Justin M. Boucher
1
.
Arthus-Bertrand, Yann.
Earth From Above
. New York, NY: Harry N Abrams, 2002.
Earth From Above
is a collection of aerial photographs, which come from all over the world. The photos that appear in the book are high quality, offering aerial views the world over. The book offers students the chance to view the landscape from a novel point of view, and through the eyes of a skilled photographer. The accompanying website also offers a wide selection of photographs.
2. Beck, Roger, Et al. Eds.
World History: Patterns of Interaction
. Boston, MA: McDougal Little, 2003.
Patterns of Interaction
is a World History textbook geared toward high school students. It seeks to offer a view of world history as a series of patterns of interaction, and in some measure succeeds and in some measure fails. Though the book makes a valid effort to avoid becoming Eurocentric, it does not succeed. It also tries too hard at times to fit world history into the narrowly prescribed patterns of interaction it outlines.
It does, on the other hand, offer some fairly comprehensive information on the hunter gatherer lifestyle, which makes it a useful resource for this unit.
3. Cook, David, and David Rubadiri. Eds.
Poems from East Africa.
London, U.K: Heinemann, 1971.
This book is a collection of modern verse from East Africa published in 1971. The editor's stated goal was to provide a representative collection of East African verse. This volume provides a reasonable cross section of East African poetry, including very useful poems by William Kamera, Yusuf O. Kassam, and Rose Mbowa, each of whom deals with the natural environment at least in part. In addition to a modest group of poems describing the natural environment, the book includes poetry on the individual, and civilizations, from both published and previously unpublished writers alike. The book itself is part of the African Writers Series, under the editorial advise of Chinua Achebe.
4. Hayden, Dolores.
The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.
Dolores Hayden's
The Power of Place
deals with the concept of place in two distinct phases. The book begins with an exploration of the philosophical and academic underpinnings of the concept of place. She focuses her first three chapters on urban landscape history, sense of place, place memory, urban politics and urban preservation, successfully creating a solid review of the various influences and debates that surround place, and preservation in an urban setting.
The second part of the book chronicles the noble works of the non-profit The Power of Place. The Power of Place, a non-profit founded by the author made a number of separate efforts to help Los Angeles remember her often tumultuous past. This section offers practical and innovative ideas in terms of place memory and preservation, as they were practically put into action.
5. Hemingway, Ernest.
Green Hills of Africa.
New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1935.
In this book Ernest Hemingway sought to prove that a work of non-fiction could be as big a success in publishing as a work of fiction. Though not as big a success as many of his other works, he has, in some measure succeeded. In this book Hemingway chronicles a hunting trip taken with his father and mother in Africa in the thirties. By and large it is an exploration of hunting and African safari, though it offers some very poignant looks into the man himself. He includes many vivid descriptions of his experiences, including explanations of the natural environment, making this book particularly useful for the purposes of this unit.
6. http://maps.google.com/ , Last accessed July 21, 2005.
Google's maps website offers a wide variety of interactive maps from around the world. These maps are reasonably accurate, and in many cases, offer satellite photographs of the region in question. It is therefore possible to use these maps to view regions, or addresses from above, granting a unique perspective on maps in general and specific areas.
7. http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi&q= , Last accessed July 21, 2005.
Google's image search is one of the best on the internet. It is accessible from all internet ready computers, and provides a wealth of available images for any search. It is particularly useful in educational settings in that it allows students to search for images from pages throughout the web, isolating the images alone.