Boom and Bust
Bird Stories for a Dry Country
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312 pages, 195 x 130 mm |
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Description | Features | Sample | Reviews | Author Information | Related Titles
Description
Winner of the Whitley Medal for 2009
The 10 stand-alone chapters recount history and the authors' personal experiences of a particular bird species and their strategies for survival in the ever-changing climate of Australia. Above all Boom and Bust is full of well-documented science that includes the ecology of the birds and the environment they inhabit.
The contributing authors are pre-eminent in their fields and clearly have passionate relationships with the birds:
- Graham Pizzey – the black-tailed native hen and the Barcoo bantam
- Steve Morton – the zebra finch
- David Roshier – the grey teal
- Julian Reid – the Australian pelican
- Penny Olsen – the night parrot
- Mike Smith – Genyornis
- Deborah Bird Rose – Rainbirds
- Leo Joseph – the woodswallow
- Robert Heinsohn – the white-winged chough
- Libby Robin – the emu.
Listen to Libby Robin interviewed on ABC Radio National about Boom and Bust.
Listen to Julian Reid interviewed on Bush Telegraph (ABC Radio National) about Boom and Bust.
- Fascinating stories of extraordinary adaptive behaviours in a range of bird species
- Leading writers draw on ideas in both science and the humanities to tell the stories of birds and people in the world’s driest inhabited continent
- Stories about environmental change – natural and cultural
- The responses in birds to the two great invasions of humans to Australia: 55 000 years ago and since 1788
Sample
View a sample from Boom and Bust.
Reviews
"This book is a brilliant idea. To have someone like Rose writing alongside ornithologists, a philosopher, an archaeologist and so on, is a heady mix. As I read this fascinating book, I asked myself whether any one person could have written it…the diversity of views here is part of what makes this book exceptional…"
Tim Birkhead, IBIS, October 2009
"For a bit of pure scientific excitement the chapter by archaeologist Mike Smith on the extinct Genyornis is a great delight. The book is well worth the money in my opinion."
Rob Attwood, South Australian Ornithologist, Vol 35 No 7, November 2009
"…this beautifully bound anthology about the extraordinary, adaptive behaviours of several Australian birds flies the reader, effortlessly, into a world where historical and environmental context – and storytelling – matter... In a time of anthropogenic climate change, these ‘bird stories’, as a whole, elevate a changing history of ideas about environment, thus prioritising the ways cultural engagement with environment – inextricably bound to narrative – is under constant renegotiation, which is critical to both human and non-human survival in a dry land."
Deborah Anderson, Melbourne Historical Journal, Vol 37, 2009
"This book is an essential and timely work that helps the reader understand the Australian environment and how our indigenous birds and people have adapted to cope with its vagaries. We need to accept the reality that in much of Australia ‘drought’ is the norm, punctuated by occasional boom years, that our climate is highly variable and aseasonal, and that with climate change things may get worse. The book is a great catalyst for that mental transition, and is therefore highly recommended."
Stephen Debus, Australian Field Ornithology, Vol 26, 2009
"A refreshing strength is that these scientists and historians do not sacrifice the facts for the story or engage in the hyperbole that characterises so much magazine-style popularisation of science. The writing is engaging yet well referenced so that students inspired by the stories will find the book a springboard for new research projects….content rich yet friendly to read: at $39.95 a fair boom/bust ratio.”
Dr Richard Major, Explore, September – November 2009
"…a delightful set of ten natural history essays about birds written by ten different authors with varying backgrounds. The stories present an informed picture of contemporary Australian avi-fauna (with two exceptions on extinct birds) that is accessible to the general reader and engaging to read."
Paul Farber, Historical Records of Australian Science, Vol 20 No 2, 2009
"I highly recommend this book."
David Hair, Linnean Society of New South Wales Newsletter, No 132, October 2009
"This is a beautifully produced little hardback, with charming small black-and-white chapter heading illustrations taken from Gould (except of course for the Genyornis sketch), and it is a pleasure to handle and to read."
Marian Maddern, Park Watch, September 2009
"This fascinating book has something for all readers. I found many chapters were quite engaging, particularly those on Zebra Finches, Australian Pelican (always a fascinating bird to birdos) and especially the woodswallows. There are many new ideas or ways of looking at bird behaviour and their cycles which makes for lots of interesting reading. A well referenced book can be a delight to read and the current book does this superbly without interrupting the flow of ideas and text in each chapter. I can thoroughly recommend this book to both the general natural history reader and those in birding groups."
Martin O’Brien, The Bird Observer August 2009
"The introductory chapter sets the scene for this fascinating and timely book about the adaptive behaviours of Australian birds to surviving in a boom or bust situation and the effect of human behaviour on this...I would highly recommend this book to members both as a gift and for personal use."
Yvonne Paterson, The Naturalists News, July 2009
“The presentation of the book is very simple and elegant. Despite being a hardcover it remains a very compact and portable volume, making it a perfect travelling companion to remote regions where conditions are unpredictable and cycle of boom and bust prevails. I am sure that anyone who reads this book will learn something new before putting it down.”
Mark Antos, The Victorian Naturalist, Vol. 126, June 2009
"This publication is another small but commendable step along the path towards achieving a widely held ecological understanding, and applying it to debates about the wise use of our dry continent."
Peter Menkhorst, Australian Book Review, June 2009
"Anyone who seeks better to understand life in inland Australia needs to read this book - and it's no hardship!"
Ian Fraser, May 2009
Author Information
Libby Robin is a historian of ideas at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University and the Centre for Historical Research, National Museum of Australia, Canberra.
Robert Heinsohn is Associate Professor at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra, where his work focuses on the evolutionary ecology and conservation biology of birds.
Leo Joseph is Director of the Australian National Wildlife Collection at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Canberra.
Related Titles
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