Chronicles the destruction of the world's forests as a result of overdependency on wood as a building and energy source, and points out the resultant declining soil productivity, flooding, and depletion of firewood supplies

A Forest Journey: The Role of Wood in the Development of Civilization

Business & Money

Perlin, John

Economics

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity

From Space to Earth tracks the evolution of the technology of photovoltaics, the use of solar cells to convert the sun's energy into electricity. John Perlin's painstaking research results in a fascinating account of the development of this technology, from its shaky nineteenth-century beginnings mired in scientific controversy to its high-visibility success in the space program, to its current position as a versatile and promising power source.

Science & Math

Astronomy & Space Science

Harvard University Press

A contemporary view of the effects of wood, as used for building and fuel, and of deforestation on the development of civilization. Until the ascendancy of fossil fuels, wood has been the principal fuel and building material from the dawn of civilization. Its abundance or scarcity greatly shaped, as A Forest Journey ably relates, the culture, demographics, economy, internal and external politics, and technology of successive societies over the millennia. The book's comprehensive coverage of the major role forests have played in human life--told with grace, fluency, imagination, and humor―gained it recognition as a Harvard Classic in Science and World History and as one of Harvard's "One-Hundred Great Books." Others receiving the honor include such luminaries as Stephen Jay Gould and E. O. Wilson. This new paperback edition will add a prologue and an epilogue to reflect the current situation in which forests have become imperative for humanity's survival. 50 black-and-white photos and illustrations, bibliography, index

A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization

Sports & Outdoors

Countryman Press

The Legacy of Wildness: The Photographs of Robert Glenn Ketchum is the first major retrospective of a world-renowned landscape photographer whose artistry is equaled only by his commitment to the environment. To activist photographer Robert Glenn Ketchum, art and advocacy go hand in hand. Whether depicting the rugged grandeur of the American countryside or the mournful beauty of virgin wilderness violated by progress, his landscapes reject sentimentality. Instead, they document his deep respect and compassion for our irreplaceable natural resources. With a preface by Robert Redford and an essay by distinguished ecologist and author John Perlin, The Legacy of Wildness is a work of great innovation and integrity.

The Legacy of Wildness: The Photographs of Robert Glenn Ketchum

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Aperture

A Golden Thread is a 2500 year history of solar energy, richly illustrated throughout.

Golden Thread: Twentyfive Hundred Years of Solar Architecture and Technology

Butti, Ken

Cheshire Books

From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity tracks the evolution of photovoltaics--the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity via solar cells--from its nineteenth-century beginnings through its success in the space program to its current position as an indispensable, versatile, and largely unrecognized power generator. Perlin details PV's early adoption by the telecommunications, transportation, and oil industries. He examines the spread of solar electricity in both the developed and developing world--from Mali to Manhattan, the South Pacific to Switzerland, the American countryside to the Australian outback. And he tells these stories through the individuals who made them happen, the people who started us down the path to our photovoltaic future. After years of painstaking research, John Perlin has written "the solar success story."

Aatec Publications

Even as concern over climate change and energy security fuel a boom in solar technology, many still think of solar as a twentieth-century wonder. Few realize that the first photovoltaic array appeared on a New York City rooftop in 1884, or that brilliant engineers in France were using solar power in the 1860s to run steam engines, or that in 1901 an ostrich farmer in Southern California used a single solar engine to irrigate three hundred acres of citrus trees. Fewer still know that Leonardo da Vinci planned to make his fortune by building half-mile-long mirrors to heat water, or that the Bronze Age Chinese used hand-sized solar-concentrating mirrors to light fires the way we use matches and lighters today. With thirteen new chapters, Let It Shine is a fully revised and expanded edition of A Golden Thread, Perlin’s classic history of solar technology, detailing the past forty years of technological developments driving today’s solar renaissance. This unique and compelling compendium of humankind’s solar ideas tells the fascinating story of how our predecessors throughout time, again and again, have applied the sun to better their lives and how we can too.

Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy

History

World

New World Library

The definitive history of solar power and technology\nEven as concern over climate change and energy security fuels a boom in solar technology, many still think of solar as a twentieth-century wonder. Few realize that the first photovoltaic array appeared on a New York City rooftop in 1884, or that brilliant engineers in France were using solar power in the 1860s to run steam engines, or that in 1901 an ostrich farmer in Southern California used a single solar engine to irrigate three hundred acres of citrus trees. Fewer still know that Leonardo da Vinci planned to make his fortune by building half-mile-long mirrors to heat water, or that the Bronze Age Chinese used hand-size solar-concentrating mirrors to light fires the way we use matches and lighters today.\nWith thirteen new chapters, Let It Shine is a fully revised and expanded edition of A Golden Thread, John Perlin’s classic history of solar technology, detailing the past forty-plus years of technological developments driving today’s solar renaissance. This unique and compelling compendium of humankind’s solar ideas tells the fascinating story of how our predecessors throughout time, again and again, have applied the sun to better their lives — and how we can, too.

A Foundational Conservation Story Revived Ancient writers observed that forests always recede as civilizations develop and grow. The great Roman poet Ovid wrote that before civilization began, "even the pine tree stood on its own very hills" but when civilization took over, "the mountain oak, the pine were felled." This happened for a simple reason: trees have been the principal fuel and building material of every society over the millennia, from the time urban areas were settled until the middle of the nineteenth century. To this day trees still fulfill these roles for a good portion of the world's population. Without vast supplies of wood from forests, the great civilizations of Sumer, Assyria, Egypt, Crete, Greece, Rome, the Islamic World, Western Europe, and North America would have never emerged. Wood, in fact, is the unsung hero of the technological revolution that has brought us from a stone and bone culture to our present age. Until the ascendancy of fossil fuels, wood was the principal fuel and building material from the dawn of civilization. Its abundance or scarcity greatly shaped, as A Forest Journey ably relates, the culture, demographics, economy, internal and external politics and technology of successive societies over the millennia. The Forest Journey was originally published in 1986 and updated in 2005. The book's comprehensive coverage of the major role forests have played in human life -- told with grace, fluency, imagination, and humor -- gained it recognition as a Harvard Classic in Science and World History and as one of Harvard's "One Hundred Great Books." Others receiving the honor include such luminaries as Stephen Jay Gould and E.O. Wilson. This is a foundational conservation story that should not be lost in the archives. This new, updated and revised edition emphasizes the importance of forests in the fight against global warming and the urgency to protect what remains of the great trees and forests of the world.

A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization

Patagonia

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Perlin, John. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Perlin, John

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Perlin, John. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Forest Journey: The Role of Wood in the Development of Civilization

From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity

A Forest Journey: The Role of Wood in the Development of Civilization

A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization

The Legacy of Wildness: The Photographs of Robert Glenn Ketchum

Golden Thread: Twentyfive Hundred Years of Solar Architecture and Technology

From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity

Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy

Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy

A Forest Journey: The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization