Our Mark on this Land


Book Description

"The Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the very first -- and very successful -- efforts of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidential administration, was created to put unemployed young men to work performing conservation and related activities during the depths of the great Depression while simultaneously striving to restore the bodies, minds, and spirits of the men themselves. During the nine years that the CC was in existence -- from 1933 to 1942 -- more than three million men planted billions of trees, erected hundreds of fire towers, constructed lakes and dams, blazed thousands of miles of trails, planned and graded roads, and built numerous cabins, lodges, shelters, bridges, and other structures. This work of the CCC placed a rich, distinct, and durable imprint on more than 700 local, state, and national parks throughout the United States -- and in the process created a personality of landscape that generations have sine come to recognize and appreciate as an inherent part of their -- and the nation's -- outdoor experience. 'Our Mark on This Land, ' identifies, describes, and provides access information to more than 300 parks spread throughout the United States that provide the best remaining examples of CCC workmanship. As such, it is a treasure trove of destinations at which the living legacy of the CCC may still be experienced -- and ever more at which the living legacy of the CCC may still be experienced -- and ever more at which the living legacy of the CCC may still be experienced -- and ever more fully appreciated for the recreational and historical importance of this program provided all who value and appreciate America's local, state, and national parks" -- p.4 of cover







The Dreamt Land


Book Description

A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil—the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers—the nut king, grape king and citrus queen—tell their story here for the first time. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.







Another America


Book Description

Containing unusual and rarely viewed maps constructed by Native Americans, a vibrant celebration of the Native American culture details significant historical events, people, and places and is accompanied by breathtaking illustrations. Reprint.







Our Land Was A Forest


Book Description

This book is a beautiful and moving personal account of the Ainu, the native inhabitants of Hokkaido, Japan's northern island, whose land, economy, and culture have been absorbed and destroyed in recent centuries by advancing Japanese. Based on the author's own experiences and on stories passed down from generation to generation, the book chronicles the disappearing world—and courageous rebirth—of this little-understood people.Kayano describes with disarming simplicity and frankness the personal conflicts he faced as a result of the tensions between a traditional and a modern society and his lifelong efforts to fortify a living Ainu culture. A master storyteller, he paints a vivid picture of the Ainus' ecologically sensitive lifestyle, which revolved around bear hunting, fishing, farming, and woodcutting.Unlike the few existing ethnographies of the Ainu, this account is the first written by an insider intimately tied to his own culture yet familiar with the ways of outsiders. Speaking with a rare directness to the Ainu and universal human experience, this book will interest all readers concerned with the fate of indigenous peoples.