"Limerick is one of the most engaging historians writing today." --Richard White The "settling" of the American West has been perceived throughout the world as a series of quaint, violent, and romantic adventures. But in fact, Patricia Nelson Limerick argues, the West has a history grounded primarily in economic reality; in hardheaded questions of profit, loss, competition, and consolidation. Here she interprets the stories and the characters in a new way: the trappers, traders, Indians, farmers, oilmen, cowboys, and sheriffs of the Old West "meant business" in more ways than one, and their descendents mean business today.
The last frontier: people and forests in Mizoram details the relationship between the people and their environment, and between the environment and development. It is set in Mizoram, one of the seven states of the ecologically complex north-eastern region, a land where society and culture present a fascinating blend of tradition and modernity whose history and polity varies from that of most other parts of India. The book traces the environmental history of Mizoram, beginning in the nineteenth century, through colonial rule and into the post-Independence period. It examines the nature of biophysical resources and the influence of human activities on them. Finally, the management of forests by people and the state is analysed, including a detailed discussion on the system of shifting cultivation. Table of Contents: List of figures List of tables Foreword by Dr T N Khoshoo Preface Introduction: The last frontier Part I: An environmental history of Mizoram Chapter 1: The regime of village republics Settlement in the Lushai hills The supremacy of the village chief Forests: abode of the spirits Shifting cultivation or jhum The influence of people on their environment Parameters of resource use Chapter 2: British occupation of the Lushai Hills Compulsions for conquest Economic importance of the Lushai Hills Instruments of insulation The system of administration The new socio-religious order Ecological implications of political events Chapter 3: Forests and fields: colonial land use policy State control over forests The system of commercial extraction of forest produce Revenue from forests The traders’ lobby Game versus vermin The continuance of shifting cultivation New farming methods The drift of public policy Chapter 4: The creation of Mizoram The route to self rule A limited taste of freedom The struggle for Independence From Union Territory to State Isolation, alienation, and regionalism Public participation in governance Legitimizing shifting cultivation Forests for the people Implications for resource use Chapter 5: The roots of environmental change Religion Education Community relations Growth and distribution of population Occupational mobility Urbanization Land use policies Part II: Management of resources: between people and the State Chapter 6: Physiography, land cover, and land use Geomorphology Land forms Climate Soils Types of vegetation cover Land use Chapter 7: Forests, their form and features The extent of forests Basic characteristics The quality of forest resources The wood and bamboo balance Chapter 8: Keepers of the forest The existence of village forest reserves Norms governing village forests Changes in area of village forests Availability of forest produce Control by the village council Imperatives of local management Forests in the hands of the State The incidence of encroachment Regulating commercial use of forests Afforestation programmes Imperatives of governmental management Chapter 9: How shifting cultivation works The element of collectivity Community management of shifting cultivation Preferred sites for j humming Allotment of jhum plots Clearing the forest Burning Sowing Weeding Harvesting The element of uncertainty Chapter 10: The tenacity of shifting cultivation The village scenario The dependence on shifting cultivation The duration of jhum cycles Levels of productivity Chapter 11: The environmental impact of shifting cultivation The post-jhum ecosystem Effect on biodiversity Climatic change due to deforestation Floods in the plains The role of fire - Soil erosion and run-off Sustainability of productivity Myth, conjecture, and reality Chapter 12: The new land use policy · A review of past strategies · The old New Land Use Policy · The Jhum Control Project · Changes in the New Land Use Policy · The alternative to shifting cultivation Conclusion: People and forests in Mizoram Appendices 1. Reserved tree species in the Lushai Hills 2. Domestic animals killed by wild animals in the North Lushai Hills as reported by village writers 3. The Lushai Hills District (Jhumming) Regulation, 1954 4. The Mizo District (Forest) Act, 1954 5. Socio-economic data of Mizoram 6. Agricultural statistics 7. Distribution of slope categories for select river catchments 8. Physical characteristics of soils in Mizoram 9. Tree species found in major forest types 10. Nature of slopes used in shifting cultivation 11. Percentage shares of land use categories in Mizoram 12. General characteristics of vegetation cover in Mizoram 13. Vegetation cover by strata 14. Growing stock per hectare by strata 15. Percentage distribution of stems per hectare by diameter class 16. Major species contributing to basal area in each stratum 17. Wood and bamboo consumption 18. The existence of village forest reserves 19. Changes in the extent of village forest reserves 20. Availability of trees and bamboos for domestic use 21. Detection of offences committed in safety and supply reserves 22. Revenue from forests 23. Carrying capacity of land under shifting cultivation: Mampui and Sairep village (1962) 24. Jhum cycles in Mizoram 25. Shifting cultivation in sample villages 26. Pattern of secondary succession after jhumming at Burnihat 27. Soil and water losses due to shifting cultivation 28. Farming systems research by ICAR RCNEHR (Shillong) at Burnihat: 1976-89 29. Rice production in Mizoram 30. Promising crops for cultivation in the north-eastern region References Index List of figures 1. The location of Mizoram and the north-eastern region in India 2. Territories occupied by Mizo tribes before the British rule 3. The location of places mentioned in chapter 2 and chapter 3 4. Mizoram: geology 5. Mizoram: rivers 6. Mizoram: soil nutrient status 7. Mizoram: forest reserves List of tables Revenue obtained from the hill areas of Eastern Bengal and Assam, 1903-04 Receipts from forests of the Lushai hills district (in rupees, annas, paise) Number of wild animals killed for which rewards were paid: 1943-44 to 1947-48 Percentage of literacy by sea Percentage distribution of total main workers * (approximate estimate based on 1991 census) Area under different categories of slope The pattern of land use in Mizoram (1987-89) Average soil loss and affected area (estimated for five catchments) Extent of vegetation cover in Mizoram (1975-76) Land use and land cover by thematic mapping (1989) District-wise extent of forest (1987-89) The extent of forests by different sources The extent of vegetation cover by type Growing stock of trees and bamboo by strata Species diversity of strata The legal status of forest Family labour involved in clearing forest Gross village income by source in Hmunpui (1964-65) Output-input ratios of cultivation Early succession at Burnihat and Sesawng Coverage of the New Land Use Policy
Often hailed as the godfather of today’s elite special forces, Robert Rogers trained and led an unorthodox unit of green provincials, raw woodsmen, farmers, and Indian scouts on “impossible” missions in colonial America that are still the stuff of soldiers’ legend. The child of marginalized Scots-Irish immigrants, Rogers learned to survive in New England’s dark and deadly forests, grasping, as did few others, that a new world required new forms of warfare. John F. Ross not only re-creates Rogers’s life and his spectacular battles with breathtaking immediacy and meticulous accuracy, but brings a new and provocative perspective on Rogers’s unique vision of a unified continent, one that would influence Thomas Jefferson and inspire the Lewis and Clark expedition. Rogers’s principles of unconventional war-making would lay the groundwork for the colonial strategy later used in the War of Independence—and prove so compelling that army rangers still study them today. Robert Rogers, a backwoods founding father, was heroic, admirable, brutal, canny, ambitious, duplicitous, visionary, and much more—like America itself.
The Roman conquests of Macedonia in the 2nd century BC led directly to the extension of their authority over the troublesome tribes of Thrace to the south of the Danube. But their new neighbor on the other side of the mighty river, the kingdom of the Dacians, was to pose an increasing threat to the Roman empire. Inevitably, this eventually provoked Roman attempts at invasion and conquest. It is a measure of Dacian prowess and resilience that several tough campaigns were required over more than a century before their kingdom was added to the Roman Empire. It was one of the Empire's last major acquisitions (and a short-lived one at that). Dr. Michael Schmitz traces Roman involvement in the Danube region from first contact with the Thracians after the Third Macedonian War in the 2nd century BC to the ultimate conquest of Dacia by Trajan in the early years of the 2nd Century AD. Like the other volumes in this series, this book gives a clear narrative of the course of these wars, explaining how the Roman war machine coped with formidable new foes and the challenges of unfamiliar terrain and climate. Specially commissioned color plates bring the main troop types vividly to life in meticulously researched detail.
In Star Territory Gordon Fraser charts how the project of rationalizing the cosmos enabled the nineteenth-century expansion of U.S. territory and explores the alternative and resistant cosmologies of free and enslaved Blacks and indigenous peoples.
A monumental work of history that reveals the Ottoman dynasty's important role in the emergence of early modern Europe The Ottomans have long been viewed as despots who conquered through sheer military might, and whose dynasty was peripheral to those of Europe. The Last Muslim Conquest transforms our understanding of the Ottoman Empire, showing how Ottoman statecraft was far more pragmatic and sophisticated than previously acknowledged, and how the Ottoman dynasty was a crucial player in the power struggles of early modern Europe. In this panoramic and multifaceted book, Gábor Ágoston captures the grand sweep of Ottoman history, from the dynasty's stunning rise to power at the turn of the fourteenth century to the Siege of Vienna in 1683, which ended Ottoman incursions into central Europe. He discusses how the Ottoman wars of conquest gave rise to the imperial rivalry with the Habsburgs, and brings vividly to life the intrigues of sultans, kings, popes, and spies. Ágoston examines the subtler methods of Ottoman conquest, such as dynastic marriages and the incorporation of conquered peoples into the Ottoman administration, and argues that while the Ottoman Empire was shaped by Turkish, Iranian, and Islamic influences, it was also an integral part of Europe and was, in many ways, a European empire. Rich in narrative detail, The Last Muslim Conquest looks at Ottoman military capabilities, frontier management, law, diplomacy, and intelligence, offering new perspectives on the gradual shift in power between the Ottomans and their European rivals and reframing the old story of Ottoman decline.
Star Trek was right — there is only one final frontier, and that is space... Human beings are natural explorers, and nowhere is this frontier spirit stronger than in the United States of America. It almost defines the character of the US. But the Earth is running out of frontiers fast. In Brian Clegg's The Final Frontier we discover the massive challenges that face explorers, both human and robotic, to uncover the current and future technologies that could take us out into the galaxy and take a voyage of discovery where no one has gone before... but one day someone will. In 2003, General Wesley Clark set the nation a challenge to produce the technology that would enable new pioneers to explore the galaxy. That challenge is tough — the greatest we've ever faced. But taking on the final frontier does not have to be a fantasy. In a time of recession, escapism is always popular — and what greater escape from the everyday can there be than the chance of leaving Earth's bounds and exploring the universe? With a rich popular culture heritage in science fiction movies, books and TV shows, this is a subject that entertains and informs in equal measure.
By the middle of the fourteenth century, Christian control of the Iberian Peninsula extended to the borders of the emirate of Granada, whose Muslim rulers acknowledged Castilian suzerainty. No longer threatened by Moroccan incursions, the kings of Castile were diverted from completing the Reconquest by civil war and conflicts with neighboring Christian kings. Mindful, however, of their traditional goal of recovering lands formerly ruled by the Visigoths, whose heirs they claimed to be, the Castilian monarchs continued intermittently to assault Granada until the late fifteenth century. Matters changed thereafter, when Fernando and Isabel launched a decade-long effort to subjugate Granada. Utilizing artillery and expending vast sums of money, they methodically conquered each Naṣrid stronghold until the capitulation of the city of Granada itself in 1492. Effective military and naval organization and access to a diversity of financial resources, joined with papal crusading benefits, facilitated the final conquest. Throughout, the Naṣrids had emphasized the urgency of a jihād waged against the Christian infidels, while the Castilians affirmed that the expulsion of the "enemies of our Catholic faith" was a necessary, just, and holy cause. The fundamentally religious character of this last stage of conflict cannot be doubted, Joseph F. O'Callaghan argues.
Newly updated on the hundredth anniversary of the tragedy by Titanic expert Dave Gittins to reflect the latest facts and theories about the ship's sinking, Titanic: The Death and Life of a Legend will fascinate Titanic experts, amateurs, and newcomers alike. In this gripping, deeply researched exploration of the Titanic's tragic sinking, journalist Michael Davie investigates the events, controversies, and legends that have surrounded the disaster. Sifting through historical documents and survivors' accounts, Davie details the nineteenth-century origins of the White Star Line, narrates the story of the "unsinkable" ship's deadly voyage, and describes the dramatic discovery of the Titanic's wreckage in 1985. Davie offers insightful portraits of the protagonists and dramatizes the confusing and terrifying hours that passed from the moment the ship hit the iceberg until its survivors were picked up by the USS Carpathia a full day later.
