Henry Dresser and Victorian ornithology

Henry Dresser and Victorian ornithology PDF

Author: Henry A. McGhie

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2017-11-20

Total Pages: 503

ISBN-13: 1526116022

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This book explores the life of Henry Dresser (1838–1915), one of the most productive British ornithologists of the mid-late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and is largely based on previously unpublished archival material. Dresser travelled widely and spent time in Texas during the American Civil War. He built enormous collections of skins and eggs of birds from Europe, North America and Asia, which formed the basis of over 100 publications, including some of the finest bird books of the late nineteenth century. Dresser was a leading figure in scientific society and in the early bird conservation movement; his correspondence and diaries reveal the inner workings, motivations, personal relationships and rivalries that existed among the leading ornithologists.

Birdmania

Birdmania PDF

Author: Bernd Brunner

Publisher: Greystone Books Ltd

Published: 2017-10-21

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1771642785

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"An exquisitely beautiful book ...These stories about birds are ultimately reflections on the curious nature of humanity itself" — Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk There is no denying that many people are crazy for birds. Packed with intriguing facts and exquisite and rare artwork, Birdmania showcases an eclectic and fascinating selection of bird devotees who would do anything for their feathered friends. In addition to well-known enthusiasts such as Aristotle, Charles Darwin, and Helen Macdonald, Brunner introduces readers to Karl Russ, the pioneer of "bird rooms", who had difficulty renting lodgings when landlords realized who he was; George Lupton, a wealthy Yorkshire lawyer, who commissioned the theft of uniquely patterned eggs every year for twenty years from the same unfortunate female guillemot who never had a chance to raise a chick; George Archibald, who performed mating dances for an endangered whooping crane called Tex to encourage her to lay; and Mervyn Shorthouse, who posed as a wheelchair-bound invalid to steal an estimated ten thousand eggs from the Natural History Museum in Tring. As this book illustrates, people who love birds, whether they are amateurs or professionals, are as captivating and varied as the birds that give flight to their dreams.

Ecocide

Ecocide PDF

Author: David Whyte

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2020-09-01

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1526146975

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We have reached the point of no return. The existential threat of climate change is now a reality. The world has never been more vulnerable. Yet corporations are already planning a life beyond this point. The business models of fossil fuel giants factor in continued profitability in a scenario of a five-degree increase in global temperature. An increase that will kill millions, if not billions. This is the shocking reality laid bare in a new, hard-hitting book by David Whyte. Ecocide makes clear the problem won’t be solved by tinkering around the edges, instead it maps out a plan to end the corporation’s death-watch over us. This book will reveal how the corporation has risen to this position of near impunity, but also what we need to do to fix it.

The Story of Alderley

The Story of Alderley PDF

Author: Prag John

Publisher:

Published: 2016-02-28

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780719091728

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Alderley Edge is a sandstone ridge rising 180 metres above the Cheshire plain, a dozen miles south of Manchester. The Edge itself, now owned by the National Trust, has become a honeypot for Mancunians, and the village below, formed by the railway as a commuter dormitory for Manchester cotton-kings, is now nicknamed the champagne capital of England. Beneath lie copper and lead mines and, according to legend, a sleeping king and his knights ready to save England in the last battle of the world. In 1953 the schoolboy Alan Garner rediscovered an old wooden shovel found in the mines; nearly forty years later - and by now a world-famous author - he presented the shovel to the Manchester Museum in the University of Manchester, thereby inspiring a research project that called on every discipline in the museum's armoury and many more besides. The Alderley Edge Landscape Project, a joint venture by the Museum and the National Trust, set out to study every aspect of Alderley's story. Its first report, in 2005, was The Archaeology of Alderley Edge. This second volume covers everything else, from the natural world to the story of the mines, from social and oral history to conservation. The list of chapter-headings reads like an encyclopedia, for thanks to its position in the university the project could call on specialists of the highest calibre, and many of the approaches and techniques used were ground-breaking at the time. Alderley's story includes the discovery of two new species of bramble, and a retelling of the legend by Alan Garner that takes the story back into prehistory - and his shovel was radiocarbon-dated to the Bronze Age.No other project and so no other book has covered the entire, complex story of a single village and the landscape in which it is set in such detail. It will be read not just by landscape historians but by students and scholars in all those disciplines and at all levels, and by anyone interested in any aspect of history and of the countryside, whether out on the Edge or in the comfort of an armchair.

Biologists in the Age of Totalitarianism

Biologists in the Age of Totalitarianism PDF

Author: Eugeniusz Nowak

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2018-07-26

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 1527514382

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This fascinating volume resulted from one man’s frustration with the series of whitewashed obituaries and laudations he had to endure in his long career in West Germany. These were often of biologists who had worked in the Third Reich, a period generally skipped over in such eulogies. Dr Eugeniusz Nowak, born in Poland in 1933, therefore decided to do some historical research of his own. His series of controversial ‘alternative’ biographies of mainly German biologists in various journals soon grew into a successful book, with German, Russian and Polish editions. Now at last translated into English, this revised and updated volume contains over 40 brief lives, illustrated by 113 often dramatic photographs. It uses material gathered from dozens of Central European archives only accessible since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. What makes this book so gripping is its personal element; Dr Nowak, with his contacts on both sides of the Iron Curtain, either knew these scientists personally or interviewed family members and colleagues. We see here how these victims (and perpetrators) were caught in the ideological nets of Nazism, Stalinism or Maoism, and how their lives were changed utterly by political forces beyond their control. As such, this book represents essential reading for those interested in the personal stories at the interface of totalitarian politics and biological science.

A Complete Guide to the Birds of Malta

A Complete Guide to the Birds of Malta PDF

Author: Natalino Fenech

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789993273103

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Lying in the centre of the Mediterranean, Malta is a natural staging post for migrant birds crossing from Africa to Europe in spring as well as for migrants returning from their breeding grounds in Europe to the African continent in autumn. Birds have attracted man's attention for a long time and this book shows images of birds in prehistory, art, stamps, coins, antique embroidery and so forth. It also speaks about birds in all aspects of Maltese culture, from folklore to language. It is also a photographic record of many of the birds that regularly visit the islands and features ones that are rare or have been recorded a handful of times. It also contains several unpublished records dating from 1958.

Corcoran Gallery of Art

Corcoran Gallery of Art PDF

Author: Corcoran Gallery of Art

Publisher: Lucia Marquand

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781555953614

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This authoritative catalogue of the Corcoran Gallery of Art's renowned collection of pre-1945 American paintings will greatly enhance scholarly and public understanding of one of the finest and most important collections of historic American art in the world. Composed of more than 600 objects dating from 1740 to 1945.

Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary Builder

Merriam-Webster's Vocabulary Builder PDF

Author: Mary W. Cornog

Publisher: Merriam-Webster

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 9780877799108

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The ideal book for people who want to increase their word power. Thorough coverage of 1,200 words and 240 roots while introducing 2,300 words. The Vocabulary Builder is organized by Greek and Latin roots for effective study with nearly 250 new words and roots. Includes quizzes after each root discussion to test progress. A great study aid for students preparing to take standardized tests.

On Curiosity

On Curiosity PDF

Author: Franck Cochoy

Publisher:

Published: 2016-07-25

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780995527706

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What draws us towards a shop window display? What drives us to grab a special offer, to enter the privileged circle of premium newspaper subscribers, to peruse the pages of an enticing magazine? Without doubt, it is curiosity - that essential force of everyday action which invites us to break from our habits and to become transported beyond our very selves. Curiosity (whether healthy or unhealthy) is one of the favourite tricks of market seduction. Capturing a public - attracting the attention of a reader, seducing a customer, meeting the expectations of a user, persuading a voter ... - often requires the construction of a set of technical devices that can play upon people's inner motivations. Cochoy invites us to take a sociological trip into these cabinets of curiosity, accompanied throughout by Bluebeard, a fairy tale that is both a model of the genre and a pure curiosity machine. At once a work of history and economic anthropology, the book meticulously analyses the devices designed by markets to arouse, excite, and sustain curiosity: a window display, practices of 'teasing', packaging, bus shelters, mobile internet technologies, to name but a few. In the Bettencourt and Strauss-Kahn affairs and the Wikileaks controversy, Cochoy also uncovers the work of investigative journalism and its attention-grabbing 'scoops', revealing the secrets of the revealers of secrets. Available in English for the first time, this major work will arouse readers' curiosity over the course of its unusual and colourful journey. By the end, now better informed and more cautious, they will be able to identify the traps of which they are the target. So long as curiosity is kept at bay, at least!