Although it lacks color pictures, it is by far the most complete listing of edible plants that I've ever seen (over 4000 plants covered) and tells you how to identify and use EVERY part of a plant from the Flower to the Leaf to the Bark to the Root (and any other part that may be usable) If your into long term survival or just want a snack on the trail, this book has it covered.

The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America, by Francois Couplan, Ph.D. is "a reference for all people interested in learning about the numerous opportunities nature offers us in the form of healthful, intriguing, often delicious vegetables and fruits that we do not have to grow to enjoy."

Couplan provides information for approximately 4000 varieties of wild plants, much of it based on his personal experience.

An ethnobotanist, Couplan began writing his Encyclopedia 25 years ago. During that time he traveled extensively, spending "a lot of time in the woods with very little in my backpack, finding my food in the plants I gathered." He took copious notes and presented "wild gastronomy" workshops, while also continuing his academic research and studies.

Plants are listed by their Latin names, however the index includes the common names.

Information for each plant includes a rating of how edible it is, how abundant it is, and where it grows. Etymology of most names are provided also; thus readers learn that dandelion comes from the French words for lion's tooth, because of the shape of the leaves.

Couplan describes how to prepare edible parts of the plant, and how they taste. He also discusses the nutritive values and medicinal properties of each plant. Where relevant, he provides information on other uses, such as dyes, soaps, and basketry. Endangered species are noted. The book does not include illustrations and is not intended for use as an identification manual.

Anyone who has ever wondered if a particular plant could be eaten, or how to harvest and prepare it, will find The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America informative and interesting. People wishing to add a little variety to their diet will find lots of suggestions, and those who use plants for healing will appreciate the medicinal details.

This book is big and almost too thorough. It really is like an encyclopedia. It includes lots of plants which are only marginally edible and hard to find. On the other hand, you will have a hard time finding an edible plant out there that is not listed. There are some illustrations, but they are not useful for identifying the plants -- you will definitely need a field guide if you are just getting started and don't know much about identification. The book is interspersed with historical information and anecdotes which add a lot to the whole picture of a plant, as well as making it a bit easier to remember. This book is best read in tandem with another book that takes the topic from a different perspective.

Tom Engelhardt's The End Of Victory Culture is a thought-provoking, historical look at how the concept of defeating a less-than-human enemy was part of American culture. Ingrained in that was the mission to defeat that enemy. The trouble was, the enemy was human, be they the Native Americans the colonists and later the American government displaced. We also had this mindset that we were always on the right and they were always wrong, therefore, they had to be defeated.

One element was to exaggerate the atrocities committed, meaning that yeah, some of it happened, but not in the large scale depicted by the white leaders to drive home the point that we had to kill these unholy, ungodly, . Colonist Mary Rowlandson's accounts on her captivity and the massacre she survived was the archetypal demonizing of the "enemy."

Victory culture nestled itself cozily in new visual media--the movies and television. Basically, the enemy performed some horrible atrocity on innocent whites, and it was up to the heroes to punish the enemy. The enemy would be defeated, more often than not killed, and everybody would live happily ever after. Straight and simple. It was in straight black-and-white (the issues as well as the early programs before colour TV and film came into being).

Engelhardt argues that between 1945 and 1975, the ends of WW2 and Vietnam respectively, that victory culture ended
Pearl Harbor gave plenty of opportunity to dehumanize the Japanese as an enemy, along with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

The Cold War was where it all went into overdrive. The Communists were now the enemy, and that paranoid ideological struggle into the unknown carried through not only into Korea and Vietnam, but into movies, TV shows (Twilight Zone), comic books (Tales From The Crypt, MAD), and even toys (GI Joe).

A new dynamic also came, of the enemy hiding behind some citadel or bunker, such as the Forbidden City or Kremlin, with only large posters of the leader representing the human face of the enemy. Thus the enemy couldn't be destroyed.

Vietnam demonstrated once and for all that we were fallible, and for a while, we were in a funk. And with My Lai, WE became the massacring enemy, the Vietnamese the colonists. The concept of victory culture was turned on its head with that event. And think about it: we lost Vietnam for the same reasons the British lost the American War for Independence. History has come full circle to America.

This book came out in 1995, and early on in the book, Engelhardt makes a well-worn but important point: "with the end of the Cold War and the loss of the enemy, American culture has entered a period of crisis that raises profound questions about national purpose and identity." Ponder that passage, and what's going on today in the world.

The main thing to ask today is, do we really need to have an enemy and a war to unite the people together? Peace and harmony can do the same thing. We do not need victory-for-one-side culture anymore. What we need is victory-for-all culture.

I've spent 2 years reading on this topic for my dissertation. This is far and away the best book on the subject - full of insight and wonderfully written.

"Is there an imaginable 'America' without enemies and without the story of their slaughter and our triumph?" (p. 15) This is the question at the heart of Engelhardt's remarkable blending of popular culture studies and military history.

In its outline, the thesis is straightforward: a long-established racially-exclusive national myth of bloody but righteous American retaliation to treacherous foes unraveled in the three decades after World War II. The new limited war strategies of the nuclear age forced awkward "containments" of this myth. The battlefields of Asia and, in particular, of Vietnam, led to "reversals," in which increasing numbers of Americans came to conclude that the familiar patterns that had helped to define national identity had been turned upside down. It is in the details of his argument that the author is at his best, making unexpected but genuine links between Mr. X (George Kennan) and Malcolm X; between the Mary Rowlandson captivity narrative of 1675 and the My Lai massacre of 1968; between the Strategic Air Command and Rod Serling; between V-for-victory signs and peace signs; between Chewbacca and Edward Teller; between Charles Manson and 1950s comic book culture.

Engelhardt brilliantly explores the complex connections between the games of American children and the broader national culture. That Engelhardt himself, born in 1944, was embedded in the post-war childhood culture is simultaneously a source of the book's greatest strengths and its greatest weaknesses. On the positive side, he draws upon autobiographical reminiscence in an understated and thoughtful manner. At times, however, he risks confusing the disillusioning of a generation (his own) with the end of what he calls "victory culture." The myth of American innocence is indeed a powerful one, but Engelhardt perhaps exaggerates its coherence and pull in the pre-December 7, 1941 world. The boundary lines of any national story are always fluid, and it was not only the Civil War that tested these boundaries in earlier eras. I also wonder whether it may be too soon to conduct post-mortems on victory culture. Engelhardt sees efforts to reinvigorate the tales of American exceptionalism in the post-Vietnam decades as tortured and ineffective. His comments about yellow ribbons, POWs, and new myths of victimization are intriguing, but my sense is that the metaphorical circling of the wagons will continue. Americans are not yet ready to see themselves as part of a vast human comedy.

This is a delightful, delicious book filled with special grace & insights & voices of many special individuals. We have used so many of these fine recipes over & over again, & always think of the sources & festivals from which they've come to us. Here are deep insights into the Native American cultures & their cuisines - deliciously shared & reverently presented! Wow!

This seasoned author has given us another GREAT BOOK on the earthy subject of American Indian foods and foodways! ENDURING HARVESTS is a delicious classic from a considerate culinary historian. As I re-read ENDURING HARVESTS again & again, I am taken with its depth & details of character & voices (& recipes) from many gracious American Indians. What a nice gift!!!

Because this cookbook is presented almost as a calendar, the recipes are not only cultural but seasonal. I have tried many of the recipes and they are delicious--try it.

One of the greatest Ethio-Eritrean history books I have ever read. I am still not sure if Tekeste Negash is Ethiopian or Eritrean (or both) but never mind! He's redefined what it means to be objective.

The book is an exceptional experience in the way it gives extensive bibliography. Interestingly, Prof. Negash spends most of the time giving out footnoted facts than his perceptions/analysis of the past, but he does an excellent job at sequencing the facts in such a way that paints a focussed picture to the reader. He says his views without actually saying them, but through a series of facts, which makes a richer readship.

The book is laden with names, acronyms, dates and figures, but it still makes an easy read. For those interested in detailed facts and further reading, it has extensive indices in the end, and numerous footnotes on every page.

One of the most amazing moments is the end of this book, which basically predicated the 1998-2000 war one year ahead. The book was published in 1997. I read the book in 1999, but i remember the moment when i first heard about the warm-up bombing tag between the two countries in 1998. I was struck speechless by news I could have sworn unfathomable. However, his understanding was unline any other, I have the more respect for him for that.

He illustrates mistakes made on both sides. He shows their follies and justifications indiscriminately. In the end, like one reader already pointed out, the reader will just end up questioning politics and admiring ethio/eriteran civilians, their patience and tolerance of the 40-something year madness, and admiring them for coming out of it still with human values.

This book is a product of a person who does not know what he is saying. Please nobody should weast his time reading this ethiopist ideas.

Excellent presentation. The book focuses more on passing on facts (excelent footnotes and appendix) to the reader than giving analysis of events and their significance from the author's point of view. It definitely sheds a new perspective of the beginning of the Ethio-Eritrean war. There is not much about TPLF, but there's an interesting coverage of rise and fall of ELF and the rise of EPLF. As strange as it may sound, the book also makes you appreciate that the war was carried out as it was. It makes you appreciate the Ethio-Eritrean civil society.

The Fast Red Road is the kind of novel that makes you want to write, and drive, and read more of Jones' work. The prose is clear and uninhibited, and never takes itself too seriously. A syllabus in Jones' class at Texas Tech is more entertaining than most books on the bestseller list; his fiction is remarkable.

The Fast Red Road is a wild ride that moves beyond postmodernism into something totally new. This is a fun, fast, read that sticks with you after you are finished. Young authors like Jones give us a reason to be excited about the future of literature.

This is probably the best novel I have ever read. Jones' style in this book is very much akin to Pynchon's in The Crying of Lot 49, except more sonically tasty. The plot jumps out at you in complex imagery that mirrors this linguistic free-for-all (I read this book with more than one dictionary at hand). Like Joyce, it's very tough to get a hold of mentally, but, in the end, well worth it. Anyone interested in contemporary fiction does themselves a disservice by not reading this book.

I loved this book. I laughed and cried. I found out everything I wanted to know about the Rice Diet at Duke University. It was full of insight and validation for everyone who struggles with their weight. Finally a book that doesn't preach but chronical the problems we face and the culture in Durham where I'd love to be able to go and try the Rice Diet. I like it so much that I sent Jean an e-mail and she said that she is working on a second book. So until then I'll just have to re-read this one.

This book is simply wonderful. For years I felt that no one understood what I have been going through and then I found this book. I laughed, I cried, I got angry and many points made me happy. If you have ever struggled with you weight this book lets you know that you are not alone. Just go out there and DO IT!

This unusual and well written book is about real people and their struggles with obesity and the resulting ostracizm and prejudices from a society obsessed with thinness to the point of anorexia. It provides re-telling of interviews with people attending the Rice Diet House in Durham, North Carolina, and it shows how their common bond of being fat has created a subculture that provides support to their kind in an otherwise rather hostile world. For them the Rice House is the place of last reort after failure of all other approaches to diet. The Rice diet is the oldest successfull program still in existance and doing good.This book is very informing and a delight to read because it is real and not the usual hype used by the sellers of diet programs.

Mickel's book is a treasure for fern-lovers. The opening chapters cover technical aspects of fern biology and propagation - but only to the extent necessary to familiarize the gardener. This is not a book written for botanists. The rest of the book is a description of fern species suitable for temperate gardens of North America. The information and advice is sound and the descriptions are strewn with gorgeous color photographs.

There is some good bibliographical information in the back and some contact information that might be dated, but is useful nonetheless.

This book has excellent photographs and drawings, and describes in great detail the may species of ferns. The beginning of the book is technical, and defines the structural differences between fern types, how to recoginize the parts of a fern, etc. Anyone interested in growing wild or nursery-grown ferns should have this book in their collection. It will allow you to identify the ferns you have, or see in the forests.

John Mickel writes on ferns of the world that can be grown in American gardens. He writes first and foremost on how to grow any and all of the many ferns he describes and illustrates. This is not only accurate, it is almost a necessity for the fern or shade gardener.

This is excellent reading at home and on the go. You'll want to buy two of these just so you have one at home, and one you can really rough handle on the road. :) If you're into medicinal herbs or you just love knowing what's what out in the wild, this guide is number one! A MUST! You need it now.

This book was so fabulous, in fact, I give it more than five stars, I give it twenty! It is because of this book that I now want to be an ethnobotanical chemisist. This book has such pep and drive, just the Introduction and Preface make you want to go outside start a weed garden, picket the FDA, and go to college for seven years to get your degree in botanical chemistry. You don't believe me, but I'm serious. READ THIS BOOK! If not the whole book, at least the Introduction and Preface. It'll give you SO much energy.

This is one of the better field guides available for identifying and determining the usefulness of many medicinal plants found commonly in the Eastern and Central US. This guide is recommended for beginners and experienced medicinal plant enthusiasts alike. A must have book for the novice in this field.

What can i say. I have numerous books on the subject and this one, like all the others books written by Turner, are top ranking. With detaild information on how the plants were used by indiginous people.

This book is really impressive. It has a lot more information than a standard "pocket guide" book. There are numerous food sources in this book that i have never seen in other similiar books. an example: this book explains in detail how native americans harvested the inner bark (cambium) of the western hemlock to make a flour like substance. I have never read this in any other plant books. The book also includes information on how to prepare the food in traditional ways, as well as stories related to particular plants. All in all, this is probably the best book I know of concerning edible wild plants in the pacific northwest.

This richly illustrated book details over 150 plant species used by First Peoples/Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest Interior.

Revised and redesigned for easier use, this handbook includes detailed botanical descriptions and notes on habitat and distribution.

Groups covered are the Stl'atl'imx (Lillooet), Secwepemc (Sushwap), Nlaka'pamux (Thompson), Okanagan, Ktunaxa (Kootenay), Tsimshian and Athapaskan groups in the north, and others in northwestern U.S.A.

Nancy Turner explains how aboriginal peoples harvested, prepared and preserved the roots, leaves, fruits and other parts of wild plants. She also describes some non-native food plants used by interior peoples and several species they considered poisonous or inedible. Color pictures enhance descriptions and make identification easier.

Lois Ellen Frank conveys great passion for Native American culture in this book. An obviously well deserved win of the James Beard award. A wonderfuly delicious, colorful and informative writing on American Indian Foods!

This is a great book for reading about the history of the many foods mentioned. The cover the book is actually different from the one shown on Amazon.com (and even more beautiful). If you are thinking about visiting anywhere in the Southwestern United States, this book will tell you something about the delicious foods native to the area. The photographs are outstanding and well worth the cost of the book. You don't have to be a cook to enjoy the foods and stories portrayed here.

It is easy to cook from these recepies and they work! I can't put this book down; it is so gloriously photographed and with such artistry and respect for Native American culture. Even those with no interest in food, will relish the photographs. The food is modern and healthful and edible.