Plants That Changed History

by Joan Elma Rahn

Recounts five episodes from history when the introduction of new plants or plant products, from grains and spices to coal, influenced the course of civilization.

144 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Received her B.S. from Western Reserve University and her M.A. and Ph.D from Columbia. She has taught biology and botany at the university level for a number of years. She lived in Highland Park, Illinois. (from book cover)

Her papers are archived at Western Washington University
http://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/...

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

i've had this book for awhile and i was hoping that it would be an in depth look at a few plants that shaped the history of the world. small enough to gloss over things, but just enough to give some good information.

i was wrong.

this book was written for 8 year-olds. i read "guns, germs, and steel" and that book was real heavy, hard to get into but full of amazing information about how shit came to be. this is like the kids version of that book, except with poor information and really lame generalizations.

the plants that we looked at were coal, potatoes, wheat, breadfruit, and spices.

the breadfruit chapter was really the most interesting and the only thing i had not read anything about before. i'd like to get more info on that.