Amanpour and Company – Jul 7, 2022
Boris Johnson’s term in office is one of the shortest in post-1900 British history. Whether he has sufficient legitimacy to stay on as caretaker prime minister remains in question. To assess Johnson’s legacy and the historical parallels, historians Simon Schama and Catherine Haddon join the show. Originally aired on July 7, 2022.
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“A Native American rejoinder to Richard White and Jesse Amble White’s California Exposures.”—Kirkus Reviews
Rewriting the history of California as Indigenous.
Before there was such a thing as “California,” there were the People and the Land. Manifest Destiny, the Gold Rush, and settler colonial society drew maps, displaced Indigenous People, and reshaped the land, but they did not make California. Rather, the lives and legacies of the people native to the land shaped the creation of California. We Are the Land is the first and most comprehensive text of its kind, centering the long history of California around the lives and legacies of the Indigenous people who shaped it. Beginning with the ethnogenesis of California Indians, We Are the Land recounts the centrality of the Native presence from before European colonization through statehood—paying particularly close attention to the persistence and activism of California Indians in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The book deftly contextualizes the first encounters with Europeans, Spanish missions, Mexican secularization, the devastation of the Gold Rush and statehood, genocide, efforts to reclaim land, and the organization and activism for sovereignty that built today’s casino economy. A text designed to fill the glaring need for an accessible overview of California Indian history, We Are the Land will be a core resource in a variety of classroom settings, as well as for casual readers and policymakers interested in a history that centers the native experience.
Review
“A Native American rejoinder to Richard White and Jesse Amble White’s California Exposures. . . . [And] a welcome contribution to Native studies and the rich literature of California’s first peoples.” ― Kirkus Reviews
“In what seems an overdue departure from standard histories, Akins and Bauer’s comprehensive account places indigenous people at the heart of California’s story.” ― Boston Globe
“We Are the Land is an astonishing work of scholarship, storytelling, and solidarity. . . . It will set the standard for the many other stories of the People waiting to be told.” ― Sierra Magazine
“Akins and Bauer have written a classic. . . . A relocation of the region’s indigenous peoples from a history based on their erasure to a history based on their preeminence.” ― CounterPunch
“Combines lyrical storytelling with academic narration to foreground Indigenous oral stories. . . . The book’s well-researched micro-histories coalesce to create a necessary rewriting of Californian history.” ― Civil Eats
“This richly sourced work. . . . is a refreshing read, offering a much-needed perspective of California history.” ― CHOICE
“This is a history of personal stories. Many make for painful reading. All are to the point.” ― Geography Realm
“The stories Atkins and Bauer gather in this survey are about the Natives themselves, offering a compassionate reading of a people who have, even in some of the best revisionist studies, remained the ‘other’ on the periphery. The details and voices of California Indians’ lives that the authors amplify from oral histories, primary documents, and secondary sources draw out the drama and recast the history of the 31st state from the perspectives of its First Peoples.”
― The Nation
From the Back Cover
“The colonial assault on California’s Native communities has come in many toxic forms, including the many bad history books that have painted Indigenous Peoples as doomed and now vanished. With We Are the Land, Damon Akins and William Bauer offer a powerful tonic. This masterful history presents the experiences of California Indians as marvelously complex, grounded in land and place, and most of all continuing, from the days of Indian autonomy before the Spanish through the maelstrom of the Gold Rush and on to the conflicted, postindustrial American present. A remarkable and welcome accomplishment, this book will change the way we understand California’s Indians and California’s history.”—Louis S. Warren, author of God’s Red Son: The Ghost Dance Religion and the Making of Modern America
“Damon Akins and William Bauer have succeeded brilliantly in writing the first ever comprehensive history of Native California. Centering Indigenous perspectives and deep connections to place, We Are the Land provides an erudite and moving account of California’s Native peoples as explorers, adapters, workers, visionaries, artists, activists, sometimes victims but always survivors, and an enduring part of California history.”—Jeffrey Ostler, author of Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas
“An ambitious project to reclaim California history as inherently Indigenous. Grounded in land and place, it is not so much a history but rather–and rightfully–histories, interwoven stories of peoples created in and of the land. This is a long-awaited and monumental book.”—Terri A. Castaneda, author of Marie Mason Potts: The Lettered Life of a California Indian Activist
“This book is a must-read for anyone interested in California history. Bauer and Akins have produced a powerful and richly narrated history of the Indigenous experience from time immemorial to the present. From cover to cover, this book values Indigenous voices and knowledge systems to produce an incredibly engaging story of our collective past. We are the Land is high narrative and scholarship at its best!”—Kent Blansett, author of A Journey to Freedom: Richard Oakes, Alcatraz, and the Red Power Movement
“This monumental effort seeks nothing less than reimagining California’s history. It’s an important contribution not only to California but also a template for other regional, national, and global histories. Simply put, this book is a breathtaking, sweeping, and inspiring read.”—Natale Zappia, author of Traders and Raiders and co-author of Rez Metal: Inside the Navajo Nation Heavy Metal Scene
About the Author
William J. Bauer, Jr. is an enrolled citizen of the Round Valley Indian Tribes and Professor of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Damon B. Akins is Professor of History at Guilford College, in Greensboro, North Carolina, and a former high school teacher in Los Angeles.
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The Study of Plants in a Whole New Light
“Matt Candeias succeeds in evoking the wonder of plants with wit and wisdom.” ―James T. Costa, PhD, executive director, Highlands Biological Station and author of Darwin’s Backyard
#1 New Release in Nature & Ecology, Plants, Botany, Horticulture, Trees, Biological Sciences, and Nature Writing & Essays
In his debut book, internationally-recognized blogger and podcaster Matt Candeias celebrates the nature of plants and the extraordinary world of plant organisms.
A botanist’s defense. Since
his early days of plant restoration, this amateur plant scientist has been enchanted with flora and the greater environmental ecology of the planet. Now, he looks at the study of plants through the lens of his ever-growing houseplant collection. Using gardening, houseplants, and examples of plants around you, In Defense of Plants changes your relationship with the world from the comfort of your windowsill.
The ruthless, horny, and wonderful nature of plants. Understand how plants evolve and live on Earth with a never-before-seen look into their daily drama. Inside, Candeias explores the incredible ways plants live, fight, and conquer new territory. Whether a blossoming botanist or a professional plant scientist, In Defense of Plants is for anyone who sees plants as more than just static backdrops to more charismatic life forms.
In this easily accessible introduction to the incredible world of plants, you’ll find:
If you enjoyed books like The Botany of Desire, What a Plant Knows, or The Soul of an Octopus, then you’ll love In Defense of Plants.
Review
“Plants are bulwarks against climate change and the devastating tsunami of the Anthropocene. In his new book, Matt has produced a Bildungsroman mapping not just his journey, but that so many of us have taken to redefine the dynamic of Plant, People and Planet. It’s an irresistible read.”
―Panayoti Kelaidis, senior curator and director of outreach at Denver Botanic Gardens
“For many of us, plants serve as a kind of quiet backdrop to the world’s more compelling biological dramas. Ecologist Matt Candeia shows just how much we’re missing. With wonder and an infectious enthusiasm, he takes readers on a thrilling botanical journey. His book is not merely an impassioned defense of plants, but a full-throated celebration of them.”
―Eric Wagner, author of After the Blast: The Ecological Recovery of Mount St. Helens
“…the whole adventure this vibrant book offers is illuminated by the author’s own eyes-wide-open sense of wonder at the exquisite beauty and stimulating complexity of the natural world.”
―Paddy Woodworth, author of Our Once and Future Planet, University of Chicago Press
“Through his curiosity and intense passion for the natural world, Matt Candeias has neatly constructed in this book a condensation of what it feels to be the consummate plantsperson. Through this writing, as well as through his weekly podcasts, I find myself absorbed by his veneration for the magic and majesty of the floral kingdom in a manner so few are so able to achieve.”
―Daniel J Hinkley, director emeritus of the Heronswood Garden
“[In Defense of
Plants] does a masterful job of bringing in a variety of important and fascinating ecological topics from restoration to biodiversity, and even gets into the weeds on issues such as pollination ecology, mycorrhiza, and plant-animal interactions.”
―Dennis Whigham, senior botanist and founding director of the North American Orchid Conservation Center
“A wonderfully eloquent defense of our fine botanical friends, indeed―authoritative, compelling, and passionate, Matt Candeias succeeds in evoking the wonder of plants with wit and wisdom.”
―James T. Costa, PhD, executive director of the Highlands Biological Station and author of Darwin’s Backyard: How Small Experiments Led to a Big Theory
“This book is an unapologetic celebration of the wonder of plants. And, no matter how many books about plants I’ve read, there were lots of facts that were new to me in Candeias’ book.”
―Botany One
About the Author
Matt Candeias holds
an M.A. in community ecology from SUNY Buffalo State and a PhD in ecology from the University of Illinois. He is the host of the In Defense of Plants Podcast and one of seven authors on Flora: Inside the secret world of plants, a joint publication between the Smithsonian and the Royal Botanical Gargens at Kew. When he’s not tending to his houseplants, find him at yearly botanical talks in garden groups, museums, clubs, and more.
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Transition Studies 