Category: Reviews
-
The Black Birders Who Made White Ornithologists Famous
in ReviewsNancy Jacobs’ new book uncovers how African birders and vernacular birding knowledge helped build European imperial science.
-
Ursula K. Heise Thinks Beyond Melancholy: A Review of “Imagining Extinction”
in ReviewsExtinction stories have a flavor, and it tastes like melancholy. A new book asks what different narratives we could bring to the table.
-
Al Gore and the Global South: A Review of “An Inconvenient Sequel”
in ReviewsClimate change advocacy requires finding common ground. Al Gore’s new documentary highlights the importance of listening to the Global South to find solutions.
-
Seeds as Time Capsules
in ReviewsWhen Courtney Fullilove looks inside a seed, she sees Mennonite farmers, Comanche agriculture, and Echinacea patents. Her new book, “The Profit of the Earth,” shows that the genes of a seed can narrate the history of American empire.
-
Black Branding and Gentrification in Washington, D.C.
in ReviewsWho should be allowed to brand a neighborhood? A review of Derek Hyra’s new book, “Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City,” examining transformations in the Shaw/U Street neighborhood of the nation’s capital.
-
Toxic Bodies and the Wetter, Better Future of “Mad Max: Fury Road”
in ReviewsMost Hollywood catastrophe films offer neat endings and the promise of a fresh start. Fury Road asks what happens when the broken world cannot be made whole.
-
Environmental Resentment on the Political Right
in ReviewsWhen is political resentment legitimate, and who gets to decide? Two recent books examine the emotional world of politics in rural Wisconsin and Louisiana.
-
Humility and Hubris: A Review of Luc Jacquet’s “Ice and the Sky”
in ReviewsEven with the impacts of the Anthropocene, it would be hubristic not to realize that ice and sky will far outlast anything so puny as humanity.
-
The Truthiness of Nature Films: A Review of Perrin and Cluzaud’s “Seasons”
in ReviewsThe makers of “Winged Migration” return with a new film that challenges viewers’ expectations of authenticity in nature documentaries.
-
Review: Adam Trexler’s Anthropocene Fictions
in ReviewsA new book surveys 150 novels about climate change and makes the case for the virtues of cli-fi.