Here are 2 books that American Bison fans have personally recommended if you like
American Bison.
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Big things have happened long ago and far away. As a kid born into the American Midwest in the Cold War, the world out there seemed like a scary place. But reading was a way to imagine other realities, and from college onward, I have been fortunate enough to encounter people in person and on paper who share their stories if you put in the work and listen. Keeping your ears open, unknown but intelligible worlds of personal contingencies and impersonal forces from other times and places can be glimpsed. How better to begin exploring the communion and conflict than by attending to changes in our practices of eating and medicating?
I grew up hearing about how civilization emerged because of striving to get there, that it was intentional and glorious, a huge progressive step.
Scott is brilliant at showing how living in large, organized groups was an unintended outcome, fragile and precarious and often a failure: not an accident but not willed into being, either. It came from certain kinds of environments, mostly riverine regions that often flooded, where humans could live in larger groups because of grains. Then, as powerful people were able to “tax” the possessors of grain-bearing plants—because they were visible and vulnerable—states emerged.
In other words, Scott shows that our ways of life came from something more like natural law than from any sort of revelation or forethought. The nature of grains did it.
"History as it should be written."-Barry Cunliffe, Guardian
"Scott hits the nail squarely on the head by exposing the staggering price our ancestors paid for civilization and political order."-Walter Scheidel, Financial Times
Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains, and governed by precursors of today's states? Most people believe that plant and animal domestication allowed humans, finally, to settle down and form agricultural villages, towns, and states, which made possible civilization, law, public order, and a presumably secure way of living. But archaeological and historical…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
Kershaw is America's dean of WWII stories. Here, he goes in-depth into George Patton's reliance on, even insistence of, God's help to win the war against Germany in Europe. A memorable portrayal, written in crystal clear prose, and admirably researched.
From Alex Kershaw, author of the New York Times bestseller Against All Odds, comes an epic story of courage, resilience, and faith during the Second World War
General George Patton needed a miracle. In December 1944, the Allies found themselves stuck. Rain had plagued the troops daily since September, turning roads into rivers of muck, slowing trucks and tanks to a crawl. A thick ceiling of clouds had grounded American warplanes, allowing the Germans to reinforce. The sprint to Berlin had become a muddy, bloody stalemate, costing thousands of American lives.
Patton seethed, desperate for some change, any change, in…
