The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Science, Biological Sciences, Horticulture, Nature, Plant Life, Plants
Cover of the book The Cabaret of Plants: Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination by Richard Mabey, W. W. Norton & Company
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Richard Mabey ISBN: 9780393248777
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Publication: January 11, 2016
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Language: English
Author: Richard Mabey
ISBN: 9780393248777
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication: January 11, 2016
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English

"Highly entertaining…Mabey gets us to look at life from the plants’ point of view." —Constance Casey, New York Times

The Cabaret of Plants is a masterful, globe-trotting exploration of the relationship between humans and the kingdom of plants by the renowned naturalist Richard Mabey.

A rich, sweeping, and wonderfully readable work of botanical history, The Cabaret of Plants explores dozens of plant species that for millennia have challenged our imaginations, awoken our wonder, and upturned our ideas about history, science, beauty, and belief. Going back to the beginnings of human history, Mabey shows how flowers, trees, and plants have been central to human experience not just as sources of food and medicine but as objects of worship, actors in creation myths, and symbols of war and peace, life and death.

Writing in a celebrated style that the Economist calls “delightful and casually learned,” Mabey takes readers from the Himalayas to Madagascar to the Amazon to our own backyards. He ranges through the work of writers, artists, and scientists such as da Vinci, Keats, Darwin, and van Gogh and across nearly 40,000 years of human history: Ice Age images of plant life in ancient cave art and the earliest representations of the Garden of Eden; Newton’s apple and gravity, Priestley’s sprig of mint and photosynthesis, and Wordsworth’s daffodils; the history of cultivated plants such as maize, ginseng, and cotton; and the ways the sturdy oak became the symbol of British nationhood and the giant sequoia came to epitomize the spirit of America.

Complemented by dozens of full-color illustrations, The Cabaret of Plants is the magnum opus of a great naturalist and an extraordinary exploration of the deeply interwined history of humans and the natural world.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"Highly entertaining…Mabey gets us to look at life from the plants’ point of view." —Constance Casey, New York Times

The Cabaret of Plants is a masterful, globe-trotting exploration of the relationship between humans and the kingdom of plants by the renowned naturalist Richard Mabey.

A rich, sweeping, and wonderfully readable work of botanical history, The Cabaret of Plants explores dozens of plant species that for millennia have challenged our imaginations, awoken our wonder, and upturned our ideas about history, science, beauty, and belief. Going back to the beginnings of human history, Mabey shows how flowers, trees, and plants have been central to human experience not just as sources of food and medicine but as objects of worship, actors in creation myths, and symbols of war and peace, life and death.

Writing in a celebrated style that the Economist calls “delightful and casually learned,” Mabey takes readers from the Himalayas to Madagascar to the Amazon to our own backyards. He ranges through the work of writers, artists, and scientists such as da Vinci, Keats, Darwin, and van Gogh and across nearly 40,000 years of human history: Ice Age images of plant life in ancient cave art and the earliest representations of the Garden of Eden; Newton’s apple and gravity, Priestley’s sprig of mint and photosynthesis, and Wordsworth’s daffodils; the history of cultivated plants such as maize, ginseng, and cotton; and the ways the sturdy oak became the symbol of British nationhood and the giant sequoia came to epitomize the spirit of America.

Complemented by dozens of full-color illustrations, The Cabaret of Plants is the magnum opus of a great naturalist and an extraordinary exploration of the deeply interwined history of humans and the natural world.

More books from W. W. Norton & Company

Cover of the book CRACK99: The Takedown of a $100 Million Chinese Software Pirate by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book The Courage to Love: Principles and Practices of Self-Relations Psychotherapy by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book The Baby Train and Other Lusty Urban Legends by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book Putting Our House in Order: A Guide to Social Security and Health Care Reform by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book A Change of World: Poems by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book Worried?: Science investigates some of life's common concerns by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Selected Works by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book The Householder: A Novel by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book Freedom and Destiny by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book A Portrait of the Self as Nation: New and Selected Poems by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States by Richard Mabey
Cover of the book Inventing Human Rights: A History by Richard Mabey
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy