Book
Along those lines : the boundaries that create our world / Peter Cashwell.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781589880924 (pbk.)
- ISBN: 1589880927 (pbk.)
- Physical Description: ix, 237 pages : map ; 22 cm
- Edition: First Paul Dry Books edition.
- Publisher: Philadelphia : Paul Dry Books, 2014.
Content descriptions
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-234). |
| Formatted Contents Note: | Maps and legends -- State of the union -- Driver's education -- History's greatest monster -- The starting lineup -- The four corners offense -- What God has put asunder -- Time of the season -- Just lines on paper -- Bricks and mortar -- Rock and a hard place -- Parts is parts -- Names will never hurt me -- Rite of passage -- The undiscovered country -- We're not lost -- Epilogue : I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way. |
| Summary, etc.: | After years of crossing borders to see new birds and new landscapes, Peter Cashwell's exploration of lines between states, between time zones, and between species led him to consider the lines that divide genders, seasons, musical genres, and just about every other aspect of human life. His conclusion: most had something in common--they were largely imaginary. Nonetheless, this tour of the tangled world of delineation attempts to address how we distinguish right from wrong, life from death, Democrat from Republican--and how the lines between came to be. Part storyteller, part educator, and part smartass, Cashwell is unafraid to take readers off the beaten path--to the desert vistas of the Four Corners, a quiet breakfast among the redwoods, or a pumping station in Cleveland: something amusing and/or educational awaits at every stop. And he's not alone: the tricks and treats of the human instinct for drawing lines are revealed in interviews with experts of all sorts. Learn about the use of the panel border from a Hugo Award-winning comics creator. Trace the edge of extinction with the rediscoverer of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Get the truth about the strike zone from an umpire with a physics degree. Provided by publisher. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Boundaries > Psychological aspects. American essays. United States > Social conditions > 21st century. |
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BookList Review
Along Those Lines : The Boundaries That Create Our World
Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Birding state-by-state got Cashwell (The Verb To Bird,' 2003) thinking about lines and boundaries geographical, social, scientific, and cultural and the problematic if intriguing divide between concept and reality. A zesty storyteller, creative thinker, and energetic researcher, who chases obscure facts as ardently as dreamed-of birds, Cashwell brings his inquiry into the meaning and influence of lines to the practice of map-making, exploring the role politics plays in creating borders and our insistence on fighting wars over these largely arbitrary divides. Cashwell's love of language and particular interest in naming inform his consideration of how we delineate everything from species to musical genres to the geometries of religious tenets and the demarcations of time. Fascinated by all border skirmishes, Cashwell shares arresting thoughts about our longing for clear categories when it comes to gender and the phases of life as well as natural death and forced extinction. Crossing into sunnier territory, Cashwell enthusiastically, humorously, and shrewdly conducts his line-seeking investigation in the realm of sports and takes a foray into the LEGO craze. Intellectual reveling at its finest.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist
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