Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World

摘要

Greg Cushman's monograph Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World is not quite about guano and not quite about the opening of the Pacific world. Cushman, associate professor of environmental history at the University of Kansas, has composed a book of observations and narratives around the theme of fertilizer extraction in Peru and Oceania and its place in the global food supply. Along the way, the book includes some striking stories and challenging observations, and in the end it draws a compelling conclusion. Yet getting at these insights amid the confusion of facts and anecdotes can test the reader's patience, as the book wanders far from its initial focus on guano.