Review of Good Growing: Why Organic Farming Works by Leslie A. Duram

As an extension vegetable specialist with a strong interest in organic farming and in assisting farmers to make a living, I relished this book. Leslie Duram is a geographer at Southern Illinois University Carbondale who has her roots in Kansas and is motivated by a love for Plains agriculture. The book, which she describes as a piece of advocacy scholarship, is at once scholarly, informative, and entertaining. In six well-organized chapters Duram provides an overview of organic farming within the context of overall U.S. agriculture and society (with our growing demand for organic food), reviews research describing organic farms and farmers , presents and analyzes the stories of five successful organic family farms, and offers a vision of a future American agriculture based on medium-sized organic family farms.

Book Review of Raising Less Corn, More Hell: The Case for the Independent Farm and Against Industrial Food by George Pyle

Raising Less Corn, More Hell may sound like a rallying cry for the nation's heartland farmers, but this well-written series of essays by George Pyle is meant for those who eat corn. Or rather, for those of us who eat the livestock fed on corn in confined animal feeding operations, then wash down those meals with drinks high in high-fructose corn syrups. Pyle, an editorial writer from Kansas now living in Utah, brings his journalist's skills to bear on what our industrial food system has brought us. It's not appetizing as he makes his case against a corporate-controlled system that doesn't have to be this way.

Book Review of Portraits of the Bison: An Illustrated Guide to Bison Society by Wes Olson

Thundering herds of bison have become synonymous with the pre-European colonization of the Great Plains. As such, they have captured the imagination of countless people, including Wes Olson, a 20-year warden for Parks Canada. Throughout Portraits of the Bison, based on both existing literature and the author's extensive experience observing and managing these animals, Olson's bison fascination is not only obvious but infectious. A remarkably talented artist as well, Olson's line drawings appear throughout the book, accompanied by Johane Janelle's photographs.

Book Review of Birds of the Great Plains by Bob Jennings, Ted T. Cable, and Roger Burrows

Though intended as a field guide to the birds of the Great Plains, this book seems to serve best as a general introduction to Great Plains birds and will mostly benefit those casually interested in birds. The definition of Great Plains the book uses is rather broad, and some species are included that, in my opinion, aren't really birds of the Great Plains. For example, several warblers are included as breeding species although they nest within the book's definition of the region only in the conifer or mixed forest of north-central to northwestern Minnesota, which isn't really a part of the Great Plains proper.

Book Review of A Dazzle of Dragonflies by Forrest L. Mitchell and James L. Lasswell

Dragonflies are beautiful animals, important predators in and around aquatic environments, and often good indicators of ecosystem health. Stimulated by digital photography, close-focusing binoculars, and many new regional field guides, the study of dragonflies has exploded in the last ten years. Most importantly, the Internet has connected beginners with experts; observers from everywhere now share their experiences. Here is a book that puts it all on paper.

Book Review of Entomology at the Land Grant University: Perspectives from the Texas A&M University Department Centenary Edited by Kevin M. Heinz, Raymond Frisbie, and Carlos Bogran

This book offers the texts of twenty-four presentations given in a series of mini symposia organized to commemorate the centennial of Texas A&M's Department of Entomology. Although not stated explicitly by the editors, the central theme for these symposia seems to be the contributions of the discipline of entomology to modern society. The presentations cover a wide range of topics dealing with the importance of insects in both natural ecosystems and agricultural systems; insects as models for scientific research; challenges associated with effective management of those species that are pests in systems designed for food and fiber production; and the role of entomology departments within academic institutions, particularly land-grant universities. The list of contributors to these symposia is impressive, as are the universities and other institutions they represent across the United States as well as in Europe and Africa.

Review of The Elemental Prairie: Sixty Tallgrass Plants (Watercolors and introduction) by George Olson

The Elemental Prairie provides a general discussion of the Great Plains and the tallgrass prairie for the general reader. Its botanically accurate plant drawings render a beautiful and artistic view into prairie plants. George Olson writes a compelling introduction about "Prairie Elements," painting a graphic verbal description about his trip into the prairie with noted prairie author John Madson. The introduction draws readers into the book and prepares them for John Madson's essay "The Running Country," an eloquent portrayal of the history of the tallgrass prairie. We are led into the hearts and minds of the pioneers who crossed the immense expanse of the Great Plains. Madson's descriptions of prairie plants help us visualize how the Great Plains looked prior to settlement, stirring us to see not only the allure of the prairies, but also the solitude and sometimes the loneliness. Madson mixes his personal experiences with current scientific theory of the formation of the prairies across the region, offering a way of seeing how the present fits into the past.

Book Review of Determining the Economic Value of Water: Concepts and Methods by Robert A. YoungBook Review of Determining the Economic Value of Water: Concepts and Methods by Robert A. Young

Water has been and will continue to be a contentious issue for policy makers, landowners, municipalities, environmentalists, and citizens who feels they have an undeniable right to clean water delivered to their homes (at least in the United States). With so many groups coming into conflict over what, at least in the West and the Great Plains, continues to be a diminishing resource per capita, an understanding of the economic value of this resource is critical. It is important to note, as Robert Young does throughout his book, that the true economic value of water goes beyond what we pay our city services each month, or the cost to farmers or ranchers for pumping and distributing that water on their land. The value of water must take into account the value of the competing uses which are sometimes difficult to price.

Book Review of Laud Humphreys: Prophet of Homosexuality and Sociology by John F. Galliher, Wayne H. Brekhus, and David P. Keys

As an undergraduate sociology major, the only thing I learned about Oklahoman Laud Humphreys's classic, Tearoom Trade (1970) was how it violated standards of informed consent in social science research. As Galliher, Brekhus, and Keys recount in their biography, Laud Humphreys: Prophet of Homosexuality and Sociology, sociology graduate student Laud Humphreys needed to supplement his (quite likely, participant) observational research of men who had sex in public bathrooms (i.e., tearooms) in St. Louis in the mid-1960s with a formal questionnaire. Knowing that these men would never agree if they knew they were selected because of their participation in highly stigmatized and criminal behavior, Humphreys recorded their license plates, got their home addresses, and interviewed them as part of a "community health survey." Herein lies the deception and the major source of the controversy. What I didn't fully appreciate when I was a student, however, and what the authors so deftly illuminate is the importance of this work not only for debates around ethical issues of social science research, but more importantly, perhaps, for the study of sexuality, deviance, and urban life.

Book Review of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?": Aboriginal Communities, Restorative Justice, and the Challenges of Conflict and Change by Jane Dickson-Gilmore and Carol La Prairie

Over the past decade or two, restorative justice has become a popular approach for the criminal justice system to take in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. In part, this is due in all three countries to an appalling disproportionality in the incarceration rates for racialized minorities. As the authors of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" point out, however, governments have been attracted to restorative justice for cost-cutting reasons as well. A burning question, therefore, is whether restorative justice works.

Book Review of Improved Earth: Prairie Space as Modern Artefact, 1869-1944 by Rod Bantjes

In this short but suggestive study, sociologist Rod Bantjes examines how contending visions of modernity shaped the social and physical landscapes of the Canadian prairies. "[B]oth statesmen and prairie farmers were infused with the modernist spirit of innovation, the will creatively (and destructively) to transform their worlds," Bantjes argues. His provocative view of farmers as agents of modernity reflects recent scholarship that seeks to explore "multiple modernities," or the notion that ideas and practices of modernism must be regarded not as monolithic but rather as contested and multivocal, and must be examined in their historical and geographical contexts.

Review of The Science, Impacts and Monitoring of Drought in Western Canada: Proceedings of the 2004 Prairie Drought Workshop Edited by Dave Sauchyn, Madhav Khandekar, and E. Ray Garnett

Drought is not an unusual phenomenon on the Canadian prairies or the U.S. Great Plains. There were many short-term droughts in the prairies during the 20th century that generally lasted one to two years (e.g., 1961, 1988). The Canadian prairies multi-year drought event (1999-2003+) has been considered similar in severity to the 1930s drought years. The 2004 Prairie Drought Workshop resulted in 76 scientists and resource managers gathering in Calgary, Alberta, to share information on drought science, impacts, and monitoring. Presenters examined the impacts on agriculture, stream flow, forests, and ground water, including potential impacts under a changed climate. Though focused on the Canadian prairies, the information presented could be applied to many parts of the U.S. Great Plains.

Review of The Search for a Common Language: Environmental Writing and Education Edited by Melody Graulich and Paul Crumbley

This edited collection grew out of a symposium held at Utah State University in Logan in 2002. According to the editors, the symposium's purpose was to "publicly explore the particular ways environmental writing educates the public through a fusion of science and literary expression." The Search for a Common Language achieves that purpose by including short prose pieces-ranging from memoirs, essays on specific locations, and scientific papers - as well as poetry on natural themes. The range of topics and genres and the inclusion of poetry provide a variety of ways to talk about the environment and reach out to different audiences to educate them about the natural world.

Review of Prairie Time: A Blackland Portrait by Matt White

Nowadays, the Blackland Prairies of north Texas are the kind of landscape most people think of as great for subdivisions and strip malls: generally flat, easily bulldozed, and not too far from Dallas-Fort Worth. Prairie Time: A Blackland Portrait traces a similar utilitarian vision of the prairie in 19th-century pioneer descriptions as well: good for plowing, grazing, and-once the buffalo and Native Americans are exterminated-not too far from outposts of commerce. The book serves as an environmental jeremiad for a place too easily seen as useful and thus too often ignored for preservation. Matt White gives readers a context in which to begin to value the Blackland Prairie by combining a heartfelt story with a thorough sense of its ecological wonder, our post-settlement history and its environmental impact on the land, and some remarkable stories of current preservationists working to find and save remnant gems of unplowed prairie.

Review of Native Americans in the School System: Family, Community, and Academic Achievement by Carol J. Ward

The title of this volume promises more than the content delivers. The heart of the book is information from Ward's 1992 University of Chicago doctoral dissertation, which focused on the social and cultural reasons leading to students dropping out of school. Her first two chapters provide a good review of research on dropouts and Indian education; the following six focus on the results of her 1987-1989 study of 698 Northern Cheyenne, Crow, and white high school students attending the Colstrip Public, St. Labre Catholic, and Busby Tribal Schools in Montana. Fifty-two percent of the students in this study were Indian, with a dropout rate of 45% .