact of what could potentially be in them (one of the potato farmers wouldnt even eat the potatoes he grew) i now feel that i really need to buy local and or organic for the sake of my health."
"I read this a few days after "The Omnivore's Dilemma", and began it the day after picking up "In Defense of Food". I loved the former, thought the latter was thin and a resaying of what he'd already said. This book was a beautiful book, though not the tome that O.D was, it's beautifully written. It also sets the stage nicely for O.D.
Here, using apples (with their amazing capacity to evolve based on seeds that don't grow true to the parent), tuplips, cannabis and potatoes Pollan sets out plainly the case that Richard Attenborough made several years before: that both humans and the foods they eat co-evolve. In the final chapter, he begins to describe the connundrum of monoculture that he deals a death-blow to in O.D (in that anyone who reads it will understand for once and for all what a death-blow to humanity monoculture is).
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