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الصحراء
From endless sand dunes and prickly cacti to shimmering mirages and green oases, deserts evoke contradictory images in us. They are lands of desolation, but also of romance, of blistering Mojave heat and biting Gobi cold. Covering a quarter of the earth’s land mass and providing a home to half a billion people, they are both a physical reality and landscapes of the mind. The idea of the desert has long captured Western imagination, put on display in films and literature, but these portrayals often fail to capture the true scope and diversity of the people living there. Bridging the scientific and cultural gaps between perception and reality, The Desert celebrates our fascination with these arid lands and their inhabitants, as well as their importance both throughout history and in the world today.
Covering an immense geographical range, Michael Welland wanders from the Sahara to the Atacama, depicting the often bizarre adaptations of plants and animals to these hostile environments. He also looks at these seemingly infertile landscapes in the context of their place in history—as the birthplaces not only of critical evolutionary adaptations, civilizations, and social progress, but also of ideologies. Telling the stories of the diverse peoples who call the desert home, he describes how people have survived there, their contributions to agricultural development, and their emphasis on water and its scarcity. He also delves into the allure of deserts and how they have been used in literature and film and their influence on fashion, art, and architecture. As Welland reveals, deserts may be difficult to define, but they play an active role in the evolution of our global climate and society at large, and their future is of the utmost importance. Entertaining, informative, and surprising, The Desert is an intriguing new look at these seemingly harsh and inhospitable landscapes.
Covering an immense geographical range, Michael Welland wanders from the Sahara to the Atacama, depicting the often bizarre adaptations of plants and animals to these hostile environments. He also looks at these seemingly infertile landscapes in the context of their place in history—as the birthplaces not only of critical evolutionary adaptations, civilizations, and social progress, but also of ideologies. Telling the stories of the diverse peoples who call the desert home, he describes how people have survived there, their contributions to agricultural development, and their emphasis on water and its scarcity. He also delves into the allure of deserts and how they have been used in literature and film and their influence on fashion, art, and architecture. As Welland reveals, deserts may be difficult to define, but they play an active role in the evolution of our global climate and society at large, and their future is of the utmost importance. Entertaining, informative, and surprising, The Desert is an intriguing new look at these seemingly harsh and inhospitable landscapes.
446 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2015
2 people are currently reading
192 people want to read
About the author
Michael Welland
3 books14 followersWell, not so much a biography, as some thoughts.
As a geologist, I have been fortunate enough to see diverse and wonderful parts of our planet. Its workings and processes are a never-ending source of fascination, and demonstrate what is intoxicating about science - the provocative conspiracy between what we know and what we don't. All too often, science is presented as done and dusted, whereas the fascination is the vast realm of what we don't know. All too often, we think we know more than we do, and that can get us into trouble. And, being of a certain age, I treasure the time available to enquire into the endlessly compelling amount of stuff that I, personally, don't know.
I hope that this comes through in my books, that the reader will be surprised and entertained at what sand, an apparently mundane material, has to tell us and what the words 'the desert' mean to us culturally, historically, and in the imagination - and how different the meaning of those words is for all the people for whom the desert is home.
As a geologist, I have been fortunate enough to see diverse and wonderful parts of our planet. Its workings and processes are a never-ending source of fascination, and demonstrate what is intoxicating about science - the provocative conspiracy between what we know and what we don't. All too often, science is presented as done and dusted, whereas the fascination is the vast realm of what we don't know. All too often, we think we know more than we do, and that can get us into trouble. And, being of a certain age, I treasure the time available to enquire into the endlessly compelling amount of stuff that I, personally, don't know.
I hope that this comes through in my books, that the reader will be surprised and entertained at what sand, an apparently mundane material, has to tell us and what the words 'the desert' mean to us culturally, historically, and in the imagination - and how different the meaning of those words is for all the people for whom the desert is home.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 16, 2017
"لن تستطيع جمع الصحراء في كتاب"
يبدأ كاتب هذا الكتاب الرائع العالم الجيولوجي مايكل ويلاند بهذه الكلمات مبرهنًا عظمة وضخامة الصحراء برمالها وصخورها؛ بجبالها وساكنيها، يعارض وبشكل شديد وصف الصحراء بأنها مقفره و وصف سكانها بأنهم متخلفين عن ركب الحضارة، في كتابه هذا يوضح تركيبة الصحاري والكائنات التي تعيش فوقها وتحت رمالها وكيف تتميز كل صحراء عن أخرى حسب بقعتها الجغرافية، الكتاب غيّر مفهومي عن الصحراء وأعاد تعريفها بالنسبة لي، أعجبني جودة الطباعة ونوعية الورق الجيدة والرسومات التوضيحية الملونة
يبدأ كاتب هذا الكتاب الرائع العالم الجيولوجي مايكل ويلاند بهذه الكلمات مبرهنًا عظمة وضخامة الصحراء برمالها وصخورها؛ بجبالها وساكنيها، يعارض وبشكل شديد وصف الصحراء بأنها مقفره و وصف سكانها بأنهم متخلفين عن ركب الحضارة، في كتابه هذا يوضح تركيبة الصحاري والكائنات التي تعيش فوقها وتحت رمالها وكيف تتميز كل صحراء عن أخرى حسب بقعتها الجغرافية، الكتاب غيّر مفهومي عن الصحراء وأعاد تعريفها بالنسبة لي، أعجبني جودة الطباعة ونوعية الورق الجيدة والرسومات التوضيحية الملونة
October 13, 2020
Excellent information on deserts and dry lands. Changed my perspective about deserts. WOW ..!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews