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40+ oeuvres 1,224 utilisateurs 18 critiques 2 Favoris

A propos de l'auteur

Stephen J. Pyne is a professor at Arizona State University. The author of ten acclaimed books on environmental history, he won the 1995 "Los Angeles Times'" Robert Kirsch Award for his career contribution to arts & letters. He lives in Glendale, Arizona. (Bowker Author Biography)

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Œuvres de Stephen J. Pyne

The Ice: A Journey to Antarctica (1986) 107 exemplaires
Fire: A Brief History (2001) 60 exemplaires
After Preservation: Saving American Nature in the Age of Humans (2015) — Directeur de publication — 15 exemplaires
Smoke chasing (2003) 9 exemplaires
FIRE ON EARTH: A BRIEF HISTORY (2001) 7 exemplaires
Florida : a fire survey (2016) 6 exemplaires
California : A Fire Survey (2016) 6 exemplaires
The Still-Burning Bush (2006) 6 exemplaires
The Interior West : A Fire Survey (2018) 5 exemplaires
Introduction to Wildland Fire (1996) 5 exemplaires
Here and There: A Fire Survey (2018) 5 exemplaires
The Great Plains : a fire survey (2017) 4 exemplaires
The Southwest : A Fire Survey (2016) 4 exemplaires
The Northeast: A Fire Survey (2019) 3 exemplaires
To the Last Smoke: An Anthology (2020) 3 exemplaires

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Sept 2023
 
Signalé
BJMacauley | 1 autre critique | Sep 6, 2023 |
In the beginning, there was no fire on the Earth. Fire had to wait for enough oxygen to enter the atmosphere and for enough biological material to be made available that could burn.

Stephen Pyne tells the history of fire. But, who would have thought that Fire has a history? Not only do you learn that fire has a very involved history, but you learn what evidence he uses to determine that history.

Seldom has a book changed my way of looking at things as much as this book. He begins with how fire came to the Earth and then how the earliest humans used fire to shape the landscape to their needs and continues with a description of mankind's relationship with fire up to the present day. Today, Pyne feels that mankind has cut itself off from fire having hidden it by use of technology. As a result, we are no longer actively using controlled burning in order to tame fire to our needs.

Pyne's writing style is a bit of a challenge since he uses a vocabulary that this reader was not familiar with. The book is nevertheless an engrossing and worthwhile read for anyone interested in the environment, natural history, and early history.
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Signalé
M_Clark | 1 autre critique | Aug 24, 2023 |
Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
 
Signalé
fernandie | Sep 15, 2022 |
In an author’s note at the back of The Great Ages of Discovery (that really should have been at the front) Stephen J. Pyne—author of several books on exploration (and fire)—notes that: “This is an idea book…. The organizing idea is a simple one: exploration is a cultural activity that displays the same kind of movement and rhythms as its sustaining society” (295). Pyne’s coverage is broad and his intent is to divide exploration by Western civilizations (Europe and Euro-American) into three Great Ages of Discovery. The First Age runs from the sacking of Ceuta in 1415 to the death of William Dampier in 1715; the Second Age from 1735, the French Academy’s expeditions to Lapland and Ecuador, to Shackleton’s 1916 expedition to Antarctica; and the Third Age began with Operation Highjump to Antarctica in 1946 and continues to the present (281-282). Pyne then analyzes and defines each age’s spirits, motives, and effects.

Pyne’s work is definitely “an idea book,” meant to give a general outline of exploration and discovery by the West since the 1400s. In-depth description and detail of the expeditions, explorers, conquistadors, scientists, and empire is lacking. Pyne’s purpose is to offer an overview and analysis of discovery in these time periods, how they both reflect society and change society at the same time. Many times Pyne mentions how encounters and entanglement not only altered native societies, but exploring- and colonizing-societies as well, for good and ill. Offering some perspective in an epilogue, Pyne believes that the three ages of discovery lead to “a vast ecological reorganization of the planet,” industrialization, colonization, and scientification, with all their attendant virtues and evils (293). Pyne calls exploration “Western civilization’s quest narrative,” full of “triumphalism but equally tragedy,” exhibiting “the best and worst of the civilization.” “The enterprise,” he concludes, “has made humanity more knowledgeable, if not wiser” (294). The Great Ages of Discovery may help scholars of discovery to think about the wider implications of the field, but would also offer thoughtful insights to students and laypeople. It is a quick, interesting read, with sparse endnotes and a few illustrative illustrations. The selected bibliography is quite useful and points readers to many representative and important publications. Pyne’s categorization and ideas about discovery in three great ages is a useful paradigm for thinking, researching, and writing about the history of exploration.
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Signalé
tuckerresearch | Jan 14, 2022 |

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Œuvres
40
Aussi par
3
Membres
1,224
Popularité
#20,980
Évaluation
½ 3.7
Critiques
18
ISBN
117
Langues
2
Favoris
2

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