Joe Jackson (2) (1955–)
Auteur de The Thief at the End of the World: Rubber, Power, and the Seeds of Empire
Pour les autres auteurs qui s'appellent Joe Jackson, voyez la page de désambigüisation.
Œuvres de Joe Jackson
A Furnace Afloat: The Wreck of the Hornet and the Harrowing 4,300-mile Voyage of Its Survivors (2003) 73 exemplaires
Atlantic Fever: Lindbergh, His Competitors, and the Race to Cross the Atlantic (2012) 64 exemplaires
Dead Run: The Shocking Story of Dennis Stockton and Life on Death Row in America (1999) 41 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Autres noms
- JACKSON, Joe
- Date de naissance
- 1955
- Sexe
- male
- Nationalité
- USA
- Lieux de résidence
- Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
- Études
- University of Arkansas (MFA)
- Professions
- investigative reporter
- Organisations
- Virginian Pilot (newspaper)
- Courte biographie
- Jackson holds an MFA from the University of Arkansas and was an investigative reporter for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk for twelve years, covering criminal justice and the state's Death Row. His journalism has resulted in the acquittal of a man wrongly convicted of murder, the federal investigation of a jail in which sixteen prisoners died of medical neglect, the investigation of federal agents for misconduct, and the recantations of two men whose testimony helped send men to Death Row. He was the writer-in-residence at the James Thurber House in 2001 and lives in Virginia Beach with his wife, son, and clumsy dog.
Membres
Critiques
85 years ago this month Charles Lindbergh flew from NYC to Paris in his plane, "The Spirit of St. Louis". Joe Jackson's excellent book deals with the competition for the Ortega Prize and the "Atlantic Fever" that gripped America, Europe, and the rest of the world, in the months leading up to May 1927 and after.
This is a well written book that outlines how the world embraced the concept of aviation and those who flew. The men, and few women, involved with the pursuit of the Ortega Prize were an eclectic group of alpha individuals who were devoted to the science of flight. Many of them paid for their devotion with their lives.
If you have read Scott Berg's biography of Lindbergh or Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis", you will enjoy this new addition to the history of aviation. If you have not, do yourself a favor and read it. Read it and be amazed how, in some ways, little America has not changed at all in 85 years.… (plus d'informations)
This is a well written book that outlines how the world embraced the concept of aviation and those who flew. The men, and few women, involved with the pursuit of the Ortega Prize were an eclectic group of alpha individuals who were devoted to the science of flight. Many of them paid for their devotion with their lives.
If you have read Scott Berg's biography of Lindbergh or Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis", you will enjoy this new addition to the history of aviation. If you have not, do yourself a favor and read it. Read it and be amazed how, in some ways, little America has not changed at all in 85 years.… (plus d'informations)
American History. Glad I took the time to read this one, even though Biographies aren't my normal choice. Interesting, depressing, enlightening. It slows down in the last 1/3rd, but that almost normal since biographies follow the path of someones life, and life tends to slow down in the last 1/3rd I think? Regardless, super good. If you are interested at all in Native American History, read this!
The lives and adventures of thousands of interesting people lie buried in the past, waiting to be re-discovered and brought to attention through the discipline of history. As the number of such individuals can be very large, it is up to historians to make decisions which stories to tell. The skills of an historian, research, work in archives and describing are skills shared by journalists, or even interested laymen or amateur historians. However, academic historians will have other considerations, such as historical relevance and relative importance of their subject, and an objective, and accurate description of the story. Journalists and amateur historians are often not bothered by such considerations, and the advantage of many journalists and some non-specialized writers have over professional historians is that the former are often much better writers. They simply tell the story better, while historical monographs are often poorly written and boring or too difficult to the wider public.
Publishers therefore publish more history books than ever, researched by journalists and amateurs. These writers are bothered by the scruples of the academics. Details and historical accuracy are not as important. A racy story all the more. Hence, many such books emphasize uniqueness rather than historical patterns. Failures are described as successes, history is a swinging adventure, empire is glorious. As towards the end of the Twentieth century, Britain's global empire, and its dismanteling and colonialism is increasingly seen as a cause for shame, while the United Kingdom is still struggling with its declining importance as a mere windy corner on the far edge of the European Union, there is a growing nostalgia for the days of empire and power. Victorian explorers are not colonial oppressors, but chivalrous rogues, who risked their lives for the empire. A noticeable trend is to portray Victorian explorers as thiefs, and naughty boys.
Joe Jackson's The thief at the end of the world. Rubber, power, and the seeds of Empire is written in a very similar vein as For all the tea in China. How England stole the world's favorite drink and changed history by Sarah Rose. Both books are about explorers, each featuring the contribution botany made to the development and financial success of the British empire. Rose describes how Robert Fortune brought tea seeds away from China in the Far East, while Jackson tells the story of the exploits of Henry Wickham acquiring rubber tree seeds from South America. Both books mention the "Wardian cases" the invention that enabled the safe transportation of fragile seedlings on clippers across climate zones and maritime spray across the globe. The book by Sarah Rose does not even attempt historical accuracy, and contains no footnotes, but The thief at the end of the world. Rubber, power, and the seeds of Empire is more pretentious listing sources and footnotes, a glossary, bibliography and index on more than 100 pages, cf pp. 309-414. However, Henry Wickham is a much less interesting person than Robert Fortune. The story about rubber is not as appealing as the story about tea, and Jackson's book is sometimes a bit too long, clearly struggling to flesh out a thin story. Both books are based on incomplete records, and Jackson often ends up speculating (cf pp. 284-5).
While Joe Jackson apparently knows how to do research, he is not such a very good writer, and his editor was clearly sleeping, or not paying enough attention. Jackson's sentences are clumsy and there are many instances where the editor should have improved the text, as the author's association was running wild. For example, on page 143-4, the author describes the vegetation of the estate Piquiá-tuba:
"On Piquiá-tuba, in addition to rubber and the indigenous piquiá, some of the more common trees included the towering, golden-crowned ipe, or ironwood tree, now known in America as the wood used for the boardwalk in Bill Gates's coastal mansion; the purple ipe, whose bark has been suggested as a possible cure for cancer; (...) and the rosewood tree, and essential ingredient in Chanel No. 5."
The deaths described on pages 151 ff. and 171 ff. are tragic, but to describe them as a "wave of death" and "wave of sickness" is exaggeration, and confusing.
Stylistically ugly is also: "By 1859, the British Honduras company, which originated as a partnership between old settler families and a London merchant, emerged as the colony's predominant landowner. It spread like an amoeba in the 1860s." (p. 220), or
"He was photographed leaning against the largest rubber tree in Ceylon (...). He wore a khaki jacket and white Captain's hat. The V's of the herringbone scars crept up the tree like chevrons. Henry rested his hand against the trunk like an old friend." (p. 283)
A remarkable passage full of speculation and rambling on without the hand of the editor, can be found on pp. 284-5:
"By then, no one remained to dispute Henry's tweaks to his legend. The adopted Indian boy disappeared after Queensland. Violet and Henry had been separated for over twenty years. After leaving the Conflicts, she dropped from the records almost as totally as the adopted boy. (...) We know they loved each other. There are secrets we'll never know, but she'd stood by him through the worst, and he'd loved her so recklessly that he swam a shark-filled channel in the middle of the night just to be with her."
The book is full of such weird sentences an passages, full of speculation, non-sensical description, and exaggeration to create an exciting narrative where there is not, and to flesh out the story. It is quite shameful for the publisher, Penguin Books to print and publish such a shoddy piece of work.… (plus d'informations)
Publishers therefore publish more history books than ever, researched by journalists and amateurs. These writers are bothered by the scruples of the academics. Details and historical accuracy are not as important. A racy story all the more. Hence, many such books emphasize uniqueness rather than historical patterns. Failures are described as successes, history is a swinging adventure, empire is glorious. As towards the end of the Twentieth century, Britain's global empire, and its dismanteling and colonialism is increasingly seen as a cause for shame, while the United Kingdom is still struggling with its declining importance as a mere windy corner on the far edge of the European Union, there is a growing nostalgia for the days of empire and power. Victorian explorers are not colonial oppressors, but chivalrous rogues, who risked their lives for the empire. A noticeable trend is to portray Victorian explorers as thiefs, and naughty boys.
Joe Jackson's The thief at the end of the world. Rubber, power, and the seeds of Empire is written in a very similar vein as For all the tea in China. How England stole the world's favorite drink and changed history by Sarah Rose. Both books are about explorers, each featuring the contribution botany made to the development and financial success of the British empire. Rose describes how Robert Fortune brought tea seeds away from China in the Far East, while Jackson tells the story of the exploits of Henry Wickham acquiring rubber tree seeds from South America. Both books mention the "Wardian cases" the invention that enabled the safe transportation of fragile seedlings on clippers across climate zones and maritime spray across the globe. The book by Sarah Rose does not even attempt historical accuracy, and contains no footnotes, but The thief at the end of the world. Rubber, power, and the seeds of Empire is more pretentious listing sources and footnotes, a glossary, bibliography and index on more than 100 pages, cf pp. 309-414. However, Henry Wickham is a much less interesting person than Robert Fortune. The story about rubber is not as appealing as the story about tea, and Jackson's book is sometimes a bit too long, clearly struggling to flesh out a thin story. Both books are based on incomplete records, and Jackson often ends up speculating (cf pp. 284-5).
While Joe Jackson apparently knows how to do research, he is not such a very good writer, and his editor was clearly sleeping, or not paying enough attention. Jackson's sentences are clumsy and there are many instances where the editor should have improved the text, as the author's association was running wild. For example, on page 143-4, the author describes the vegetation of the estate Piquiá-tuba:
"On Piquiá-tuba, in addition to rubber and the indigenous piquiá, some of the more common trees included the towering, golden-crowned ipe, or ironwood tree, now known in America as the wood used for the boardwalk in Bill Gates's coastal mansion; the purple ipe, whose bark has been suggested as a possible cure for cancer; (...) and the rosewood tree, and essential ingredient in Chanel No. 5."
The deaths described on pages 151 ff. and 171 ff. are tragic, but to describe them as a "wave of death" and "wave of sickness" is exaggeration, and confusing.
Stylistically ugly is also: "By 1859, the British Honduras company, which originated as a partnership between old settler families and a London merchant, emerged as the colony's predominant landowner. It spread like an amoeba in the 1860s." (p. 220), or
"He was photographed leaning against the largest rubber tree in Ceylon (...). He wore a khaki jacket and white Captain's hat. The V's of the herringbone scars crept up the tree like chevrons. Henry rested his hand against the trunk like an old friend." (p. 283)
A remarkable passage full of speculation and rambling on without the hand of the editor, can be found on pp. 284-5:
"By then, no one remained to dispute Henry's tweaks to his legend. The adopted Indian boy disappeared after Queensland. Violet and Henry had been separated for over twenty years. After leaving the Conflicts, she dropped from the records almost as totally as the adopted boy. (...) We know they loved each other. There are secrets we'll never know, but she'd stood by him through the worst, and he'd loved her so recklessly that he swam a shark-filled channel in the middle of the night just to be with her."
The book is full of such weird sentences an passages, full of speculation, non-sensical description, and exaggeration to create an exciting narrative where there is not, and to flesh out the story. It is quite shameful for the publisher, Penguin Books to print and publish such a shoddy piece of work.… (plus d'informations)
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 8
- Membres
- 652
- Popularité
- #38,721
- Évaluation
- 3.8
- Critiques
- 19
- ISBN
- 72
- Langues
- 4
- Favoris
- 1
Henry Wickham, a lower-class Englishman, in an effort to earn himself a reputation and a fortune, set his sights on rubber - he was integral in making it a ubiquitous substance today. He successfully stole 70,000 seeds and delivered them viable to Kew Gardens who eventually spread the plants to distant colonies and shifted the rubber supply from wild to plantation (from Brazil to England's colonies in East Asia) ultimately providing a more voluminous and cheaper supply. Once the vulcanization process was discovered in 1839 - hardening rubber while increasing its strength and elasticity - life demanded rubber loudly: waterproof shoes & coats then bicycles into Model T's and always war.
Wickham was an impressive adventurer but not so much a likeable individual. His field study of Hevea brasiliensis (Pará) and other rubber-producing trees, in conjunction with his experience surviving in the Amazon jungle, made his 19th-century biopiracy feat possible where others, better supported, failed. But he also convinced his mother, sister & brother + families to join him on a jungle expedition knowing firsthand the risks they'd face. He left the jungle with the seeds and his wife, Violet - the others dead or abandoned behind.
His delivery of the seeds was not life-altering as he had hoped. In continued pursuit of recognition and riches, he dragged Violet to remote and inhospitable environs - back to the Amazon jungle, to Queensland (northeastern Australia), and the Conflict Islands in Papua New Guinea. While London industrialized rapidly, the Wickhams were often fully consumed with basic survival in their far-flung homes.
In 1920, Henry was knighted for his contribution to the empire from decades earlier. He believed that the British empire was mankind's best chance at advancement. Was it in this instance? Could the Amazon basin's resources (managed by the players at the time) have supported the freedom and comfort that cheap and available rubber allowed? Or would the overall state of things be improved without this episode of colonialism ick?… (plus d'informations)