South Africans Versus Rommel

South Africans Versus Rommel PDF Author: David Brock Katz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781928248071
Category : South Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description

South Africans Versus Rommel

South Africans Versus Rommel PDF Author: David Brock Katz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781928248071
Category : South Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book

Book Description


The Desert

The Desert PDF Author: Michael Welland
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1780233892
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
From endless sand dunes and prickly cacti to shimmering mirages and green oases, deserts evoke contradictory images in us. They are lands of desolation, but also of romance, of blistering Mojave heat and biting Gobi cold. Covering a quarter of the earth’s land mass and providing a home to half a billion people, they are both a physical reality and landscapes of the mind. The idea of the desert has long captured Western imagination, put on display in films and literature, but these portrayals often fail to capture the true scope and diversity of the people living there. Bridging the scientific and cultural gaps between perception and reality, The Desert celebrates our fascination with these arid lands and their inhabitants, as well as their importance both throughout history and in the world today. Covering an immense geographical range, Michael Welland wanders from the Sahara to the Atacama, depicting the often bizarre adaptations of plants and animals to these hostile environments. He also looks at these seemingly infertile landscapes in the context of their place in history—as the birthplaces not only of critical evolutionary adaptations, civilizations, and social progress, but also of ideologies. Telling the stories of the diverse peoples who call the desert home, he describes how people have survived there, their contributions to agricultural development, and their emphasis on water and its scarcity. He also delves into the allure of deserts and how they have been used in literature and film and their influence on fashion, art, and architecture. As Welland reveals, deserts may be difficult to define, but they play an active role in the evolution of our global climate and society at large, and their future is of the utmost importance. Entertaining, informative, and surprising, The Desert is an intriguing new look at these seemingly harsh and inhospitable landscapes.

Southwestern Desert Resources

Southwestern Desert Resources PDF Author: William L. Halvorson
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 081655241X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
The southwestern deserts stretch from southeastern California to west Texas and then south to central Mexico. The landscape of this region is known as basin and range topography featuring to “sky islands” of forest rising from the desert lowlands which creates a uniquely diverse ecology. The region is further complicated by an international border, where governments have caused difficulties for many animal populations. This book puts a spotlight on individual research projects which are specific examples of work being done in the area and when they are all brought together, to shed a general light of understanding the biological and cultural resources of this vast region so that those same resources can be managed as effectively and efficiently as possible. The intent is to show that collaborative efforts among federal, state agency, university, and private sector researchers working with land managers, provides better science and better management than when scientists and land managers work independently.

Desert Memories

Desert Memories PDF Author: Ariel Dorfman
Publisher: Disney Electronic Content
ISBN: 1426209029
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
The Norte Grande of Chile, the world's driest desert, had ''engendered contemporary Chile, everything that was good about it, everything that was dreadful,'' writes Ariel Dorfman in his brilliant exploration of one of the least known and most exotic corners of the globe. For 10,000 years the desert had been mined for silver, iron, and copper, but it was the 19th-century discovery of nitrate that transformed the country into a modern state and forced the desert's colonization. The mines' riches generated mansions and oligarchs in Chile's more temperate region—and terrible inequalities throughout the country. The Norte Grande also gave birth to the first Chilean democratic and socialist movements, nurturing every major political figure of modern Chile from Salvador Allende to Augusto Pinochet. In this richly layered personal memoir, illustrated with the author's own photographs, Dorfman sets out to explore the origins of contemporary Chile—and, along the way, seek out his wife's European ancestors who came years ago to Chile as part of the nitrate rush. And, most poignantly, he looks for traces of his friend and fellow 1960s activist, Freddy Taberna, executed by a firing squad in a remote Pinochet death camp.

Terrestrial Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar

Terrestrial Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
As part of a global effort to identify those areas where conservation measures are needed most urgently, World Wildlife Fund has assembled teams of scientists to conduct ecological assessments of all five continents. Terrestrial Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar is the latest contribution, presenting in a single volume the first comprehensive assessment of biodiversity patterns, threats to biodiversity, and resulting conservation priorities across the African continent and its islands. Looking at biodiversity and threats in terms of biological units rather than political units, the book offers a comprehensive examination of African biodiversity across all biomes and multiple taxonomic groups. In addition to the seven main chapters, the book includes twenty essays by regional experts that provide more depth on key issues, as well as nine detailed appendixes that present summary data used in the analyses, specific analytical methodologies, and a thorough text description for each of Africa's 119 terrestrial ecoregions. Terrestrial Ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar provides a blueprint for conservation action and represents an unparalleled guide for investments and activities of conservation agencies and donor organizations.

When the Sahara Was Green

When the Sahara Was Green PDF Author: Martin Williams
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691228892
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The little-known history of how the Sahara was transformed from a green and fertile land into the largest hot desert in the world The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, equal in size to China or the United States. Yet, this arid expanse was once a verdant, pleasant land, fed by rivers and lakes. The Sahara sustained abundant plant and animal life, such as Nile perch, turtles, crocodiles, and hippos, and attracted prehistoric hunters and herders. What transformed this land of lakes into a sea of sands? When the Sahara Was Green describes the remarkable history of Earth’s greatest desert—including why its climate changed, the impact this had on human populations, and how scientists uncovered the evidence for these extraordinary events. From the Sahara’s origins as savanna woodland and grassland to its current arid incarnation, Martin Williams takes us on a vivid journey through time. He describes how the desert’s ancient rocks were first fashioned, how dinosaurs roamed freely across the land, and how it was later covered in tall trees. Along the way, Williams addresses many questions: Why was the Sahara previously much wetter, and will it be so again? Did humans contribute to its desertification? What was the impact of extreme climatic episodes—such as prolonged droughts—upon the Sahara’s geology, ecology, and inhabitants? Williams also shows how plants, animals, and humans have adapted to the Sahara and what lessons we might learn for living in harmony with the harshest, driest conditions in an ever-changing global environment. A valuable look at how an iconic region has changed over millions of years, When the Sahara Was Green reveals the desert’s surprising past to reflect on its present, as well as its possible future.

A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert

A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert PDF Author: Steven J. Phillips
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520219809
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 676

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Book Description
"A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert provides the most complete collection of Sonoran Desert natural history information ever compiled and is a perfect introduction to this biologically rich desert of North America."--BOOK JACKET.

Surviving the Desert

Surviving the Desert PDF Author: Gregory J. Davenport
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 081174468X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
• Travel safely through extreme environments • Find water, dress for the environment, create a campsite, signal, and navigate in the desert • Series author Greg Davenport has appeared on ABC's Primetime Thursday and CBS's 48 Hours The techniques and equipment necessary for surviving in the desert are made more challenging by the intense sunlight, wide temperature range, sparse vegetation, and sandstorms, but Greg Davenport shares how to deal with the toughest conditions. Learn how to avoid insects and snakes. Photos and drawings illustrate gear and techniques necessary for survival in the rough and dangerous terrain.

Revolutions in the Desert

Revolutions in the Desert PDF Author: Steven Rosen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131539992X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Revolutions in the Desert investigates the development of pastoral nomadism in the arid regions of the ancient Near East, challenging the prevailing notion that such societies left few remains appropriate for analytic study. Few prior studies have approached the deeper past of desert nomadic societies, which have been primarily recognized only as a complement to the study of sedentary agricultural societies in the region. Based on decades of archaeological field work in the Negev of southern Israel, both excavations and surveys, and integrating materials from adjacent regions, Revolutions in the Desert offers a deeper and more dynamic view of the rise of herding societies beyond the settled zone. Rosen offers the first archaeological analysis of the rise of herding in the desert, from the first introduction of domestic goats and sheep into the arid zones, more than eight millennia ago, to the evolution of more recent Bedouin societies. The adoption of domestic herds by hunter-gatherer societies, contemporary with and peripheral to the first farming settlements, revolutionized all aspects of desert life, including subsistence, trade, cult, social organization, and ecology. Inviting processual comparison to the agricultural revolution and the secondary spread of domestication beyond the Near East, this volume traces the evolution of nomadic societies in the archaeological record and examines their ecological, economic and social adaptations to the deserts of the Southern Levant. With maps and illustrations from the author’s own collection, Revolutions in the Desert is a thoughtful and engaging approach to the archaeology of desert nomadic societies.

The Living Deserts of Southern Africa

The Living Deserts of Southern Africa PDF Author: Barry Lovegrove
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Where rainfall is meagre and unpredictable, temperatures fluctuate between extreme hot and cold, and food is scarce, it seems that little can survive.