Beaverland

An astonishing, intrepid compendium about the world according to beaver, including social, cultural, and ethnographic history, juxtaposed with personal narrative. Philip brilliantly paves the way for us to enter this unlikely shaper of our nation as she follows naturalists, researchers, trappers, and local historians, as well as visiting her own backyard pond. She dives into many avenues of research, including the enslavement of Native Americans, the cunning greed of John Jacob Astor, the obsession of Dorothy Richards who lived with 14 beavers in her Adirondack house, and the lifeways of indigenous peoples. Every inch of the way we know we are in good hands. BEAVERLAND is poignant, impeccably researched, and as artfully put together as any this 'wired rodent's' houses, with an eye toward the beaver's role in the anthropogenic disaster of our changing climate and damaged ecosystems. --Gretel Ehrlich, author of Unsolaced and The Solace of Open Spaces Are beavers smart, asks Leila Philip in this captivating personal journey through history and streams that brings secretive creatures to life--beavers and those who trap them. This engaging tale of how beavers shaped America's rivers and streams for millennia, and how their comeback is now helping restore waterways, invites us to wonder who, really, is the smart one? --David R. Montgomery, author of King of Fish Before the Anthropocene we had the Casterocene: a North American environment profoundly shaped by millions of beavers. In BEAVERLAND, Leila Philip takes us on a fascinating tour of the beaver's effect on human history, and how, after its near extinction, we need to bring this rodent back for the sake of our ecosystems. --Frans de Waal, author of Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist (Norton, 2022) BEAVERLAND is a model for 21st-century environmental writing--a beautifully told story with lodes of well-researched history and ecology, and a lyrical ode to natural wonders that steers clear of romanticism and questions cherished environmental ideas. This book will surprise the hell out of you on nearly every page. --Jenny Price, author of Stop Saving the Planet!: An Environmentalist Manifesto Leila Philip's BEAVERLAND is an engaging story centered on a nerdy anti-hero, the beaver. While she states that beavers are weird, she makes a strong case that people in the beaver world are even weirder. This book weaves humor and storytelling with profound thoughts about nature. Don't miss the beavers parachuting into the Idaho wilderness. --Mark Kurlansky BEAVERLAND is wonderful, captivating, and illuminating. I learned so much -- about natural history, business history, the world of today's fur trappers, and the role of a large, strange rodent in America's ecological future. Leila Philip is a skilled and engaging guide through this beaver-influenced terrain. --James Fallows, co-author of Our Towns Ranging across a continent and five centuries, BEAVERLAND explores our strange relationship with an odd creature capable of inexplicable engineering. In lyrical words and with deep insights, Leila Philip reveals how beavers shaped our environment - and how humans have unraveled their creation. --Alan Taylor, author of American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783-1850 In this engaging and informative book, Leila Philip tells the tale of North American beavers as seen through human eyes. Philip uses diverse vignettes, from Native American creation stories to visits with contemporary trappers, beaver believers, and scientists, to gradually build a story of beavers and humans through time. Plenty of basic information about beavers is presented in digestible bites along the way as Philip deftly evokes place, mood, people, and beavers. --Dr. Ellen Wohl We can't have enough books about this wonderful creature--and this one is particularly strong on the remarkable history of the animal in our continent's history and imagination. A loud slap of the tail in approval! --Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature