Customer Reviews

Grassland: The History, Biology, Politics and Promise of the American Prairie

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I grew up in Iowa and was given this book a few years ago while living in Manhattan, Kansas. I now live near Fresno, California. Manning starts out by saying that he intended to write about science, politics, and journalism, and ended up with a more personal narrative. To which I say, "of course". This book seemed to me to flesh out for me how patterns of rainfall profoundly influenced the ecology, agriculture, and ultimately the societies of the various places I've lived. For one interested in these issues, I would further suggest (in this order) Wallace Stegner's "Beyond the 100th Meridian", Wes Jackson's "New Roots for Agriculture", Judith Soule and Jon Piper's "Farming in Nature's Image: an Ecological Approach to Agriculture", Ian Frazier's "Great Plains", and Aldo Leopold's "Sand County Almanac". But this book is an excellent start.

First and most important, this book will change the way you think about the American prairie. I live here at the edge of the prairie near Indianapolis, and there are a few spots maintained as native prairie. Manning isn't talking about these little islands but about a huge, free ecosystem and the horrors that we have inflicted upon it and its fauna and flora. I confess that the image of grizzlies chasing elk calves across the grassland is beguiling, and illustrates what we are missing. He makes a persuasive case that we need lots and lots and lots of grassland, maintained as such. Manning has a good story-telling sense, and a good eye for explaining the grassland. You will not look at the prairie in the same way again.

There are some nicely provocative bits. His vision of the prairie rests on bison ranching, with the animals eating native grasses without irrigation, fertilizer, or other capitalist agriculture. As if that's not controversial enough, he makes a serious case that a meat-and-leather prairie economy rests easier on the land than food crops such as wheat or corn. These crops have destroyed the prairie and harm the broader environment because of the extensive irrigation and fertilization required. Obviously, this strategy of making our agriculture conform to the land instead of forcing the land to conform to our agriculture would be a major change for Americans and others around the world..

Manning is not afraid to take the next logical step, and he makes a principled argument against vegetarianism. Eating free-range bison raised on natural grasslands, he argues, would sit more lightly on the ground and would probably use less (petroleum-based) energy. This is not your conventional environmentalist, to say the least.

Despite those strengths, the book is weakened by a modest number of trivial errors of fact. These come in sidebar comments about irrelevant matters and have nothing to do with grassland, so I'd rather not list them here. They did make me question the accuracy of his reporting on grassland, though. I wouldn't rely on this book as your sole source of facts, but Manning's vision and wonderful writing make it an invaluable book nonetheless.

I found this book terrific. Manning taught me much about the biology of the great American prairie, or what's left of it, as well some of the ways to save it. Unlike other conservationist writers or thinkers, Manning puts a human angle on the subject, pointing out the personal and societal (political, economic) issues. Importantly, though, he spins this tale with an almost poetic quality that is accessible to all levels of readers. He also challenges some of the conventions of some parts of the environmental movement that is refreshing, uplifting and quite meaningful and relevant to all levels of ecological protection.

Reading Grassland was one of the best things I have done in a long time. The book will cause one to rethink the manner in which North American agriculture occurs and to question one's role in the web of life. It has caused me to question my being a vegetarian and is simply a profound work. The novel is truly enlightening, I highly recommend that everyone read it.

I have encountered few books like Richard Manning's Grassland. Manning's manifesto - reserved for the final chapters - is audacious, even quirky. Grassland's subtitle, The History, Biology, Politics, and Promise of the American Prairie, suggests a reasoned, broad-based analysis, and that is what Richard Manning provides. Nonetheless, his conclusions are breath-taking in their originality. My initial skepticism remains, but Manning does have me thinking about his proposal. Maybe, just maybe, he is on the right track.

The mountain wildernesses with their "charismatic megafauna", deserts, wild rivers, forests, seashores, and wetlands have little difficulty attracting environmental advocates, but how do the grasslands, the largest single biome in North America, fit into this picture?

Manning is slow to unfold his unorthodox proposals, preferring first to educate his readers. Thankfully, Manning's style is more narrative and anecdotal than pedagogical. His topics are wide ranging: Indian cultures, exotic weeds, Pleistocene extinctions, Jefferson's agrarian theory, disappearing aquifers, buffalo hunting, and industrialized farming.

Manning has definite opinions, but he is surprisingly fair; he clearly outlines and explains contrary ideas. I questioned some of his interpretations and occasionally even his facts, but all in all Manning's thesis appears credible.

I had some qualms about revealing Manning's manifesto in absence of his preparatory discussions. Even in context, his proposals are unexpectedly original. With caution, I proceed:

Richard Manning advocates eliminating large scale, industrialized farming and cattle ranching on America's extensive arid and semi-arid grasslands. Intensive single crop farming, largely wheat and corn production, is replaced by lower impact, multi-crop farming restricted to areas requiring less irrigation. Extensive irrigation stops. Intense fertilization stops. Land management concepts change. Free roaming bison replace cattle in the food chain. Non-native grasses that have largely displaced native species are eliminated.

Grassland is an exceptionally interesting book. As an earlier reviewer noted, Grassland will change the way we think.

Part autobiographical (Manning writing about his travels around the nation learning about prarie restoration efforts), part biology textbook (telling about the types of flora & fauna that developed on the praries over time- and what has become of them),and part history ( the story of human involvement with the ecosystem).
Mr. Manning writes about the effects humans have had on the grasslands over the centuries, most of the really bad part coming since the railroad days and what is being done to remedy the effects of agricultural and other practices not really suited to the Plains. There is quite a bit of science in his writing, but it isn't too complicated, and a lot of opinion too. Manning does favor the use, in some cases, of chemicals to battle foreign plant species. He doesn't have much use for modern grain farming (not suited to the normal moisture patterns or maybe even the terrain) and considers beef cattle far too destructive for the land (he describes some of the effects the herds have had on the land- and what the buffalo(he favors hunting them but not to extinction) were like). He mentioned that while the old free range cattle ranching was harder on the environment that the buffalo herds (I think he advocated returning them) at least it was better than the current fenced in, likely to overgraze system.
I especially appreciated the details of how the buffalo herds were hunted down in the 19th century.
If the science is even half right (I feel that it probably is) something needs to be done to restore things in the Plains. I know that I've read in agricultural magazines that the west is experiencing a severe, and growing, groundwater shortage. You won't get the country to admit it ( he writes about the special interests) but so much of the land out there isn't suited for anything past what nature was doing with it we need to work with nature, not against it.
Anyone interested in the western grasslands and/ or the buffalo should consider getting a copy of this book.

I picked up this book on a whim from The Book Thing of Baltimore, where I work as a volunteer shelving donated books so our patrons can find what they want (we give away books for free). Its cover caught my eye. I am so glad I did, because what I found was a fascinating and gripping book on something I never had really given two thoughts to: America's grasslands.

At first I wondered how on earth you could write an entire book about grassland. Now I wonder how he managed to fit so much information in such an easy to digest book. Manning is not just passionate about conservation (and the right kind of conservation), he's a tremendously writer as well, and he weaves the story of middle America's lands into an amazing tapestry. You can tell his point of view on all of the subjects, but he doesn't let it interfere with the quality of the work -- he does not demonize "the bad guys," but portrays them as normal humans struggling to survive. Somehow he starts off with very early ecological history, the beginnings of human civilizations in northern America, and ends up with modern day efforts to bring back the grasslands and all the while keeping the story lively and the reader interested.

I highly recommend this book. It will open your eyes.

This is a marvellous book, which weaves great writing and a clear-eyed analysis of environmental and land use issues into one hell of a story. Manning's use of anecdote and curious historical tales to tell his story about grass makes reading Grassland a great pleasure. His solution to the problems faced by America's prairies, while perhaps a bit `crackpot,' deserves serious thought.

3.0 out of 5 stars Compelling story, beginning to show its age, August 13, 2009
By Stacey A Schulte - See all my reviews
I read this book in two sittings, that means it was well written. I'm a huge fan of Manning's other book "Against the Grain". That being said, there are minor factual errors, and perhaps could be updated with a new addition.

Roadside restorations have been a huge success. As has Holistic management on ranches. Grass-fed beef has become a mantra of the Slow-food and local food movement. While I found the story convincing, I would have liked to see more information on bringing the other herbivore back, the elk. I also would have like to hear more about the effects bringing bison back has on the land. The time scales and land values would be important information. While Manning briefly touches on this subject, he does so almost second hand. He relates a conversation with Ted Turner's Ranch Manager.

The botanists and other conservation biologists are not consulted on the bison issue, but rather only on the difficulties of exotic species and prairie restoration. However most of these are nit-picks of a well-informed reader. Its doubtful these flaws will show up to most readers.

A couple of interesting caveats too. I finally learned why we call a dollar a buck. I suspect parts of this book will be added to anthologies of the modern land movement. It is a well-written example of creating defining the need for a story. A story is necessary to define ourselves within the landscape. More than this book is about prairie, it is a book about our story as Americans.

This is just a wonderful book on a part of our country that is "foreign" to many.I have recently been preparing a program on photograghy of the Great Plains and it"s as though the information in Grasslands is an answer to my prayer.It is literally packed with so much material so well presented that it should be required reading for all of our children and POLICY MAKERS IN GOVERNMENTS {particularly our current administration!!}.