1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910794174103321

Autore

Bertness Mark

Titolo

A brief natural history of civilization : why a balance between cooperation & competition is vital to humanity / / Mark Bertness

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven ; ; London : , : Yale University Press, , [2020]

©2020

ISBN

0-300-25264-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (316 pages)

Disciplina

508

Soggetti

Nature and civilization

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Why Natural History? -- 1. Cooperative Life -- 2. Life in the Food Chain -- 3. Taming Nature -- 4. The Triumph and Curse of Civilization -- 5. Resource Exploitation -- 6. Famine and Disease -- 7. Domination versus Cooperation -- 8. Our Ethnocentric, Entheogenic Universe -- 9. Preserving Food and Improving Health -- 10. Civilization on Fire -- 11. Unnatural Nature -- Epilogue: The Natural History of Civilizations -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Illustration Credits -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

A compelling evolutionary narrative that reveals how human civilization follows the same ecological rules that shape all life on Earth Offering a bold new understanding of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going, noted ecologist Mark Bertness argues that human beings and their civilization are the products of the same self-organization, evolutionary adaptation, and natural selection processes that have created all other life on Earth. Bertness follows the evolutionary process from the primordial soup of two billion years ago through today, exploring the ways opposing forces of competition and cooperation have led to current assemblages of people, animals, and plants.   Bertness’s thoughtful examination of human history from the perspective of natural history provides new insights about why and how civilization developed as it has and explores how humans, as a species, might have to consciously overrule our evolutionary drivers to survive future challenges.



2.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910964390703321

Autore

Spurr David <1949->

Titolo

The rhetoric of empire : colonial discourse in journalism, travel writing, and imperial administration / / David Spurr

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Durham : , : Duke University Press, , 1993

ISBN

9780822398646

0822398648

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (224 p.)

Collana

Post-contemporary interventions

Disciplina

809/.93358

809.93358

Soggetti

English prose literature - History and criticism

American prose literature - History and criticism

French prose literature - History and criticism

Travel writing - History

Imperialism in literature

Colonies in literature

Discourse analysis

Rhetoric

Developing countries In literature

English-speaking countries Intellectual life

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages [203]-208) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Surveillance: Under Western Eyes -- 2 Appropriation: Inheriting the Earth -- 3 Aestheticization: Savage Beauties -- 4 Classification: The Order of Nations -- 5 Debasement: Filth and Defilement -- 6 Negation: Areas of Darkness -- 7 Affirmation: The White Man's Burden -- 8 Idealization: Strangers in Paradise -- 9 Insubstantialization: Seeing as in a Dream -- 10 Naturalization: The Wilderness in Human Form -- 11 Eroticization: The Harems of the West -- 12 Resistance: Notes Toward an Opening -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The white man's burden, darkest Africa, the seduction of the primitive: such phrases were widespread in the language Western empires used



to talk about their colonial enterprises. How this language itself served imperial purposes--and how it survives today in writing about the Third World--are the subject of David Spurr's book, a revealing account of the rhetorical strategies that have defined Western thinking about the non-Western world.Despite historical differences among British, French, and American versions of colonialism, their rhetoric had much in common. The Rhetoric of Empire identifies these shared features—images, figures of speech, and characteristic lines of argument—and explores them in a wide variety of sources. A former correspondent for the United Press International, the author is equally at home with journalism or critical theory, travel writing or official documents, and his discussion is remarkably comprehensive. Ranging from T. E. Lawrence and Isak Dineson to Hemingway and Naipaul, from Time and the New Yorker to the National Geographic and Le Monde, from journalists such as Didion and Sontag to colonial administrators such as Frederick Lugard and Albert Sarraut, this analysis suggests the degree to which certain rhetorical tactics penetrate the popular as well as official colonial and postcolonial discourse.Finally, Spurr considers the question: Can the language itself—and with it, Western forms of interpretation--be freed of the exercise of colonial power? This ambitious book is an answer of sorts. By exposing the rhetoric of empire, Spurr begins to loosen its hold over discourse about—and between—different cultures.