Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Book/Film/Article review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Book/Film/Article review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Book Review Forum: The Arid Lands: History, Power, Knowledge. Diana K. Davis; The Politics of Scale: A History of Rangeland Science. Nathan F. Sayre
AU - Lave, Rebecca
AU - Bassett, Thomas
AU - Mann, Geoff
AU - Robbins, Paul
AU - Batterbury, Simon
AU - Sayre, Nathan F.
AU - Davis, Diana K.
PY - 2019/1
Y1 - 2019/1
N2 - These two books were a pleasure to read. They tackle the history of ideas about regions deemed “marginal,” and the ideas and practices that have kept them so. Sayre and Davis deal, respectively, with misperceptions held about the marginal and arid U.S. West, and global arid lands (with a focus on the Sahara and its fringes). Having lived and worked in southern Arizona, central to Sayre's book, and in the West African Sahel, featured in Davis's work, I can see links between the two volumes, although they target different audiences. They both revolve around the consequences of misconstruing the nature of environments and the actions of peoples in arid lands, power-laden scientific assumptions, thwarted development aspirations, and human responses to aridity.
AB - These two books were a pleasure to read. They tackle the history of ideas about regions deemed “marginal,” and the ideas and practices that have kept them so. Sayre and Davis deal, respectively, with misperceptions held about the marginal and arid U.S. West, and global arid lands (with a focus on the Sahara and its fringes). Having lived and worked in southern Arizona, central to Sayre's book, and in the West African Sahel, featured in Davis's work, I can see links between the two volumes, although they target different audiences. They both revolve around the consequences of misconstruing the nature of environments and the actions of peoples in arid lands, power-laden scientific assumptions, thwarted development aspirations, and human responses to aridity.
KW - Geography
KW - arid lands
U2 - 10.1080/2325548X.2019.1546033
DO - 10.1080/2325548X.2019.1546033
M3 - Book/Film/Article review
VL - 7
SP - 35
EP - 46
JO - The AAG Review of Books
JF - The AAG Review of Books
SN - 2325-548X
IS - 1
ER -