Banner Message
Please note: Due to the renovations happening to the Pritzker building, the bookstore is in a temporary location without full access to the inventory. There might be items that appear online that are not currently accesible to us to ship to you. If you order these items, you will be refunded and the rest of your order will ship. Feel free to contact us with any questions.
Nature
An enduring monument of haunting beauty, the Taj Mahal seems a symbol of stability itself. The familiar view of the glowing marble mausoleum from the gateway entrance offers the very picture of permanence. And yet this extraordinary edifice presents a shifting image to observers across time and cultures. The meaning of the Taj Mahal, the perceptions and responses it prompts, ideas about the building and the history that shape them: these form the subject of Giles Tillotson's book. More than a richly illustrated history--though it is that as well--this book is an eloquent meditation on the place of the Taj Mahal in the cultural imagination of India and the wider world.
Since its completion in 1648, the mausoleum commissioned by the fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, has come to symbolize many things: the undying love of a man for his wife, the perfection of Mughal architecture, the ideal synthesis of various strands of subcontinental aesthetics, even an icon of modern India itself. Exploring different perspectives brought to the magnificent structure--by a Mughal court poet, an English Romantic traveler, a colonial administrator, an architectural historian, or a contemporary Bollywood filmmaker--this book is an incomparable guide through the varied and changing ideas inspired by the Taj Mahal, from its construction to our day. In Tillotson's expert hands, the story of a seventeenth-century structure in the city of Agra reveals itself as a story about our own place and time.
This volume bridges the gap between The Story of My Boyhood and Youth and My First Summer in the Sierra. Muir's editor and biographer, William Frederic Badè, assembled it by drawing upon the decades-old journals kept by the fledgling conservationist and writer as he traversed the many miles. Badè's footnotes appear throughout the book, offering context for Muir's enthusiastic observations, which pulse with the immediacy and freshness of first impressions. Atmospheric black-and-white photographs and sketches complement the text.
"A compelling story of discovery . . . It will change the way you see the world." --Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass In this "phytobiography"--a collection of stories written in partnership with a plant--research scientist Monica Gagliano shares genuine first-hand accounts from her research into plant communication and cognition. By transcending the view of plants as the objects of scientific materialism, Gagliano encourages us to rethink plants as people--beings with subjectivity, consciousness, and volition, and hence having the capacity for their own perspectives and voices. The book draws on up-close-and-personal encounters with the plants themselves, as well as plant shamans, indigenous elders, and mystics from around the world and integrates these experiences with an incredible research journey and the groundbreaking scientific discoveries that emerged from it. Gagliano has published numerous peer-reviewed scientific papers on how plants have a Pavlov-like response to stimuli and can learn, remember, and communicate to neighboring plants. She has pioneered the brand-new research field of plant bioacoustics, for the first time experimentally demonstrating that plants emit their own 'voices' and, moreover, detect and respond to the sounds of their environments. By demonstrating experimentally that learning is not the exclusive province of animals, Gagliano has re-ignited the discourse on plant subjectivity and ethical and legal standing. This is the story of how she made those discoveries and how the plants helped her along the way.
Winona LaDuke is a leader in cultural-based sustainable development strategies, renewable energy, sustainable food systems and Indigenous rights. Her new book, To Be a Water Protector: Rise of the Wiindigoo Slayers, is an expansive, provocative engagement with issues that have been central to her many years of activism. LaDuke honours Mother Earth and her teachings while detailing global, Indigenous-led opposition to the enslavement and exploitation of the land and water. She discusses several elements of a New Green Economy and outlines the lessons we can take from activists outside the US and Canada. In her unique way of storytelling, Winona LaDuke is inspiring, always a teacher and an utterly fearless activist, writer and speaker.
Winona LaDuke is an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe) enrolled member of the Mississippi Band Anishinaabeg who lives and works on the White Earth Reservation in Northern Minnesota. She is executive director of Honor the Earth, a national Native advocacy and environmental organization. Her work at the White Earth Land Recovery Project spans thirty years of legal, policy and community development work, including the creation of one of the first tribal land trusts in the country. LaDuke has testified at the United Nations, US Congress and state hearings and is an expert witness on economics and the environment. She is the author of numerous acclaimed articles and books.
Now in a handsome and newly revised hardcover edition: the extraordinary travelogue that has enthralled readers for more than seven centuries.
Marco Polo's vivid descriptions of the splendid cities and people he encountered on his journey along the Silk Road through the Middle East, South Asia, and China opened a window for his Western readers onto the fascinations of the East and continued to grow in popularity over the succeeding centuries. To a contemporary audience, his colorful stories--and above all, his breathtaking description of the court of the great Kublai Khan, Mongol emperor of China--offer dazzling portraits of worlds long gone.
The classic Marsden and Wright translation of The Travels has been revised and updated by Peter Harris, with new notes, a bibliography, and an introduction by award-winning travel writer Colin Thubron.
In this nature connection and spiritual wellness tool, Dawn Nelson offers a new way of connecting with trees--and in turn the landscape and nature around us--through stories, lore, and sacred symbolism. Tales drawn from around the world (including North America, Africa, Oceana, Asia, South America, and Europe) reveal how these iconic trees have become so significant in human culture. Featuring Native American stories about the famous California redwoods, Norse myths about the mighty oak tree, Incan tales about palo santo, and Middle Eastern folklore about frankincense, Tree Lore covers many continents and cultures. Stunning illustrations capture each tree's unique properties, and an affirmation following each tree's story encourages readers to pause and consider its message, and can be used as a daily meditation tool to find strength in the trees and their ancient wisdom.
In the 1930s, a couple abandons the daily grind for a winters-long trek with native trappers through one of the most remote regions of Canada. While many people dream of abandoning civilization and heading into the wilderness, few manage to actually do it. One exception was 24-year-old Elliott Merrick, who in 1929 left his advertising job in New Jersey and moved to Labrador, one of Canada's most remote regions. True North tells the captivating story of one of the high points of Merrick's years there: a hunting trip he and his wife, Kay, made with trapper John Michelin in 1930. Covering 300 miles over a harsh winter, they experienced an unexplored realm of nature at its most intense and faced numerous challenges. Merrick accidentally shot himself in the thigh and almost cut off his toe. Freezing cold and hunger were constant. Nonetheless, the group found beauty and even magic in the stark landscape. The couple and the trappers bonded with each other and their environment through such surprisingly daunting tasks as fabricating sunglasses to avoid snow blindness and learning to wash underwear without it freezing. Merrick's intimate style, rich with narrative detail, brings readers into a dramatic story of survival and shares the lesson the Merricks learned: that the greatest satisfaction in life can come from the simplest things.
From the New York Times bestselling author of H is for Hawk and winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for nonfiction, comes a transcendent collection of essays about the human relationship to the natural world.
Animals don't exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves.
In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep.
Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk's poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds' nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.
By one of this century's most important and insightful nature writers, Vesper Flights is a captivating and foundational book about observation, fascination, time, memory, love and loss and how we make sense of the world around us.
One of the most influential and compelling books in American literature, Walden is a vivid account of the years that Henry D. Thoreau spent alone in a secluded cabin at Walden Pond. This edition--introduced by noted American writer John Updike--celebrates the perennial importance of a classic work, originally published in 1854. Much of Walden's material is derived from Thoreau's journals and contains such engaging pieces from the lively "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For" and "Brute Neighbors" to the serene "Reading" and "The Pond in the Winter." Other famous sections involve Thoreau's visits with a Canadian woodcutter and with an Irish family, a trip to Concord, and a description of his bean field. This is the complete and authoritative text of Walden--as close to Thoreau's original intention as all available evidence allows.
This is the authoritative text of Walden and the ideal presentation of Thoreau's great document of social criticism and dissent.
Introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Commentary by Van Wyck Brooks and E. B. White
Naturalist, philosopher, champion of self-reliance and moral independence, Henry David Thoreau remains not only one of our most influential writers but also one of our most contemporary. This unique and comprehensive edition gathers all of Thoreau's most significant works, including his masterpiece, Walden (reproduced in its entirety); A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers; selections from Cape Cod and The Maine Woods; as well as "Walking," "Civil Disobedience," "Slavery in Massachusetts," "A Plea for Captain John Brown," and "Life Without Principle." Taken together, they reveal the astounding range, subtlety, artistry, and depth of thought of this true American original.
Henry David Thoreau's Walking began as a lecture in 1851 and ultimately appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in 1862, shortly after the author's death. The impassioned essay, which praises the merits of time spent in nature, has become one of the most influential works of the modern environmentalist movement. Thoreau's view of walking in nature as a self-reflective activity invites readers to embark on their own ramble in order to gain a "wild and dusky" self-knowledge unattainable elsewhere.
Americans felt the pressures of a changing world even in the relatively slow-paced 1800s, and Thoreau proposed balancing social stress with unhurried wanderings in fields and woods. His writings, from Civil Disobedience to Walden, remain popular because of their enduring relevance, and Walking bears a special resonance for modern readers who may have become disconnected from the natural world.
From acclaimed agrarian activist and ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan, a profoundly inspiring account of interspecies belonging, collaborative conservation, and the sacred work of caring for the earth.
"I went looking for water in the desert and found that the world was teaching me how to listen."
Celebrated as a "world visionary" (Utne Reader) and our "lyrical poet of biodiversity" (Mother Jones), Gary Paul Nabhan has authored dozens of books and been awarded a MacArthur "genius grant." In Water in the Desert, he traces the fascinating story of his life, offering in the process a vision for cultural renewal.
As a Lebanese-American boy growing up in the dunes along Lake Michigan's southern shore, where school is excruciating and symptoms of neurodivergence are diagnosed as disabilities, Nabhan finds refuge and revelation in the natural world. In college, he gravitates to the thinkers now associated with the dawn of ecology as a discipline, writes poetry, and travels to Ecuador and Sonora, Mexico, where he first encounters the Indigenous communities that will come to play a significant role in his life and work. His interest in earth-based spiritual practices leads him to take vows as an Ecumenical Franciscan Brother, which reminds him that "the earth itself--creation, for that matter--was the original scripture." Late in life, he returns to the land of his Arab ancestors, where he discovers a vision of kinship and climate resilience grounded in faith and ecology. And finally, when construction of the southern border wall begins, he collaborates with religious leaders to affirm Indigenous rights to the sacred places threatened by construction.
At once a refreshing account of a pathbreaking scientist-activist's kinship with other species and cultures and an inspiring guide to the deeply collaborative ethic and practice of care required to flourish in kinship on Earth, Water in the Desert is a book for our time.
John Burroughs Medal for Distinguished Natural History Book
PEN/Martha Albrand Award Finalist
"[Green's] prose rings with the elemental clarity of the ice he knows so well." --PEN Awards Committee citation
A classic of contemporary nature writing, the award-winning Water, Ice & Stone is both a scientific and poetic journey into Antarctica, addressing the ecological importance of the continent within the context of climate change. Bill Green has been traveling to this remote and primordial place at the bottom of the Earth since 1968. With this book he focuses on the McMurdo Dry Valleys--an area that is deceptively timeless as a stark landscape of rock and ice. Here, Green delves into the geochemistry of the region and discovers a wealth of data, which vividly speaks to the health and climate of the larger world.
Bill Green is a geochemist and professor emeritus at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He first traveled to Antarctica in 1968 and began conducting research there in 1980. He is also the author of Boltzmann's Tomb: Travels in Search of Science.
The books of Eric Sloane celebrate the time-honored traditions of early America and their enduring value. A prolific artist, Sloane created nearly 15,000 paintings and drawings over his lifetime, many of which enhance his delightful books of bygone days.
In The Whale and the Supercomputer, scientists and natives wrestle with our changing climate in the land where it has hit first
--and hardest
A traditional Eskimo whale-hunting party races to shore near Barrow, Alaska-their comrades trapped on a floe drifting out to sea-as ice that should be solid this time of year gives way. Elsewhere, a team of scientists transverses the tundra, sleeping in tents, surviving on frozen chocolate, and measuring the snow every ten kilometers in a quest to understand the effects of albedo, the snow's reflective ability to cool the earth beneath it.
Climate change isn't an abstraction in the far North. It is a reality that has already dramatically altered daily life, especially that of the native peoples who still live largely off the land and sea. Because nature shows her footprints so plainly here, the region is also a lure for scientists intent on comprehending the complexities of climate change. In this gripping account, Charles Wohlforth follows the two groups as they navigate a radically shifting landscape. The scientists attempt to decipher its smallest elements and to derive from them a set of abstract laws and models. The natives draw on uncannily accurate traditional knowledge, borne of long experience living close to the land. Even as they see the same things-a Native elder watches weather coming through too fast to predict; a climatologist notes an increased frequency of cyclonic systems-the two cultures struggle to reconcile their vastly different ways of comprehending the environment.
With grace, clarity, and a sense of adventure, Wohlforth--a lifelong Alaskan--illuminates both ways of seeing a world in flux, and in the process, helps us to navigate a way forward as climate change reaches us all.