Plants and Human Conflict

Eran Pichersky (University of Michigan, MI, USA)

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Hardback

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English

CRC Press
30 July 2018

Urban communities; Agriculture & related industries; Botany & plant sciences; Agricultural science; Horticulture

Perhaps the least appreciated dramatis personae in human history are plants. Humans, like all other animals, cannot produce their own food as plants do through photosynthesis, and must therefore acquire organic material for survival and growth by eating plants or by eating other animals that eat plants. Humans depend on plants not only as a food source, but also as building and clothing materials and as sources of medicines, psychoactive substances, spices, pigments, and more. With plants being such valuable resources, it is therefore not surprising that plants have been involved in practically all violent conflicts among different human societies. Ironically, plants have also been the source of materials to construct weapons or weapon parts.

Wars have always constituted a large part of human history, and the overall theme of this book is that to understand the history of violent human conflict, we need to understand what specific materials plants make that people find so useful and worth fighting over, and what roles such plant products have played in specific conflicts. To do so, Plants and Human Conflict begins with a chapter explaining the basic biological facts of the interdependence between plants and humans, and the subsequent seven chapters describe the physical and chemical properties of specific plant products demonstrating how the human need for these products has led to wars as well as contributed to the prosecution of wars. These chapters recount some well-known (and some lesser known) historical events in which plants have played a central role.

This book uniquely combines the modern scientific knowledge of plants with the human history of war, introducing readers to a new paradigm that will make them reconsider their understanding of human history, as well as to bring about a greater appreciation of plant biology.

By: Eran Pichersky (University of Michigan MI USA)
Imprint: CRC Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781138615311
ISBN 10: 1138615315
Pages: 190
Publication Date: 30 July 2018
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface Acknowledgments Author Chapter 1 Natural Resources as Causes of Violent Conflicts Universal History War and Living Organisms Notes Chapter 2 Fighting Grains Grains Are Targets of War Grains Are the Perfect Food for War Grains and Man-Made Famines in the 20th Century The Russian Famine of 1932–1933 The Chinese Famine of 1959–1961 The Cambodian Famine and Genocide of 1975–1979 Conclusion Notes Chapter 3 War and Slavery Capitalism – Sugarcane, Tobacco, and Cotton Transcontinental Staples Sugarcane Tobacco Cotton Conclusion Notes Chapter 4 Killer Spices The Spice Trade Until the End of the 15th Century – The Rise and Fall of Venice, the First Predatory Company Masquerading as a State The Spice Trade in the 16th to 18th Centuries – The Rise and Fall of VOC, a Rogue State Masquerading as a Company The Attraction of Spices to Humans – Is It Chemistry or Metachemistry? Conclusions Notes Chapter 5 Caffeine, Opium, and Other Drugs for the Masses Why Plants Make Psychoactive Compounds Caffeine Opium and The Opium Wars Cocaine, Tetrahydrocannabinol, and Modern Wars Conclusion Notes Chapter 6 Wood and Rubber Wood Wood in Land Warfare Wood in Sea Warfare Rubber’s Good Qualities Rubber’s Contribution to Human Misery Rubber in Modern Wars Conclusion Notes Chapter 7 Modern Land Grabs – Hawaii, Palestine, and Latin America Farmland Ownership and National Identity Sugarcane and Hawaii Oranges and Zionism in Palestine Bananas and Central America Conclusion Notes Chapter 8 Black Plant Power – Coal and Oil Coal and Oil Are Biochemicals that Store Sunlight Energy Formation of Coal Formation of Petroleum The Crucial Roles that Coal and Oil Have Played in Recent Human History Coal, Coal Miners, and Social Strife Oil and Social Strife Conclusion Notes Appendix: Chemical Notations Scientific Glossary Index

ERAN PICHERSKY is the Michael M. Martin Collegiate Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) at the University of Michigan. He received his B.Sc. degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1980, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis in 1984. After doing research as a post-doctoral fellow at the Rockefeller University in New York, he has been on the faculty of the University of Michigan since 1986, serving as the first Chair of the newly created MCDB Department from 2001-2003. His awards include a Fulbright fellowship and an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship, both received in 2000, and a Guggenheim fellowship in 2015. He was elected a Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2012 and by the American Society of Plant Biologists in 2017. Dr. Pichersky has served on the editorial boards of several major scientific journals that cover plant research, and had previously edited (together with Dr. Natalia Dudareva) a book on the Biology of Floral Scent published by CRC Press. Dr. Pichersky’s research has concentrated on identifying the myriad compounds that are found uniquely in plants, many of which are extensively used by people, with emphasis on those that impart scent and flavor. His group further elucidates how plants synthesize these compounds, and how this information can be used to enhance the production by plants of such valuable chemicals. Over the years Dr. Pichersky’s research group has collaborated with many other research groups around the world, and Dr. Pichersky himself has spent extensive time as a visiting scholar doing research at scientific institutes around the world, including the United States, Germany, Israel and Australia. Dr. Pichersky has authored approximately 250 reports, reviews, letters and editorials in scientific publications, and is a recipient of several patents.

Reviews for Plants and Human Conflict

"""A book with this title could go in many different directions, and the author has developed his narrative in a way that will be of great interest to those who find fascination with the topic of how plants have helped shape the trajectory of human conflict. One influence is that plants can be a desirable resource, the market for which nations or cultures have fought to control. An example is opium (Papaver somniferum L.) and the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century pitting Britain against China. Along the way, the reader learns a great deal about opium and its byproducts including morphine, codeine, and heroin, information ranging from chemical composition and centuries-old use to the physiological effects on the human body. There are eight most interesting chapters in this book, the first starting with the well-known paradigm that nations seek to control land on which economically important plants, such as rare spices, are found, and the desire to benefit from such natural resources has resulted in war. The author also makes a convincing case that grains have been the perfect form of food to fuel an army on its way to conquer another’s territory, and that destroying grain crops can be a way to impede a soldier’s defensive capability. I found the discussion on the use of wood in both land and sea warfare quite fascinatin. [...] The level of precision and detail that the author brings to this volume is also the great strength of this scholarly work, which draws from many different disciplinary perspectives. [...] it is about human behavior, and how plants have been an essential element or partner in directing the course of that behavior. As it is filled with interesting historical information about commonly known plants, it would make a useful classroom reference, not only to serve as the basis for discussions but also to provide a lens by which other elements of the relationship between plants and people can be examined."" MICHAEL J. BALICK, INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC BOTANY ""A book with this title could go in many different directions, and the author has developed his narrative in a way that will be of great interest to those who find fascination with the topic of how plants have helped shape the trajectory of human conflict. [...] The level of precision and detail that the author brings to this volume is also the great strength of this scholarly work, which draws from many different disciplinary perspectives. [...] it is about human behavior, and how plants have been an essential element or partner in directing the course of that behavior. As it is filled with interesting historical information about commonly known plants, it would make a useful classroom reference, not only to serve as the basis for discussions but also to provide a lens by which other elements of the relationship between plants and people can be examined."" MICHAEL J. BALICK, INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC BOTANY"