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From Amazon
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
LET'S START indoors. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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5.0 out of 5 stars
WONDERFUL BOOK,
This review is from: The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions (Paperback)
David Quammen brilliantly blends fascinating personal travel stories with scientific theories of Island Biogeography in this work. It was fascinating to learn how applicable the science of Island biogeography can be to park conservation, and his personal portrayals of scientists through many interviews and field trips. Quammen's weaving of personal anecdote is masterful thus keeping the reader's interest going throughout, much like Jared Diamond's "Collapse" and "Guns, Germs, and Steel" and Smith's "The World in 2050"
5.0 out of 5 stars
From Anecdotes to Science,
By
This review is from: The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions (Paperback)
This is a terrific read on important biological questions which lie in the scientific stratum far above the world of molecular biology, which has come to dominate so much of the field, almost to the point of extinguishing the venerable methods of systematics, evolution, and field studies of actual organisms. Quammen transports us into a world where interactions of animals in real ecological systems are the object of study, charming us into seeing its importance, and introducing us to the people who are working to advance our understanding of the natural world.The central theme of the book is the importance that islands have played in this area of research, starting from the work of Darwin and Wallace, extending to the modern work of men such as E. O. Wilson, Macarthur, Simberloff, and Lovejoy. What is revealed is a science progressing from anecdotes and scattered observations of curiosities to something with its own generalizations and laws that can be have an increasing certainty, backed by sound statistical studies, and that produces graphs and tables, equations, useful computer models and testable hypotheses. The majesty of the process is astounding. Quammen writes clearly and spares no effort to involve the reader, mixing a historical treatment of the process, interviews of the modern players, and his own thrilling explorations of the remote islands--he splendidly communicates his excitement and involvement.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A wonderful, important book.,
By
This review is from: The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions (Paperback)
I don't usually write reviews of books that already have a bunch here, but this book is important enough to make an exception.I forget now how I came across this book, but I'm glad I did. Quammen writes in very clear prose, keeps the story moving, and provides a wealth of detail. If I were the editor, I might have shortened some of the personal accounts, but that's about the strongest criticism I can come up with. The book explicates the theory of island biogeography, the theory of islands are where species develop, and that in a larger sense, continents are both islands and collections of islands. It's much more complicated than that, but I don't read thousand-word reviews, so I shouldn't write one. The book is complete, and very well thought out. Midway through the book, as he's discussing species extinctions, I'm thinking, why doesn't he talk about the passenger pigeon? And, in the next chapter he does. One of the things he does is remind us of WHY the theory of evolution became unavoidable to a generation of people trained in Biblical literalism (Darwin himself was a Anglican seminary graduate, and took his voyage on the Beagle before settling down as a parish priest.) There's a "movement" nowadays which purports to prove that there's no real evidence for evolution, that It's really a lie told by Bible-hating scientists. If this book did nothing but dispel that myth, it would be worth reading. (a synopsis of his account would take me a couple of pages.) But it does more, so much more that.
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