Customer Reviews

Lewis and Clark's Green World: The Expedition and Its Plants

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I own many general and technical books with respect to botany and ecology that have been slowly acquired over the past 35 years. I cannot recall any single publication that I have ever enjoyed as much as this one. Dr. James Reveal is a careful, meticulous, knowledgeable, approachable scientist/botanist with a unique understanding of the botany of the western United States in terms of not just its taxonomy but also all of its complex historical nuances. Both of the authors are also excellent photographers and the photographs included rival or exceed the quality of those contained in similar works. The detailed appendix created by Dr. Reveal makes this a botanical reference book that I will continue to use indefinitely, but it is also written in a style and outlined in such a way that the information presented is readily accessible to anyone (i.e. botanical knowledge is not required). In addition to the fascinating information relating to the expedition that this book includes, it is also a monument to Lewis and Clark and the botanical explorers who came after them, many of whom are the true unrecognized "Indiana Jones" heroes of this country, and it also beautifully addresses a topic (botany) that is now being sadly, and much to our detriment, routinely deprecated in importance. Whether your interest is history, plants, people, pretty pictures, or what we may have lost or may be losing, this book is for you.