Details Books Supposing American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon
| Original Title: | American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon |
| ISBN: | 0385521685 (ISBN13: 9780385521680) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award (2008) |
Steven Rinella
Hardcover | Pages: 256 pages Rating: 4.28 | 2809 Users | 302 Reviews
Rendition As Books American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon
From the host of the Travel Channel’s “The Wild Within.”A hunt for the American buffalo—an adventurous, fascinating examination of an animal that has haunted the American imagination.
In 2005, Steven Rinella won a lottery permit to hunt for a wild buffalo, or American bison, in the Alaskan wilderness. Despite the odds—there’s only a 2 percent chance of drawing the permit, and fewer than 20 percent of those hunters are successful—Rinella managed to kill a buffalo on a snow-covered mountainside and then raft the meat back to civilization while being trailed by grizzly bears and suffering from hypothermia. Throughout these adventures, Rinella found himself contemplating his own place among the 14,000 years’ worth of buffalo hunters in North America, as well as the buffalo’s place in the American experience. At the time of the Revolutionary War, North America was home to approximately 40 million buffalo, the largest herd of big mammals on the planet, but by the mid-1890s only a few hundred remained. Now that the buffalo is on the verge of a dramatic ecological recovery across the West, Americans are faced with the challenge of how, and if, we can dare to share our land with a beast that is the embodiment of the American wilderness.
American Buffalo is a narrative tale of Rinella’s hunt. But beyond that, it is the story of the many ways in which the buffalo has shaped our national identity. Rinella takes us across the continent in search of the buffalo’s past, present, and future: to the Bering Land Bridge, where scientists search for buffalo bones amid artifacts of the New World’s earliest human inhabitants; to buffalo jumps where Native Americans once ran buffalo over cliffs by the thousands; to the Detroit Carbon works, a “bone charcoal” plant that made fortunes in the late 1800s by turning millions of tons of buffalo bones into bone meal, black dye, and fine china; and even to an abattoir turned fashion mecca in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, where a depressed buffalo named Black Diamond met his fate after serving as the model for the American nickel.
Rinella’s erudition and exuberance, combined with his gift for storytelling, make him the perfect guide for a book that combines outdoor adventure with a quirky blend of facts and observations about history, biology, and the natural world. Both a captivating narrative and a book of environmental and historical significance, American Buffalo tells us as much about ourselves as Americans as it does about the creature who perhaps best of all embodies the American ethos.
Identify Based On Books American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon
| Title | : | American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon |
| Author | : | Steven Rinella |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 256 pages |
| Published | : | December 2nd 2008 by Spiegel & Grau |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. History. Environment. Nature. Animals. Outdoors. Science |
Rating Based On Books American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon
Ratings: 4.28 From 2809 Users | 302 ReviewsWrite Up Based On Books American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon
This is part adventure book, part hunting book, part history book and all wonderful. Author Steven Rinella not only takes you on his hunt for Buffalo in Alaska, but he gives you all kinds of history on the animal that should be America's national animal. Rinella does a wonderful job in making you feel as though he is sitting across the table from you sharing his story and adventure. One can only imagine a couple of cold beers sitting in front of you.This is a book that I have already read twiceThe book is well written and researched. Rinella provides a lot of information about the American Buffalo from biology, Native American history and culture, to the history of the early western migration. There is also action and adventure as the author goes on a buffalo hunt alone in a National Park in Alaska after winning the hunting lottery. I am amazed at how much information Rinella packed into just under eight hours. If you want to know about the American Bison, this book is for you.I read
Rinella's knowledge of taxonomy, ecology and conservation make this book a must read for all who view themselves as an outdoorsman. American Buffalo provides a great mix of a story of adventure and a story of a lost time and species that we may never see recovered.
We humans have little comprehension and find it difficult to make sensible decisions when we are confronted with what I will refer to as the efficacy of booms. The slaughtering of 50,000 buffalo in a single day or J. Wright Mooar personally killing 25,000 in a lifetime and their virtual disappearance and near extinction is terribly sad. Buffalo/Bison -- Rinella tells us they are genetically one and the same -- ranged from southern Alaska through the 4 western provinces of Canada and 36 states
It wasn't quite the book I was expecting. I had hoped for something a bit more serious and introspective, but despite all the teenage boy style quips, American Buffalo was very enjoyable. It is deeply researched and fans of trivia will find mountains of cool buffalo facts. If you have any interest in the history of the American west, the buffalo or hardcore immersion style hunting, you're likely to really enjoy this book as well.
3.5 that Im rounding up to 4. Not my typical book, but interesting to learn about the history and symbolism of the buffalo, and to learn about hunting (though this 25 year vegetarian streak isnt going to end anytime soon). Well crafted in that the authors narrative and the nonfiction pieces blend together well.
This was definitely one of my favorite books of 2014. Steve Rinella does a marvelous job chronicling the natural history and near extinction of the American buffalo. Part historical reference and part hunting odyssey, this book was fascinating. I loved everything about it.
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