More Plants that Changed History

Discusses the influence papyrus and paper, rubber growing, and the tea and opium trade have had on the relationships between nations.

Grade 9 Up In this companion volume to Plants That Changed History (Atheneum, 1982), Rahn looks at plants that provide paper, that yield rubber, and at tea, tobacco and opium. Her focus is on how these plants have affected human history. Presentations, however, sometimes get clotted with interesting but tangental bits of information or comments. Some ink-line illustrations are so spare that they need interpretation. The bibliography is thin. A book for determined readers who need this information for assignments. A more readable book, though with a different focus, is Charles Morrow Wilson's Green Treasures: Adventures in the Discovery of Edible Plants (Macrae Smith, 1974; o.p.). George Gleason, Department of English, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.