Share

The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees

2015-10-29 Nature
Download The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2015-10-29
Genre : Nature
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 523/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees by : Robert Penn

Download or read book The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees written by Robert Penn. This book was released on 2015-10-29. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Penn cut down an ash tree to see how many things could be made from it. After all, ash is the tree we have made the greatest and most varied use of over the course of human history. Journeying from Wales across Europe and Ireland to the USA, Robert finds that the ancient skills and knowledge of the properties of ash, developed over millennia making wheels and arrows, furniture and baseball bats, are far from dead. The book chronicles how the urge to understand and appreciate trees still runs through us all like grain through wood.

The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees: The Ash in Human Culture and History

2016-07-25 Nature
Download The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees: The Ash in Human Culture and History PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2016-07-25
Genre : Nature
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 740/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees: The Ash in Human Culture and History by : Robert Penn

Download or read book The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees: The Ash in Human Culture and History written by Robert Penn. This book was released on 2016-07-25. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of how one man cut down a single tree to see how many things could be made from it. Out of all the trees in the world, the ash is most closely bound up with who we are: the tree we have made the greatest and most varied use of over the course of human history. One frigid winter morning, Robert Penn lovingly selected an ash tree and cut it down. He wanted to see how many beautiful, handmade objects could be made from it. Thus begins an adventure of craftsmanship and discovery. Penn visits the shops of modern-day woodworkers—whose expertise has been handed down through generations—and finds that ancient woodworking techniques are far from dead. He introduces artisans who create a flawless axe handle, a rugged and true wagon wheel, a deadly bow and arrow, an Olympic-grade toboggan, and many other handmade objects using their knowledge of ash’s unique properties. Penn connects our daily lives back to the natural woodlands that once dominated our landscapes. Throughout his travels—from his home in Wales, across Europe, and America—Penn makes a case for the continued and better use of the ash tree as a sustainable resource and reveals some of the dire threats to our ash trees. The emerald ash borer, a voracious and destructive beetle, has killed tens of millions of ash trees across North America since 2002. Unless we are prepared to act now and better value our trees, Penn argues, the ash tree and its many magnificent contributions to mankind will become a thing of the past. This exuberant tale of nature, human ingenuity, and the pleasure of making things by hand chronicles how the urge to understand and appreciate trees still runs through us all like grain through wood.

Trees, Woods and Forests

2014-10-15 Nature
Download Trees, Woods and Forests PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2014-10-15
Genre : Nature
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 155/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis Trees, Woods and Forests by : Charles Watkins

Download or read book Trees, Woods and Forests written by Charles Watkins. This book was released on 2014-10-15. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Forests—and the trees within them—have always been a central resource for the development of technology, culture, and the expansion of humans as a species. Examining and challenging our historical and modern attitudes toward wooded environments, this engaging book explores how our understanding of forests has transformed in recent years and how it fits in our continuing anxiety about our impact on the natural world. Drawing on the most recent work of historians, ecologist geographers, botanists, and forestry professionals, Charles Watkins reveals how established ideas about trees—such as the spread of continuous dense forests across the whole of Europe after the Ice Age—have been questioned and even overturned by archaeological and historical research. He shows how concern over woodland loss in Europe is not well founded—especially while tropical forests elsewhere continue to be cleared—and he unpicks the variety of values and meanings different societies have ascribed to the arboreal. Altogether, he provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary overview of humankind’s interaction with this abused but valuable resource.

Norwegian Wood

2015-10-06 Nature
Download Norwegian Wood PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2015-10-06
Genre : Nature
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 207/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis Norwegian Wood by : Lars Mytting

Download or read book Norwegian Wood written by Lars Mytting. This book was released on 2015-10-06. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A surprise best-seller which, apparently, has the power to turn even the most feeble of us into axe-wielding lumberjacks.” —Independent The latest Scandinavian publishing phenomenon is not a Stieg Larsson-like thriller; it’s a book about chopping, stacking, and burning wood that has sold more than 200,000 copies in Norway and Sweden and has been a fixture on the bestseller lists there for more than a year. Norwegian Wood provides useful advice on the rustic hows and whys of taking care of your heating needs, but it’s also a thoughtful attempt to understand man’s age-old predilection for stacking wood and passion for open fires. An intriguing window into the exoticism of Scandinavian culture, the book also features enough inherently interesting facts and anecdotes and inspired prose to make it universally appealing. The U.S. edition is a fully updated version of the Norwegian original, and includes an appendix of U.S.-based resources and contacts. “A how-to guide as well as a celebration of wood—its scent, its variability, and the way it can connect modern life to simpler times . . . You don’t need to have a wood-burning stove or fireplace to be captivated by the craft and lore surrounding a Stone Age method of creating heat.” —The Boston Globe “The book has spread like wildfire.” —Daily Mail “A how-to book with poetry at its heart.” —The Times Literary Supplement

The Age of Wood

2020-12-01 History
Download The Age of Wood PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2020-12-01
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 754/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis The Age of Wood by : Roland Ennos

Download or read book The Age of Wood written by Roland Ennos. This book was released on 2020-12-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “smart and surprising” (Booklist) “expansive history” (Publishers Weekly) detailing the role that wood and trees have played in our global ecosystem—including human evolution and the rise and fall of empires—in the bestselling tradition of Yuval Harari’s Sapiens and Mark Kurlansky’s Salt. As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a globalized economy? Now, in The Age of Wood, Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been our relationship with wood. “A lively history of biology, mechanics, and culture that stretches back 60 million years” (Nature) The Age of Wood reinterprets human history and shows how our ability to exploit wood’s unique properties has profoundly shaped our bodies and minds, societies, and lives. Ennos takes us on a sweeping journey from Southeast Asia and West Africa where great apes swing among the trees, build nests, and fashion tools; to East Africa where hunter gatherers collected their food; to the structural design of wooden temples in China and Japan; and to Northern England, where archaeologists trace how coal enabled humans to build an industrial world. Addressing the effects of industrialization—including the use of fossil fuels and other energy-intensive materials to replace timber—The Age of Wood not only shows the essential role that trees play in the history and evolution of human existence, but also argues that for the benefit of our planet we must return to more traditional ways of growing, using, and understanding trees. A brilliant blend of recent research and existing scientific knowledge, this is an “excellent, thorough history in an age of our increasingly fraught relationships with natural resources” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

You may also like...