UWLS Summer Reading List 1
Discover the UWLS Summer Reading List 1, a curated collection of thought-provoking books spanning history, nature, and fiction. From Elizabeth Kolbert's *Field Notes from a Catastrophe* and Jared Diamond's *Guns, Germs, and Steel* to Larry Watson's *Montana 1948*, dive into essential summer reads that explore politics, greed, and radical change. Perfect for lifelong learners and book lovers seeking a diverse, impactful reading list.
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Field Notes from a Catastrophe
by Elizabeth Kolbert
Explores the issue of global warming from every angle, incorporating interviews with researchers and environmentalists, explaining the science and the studies, and presenting the personal tales of those who are being affected most.
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Montana 1948
by Larry Watson
Recounts the life-altering events of the summer in twelve-year-old David Hayden's small town in Montana.
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The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed
by John Vaillant
Traces the political, religious, and scientific factors that contributed to the seemingly inexplicable decision of logger-turned-activist Grant Hadwin to destroy the world's only giant golden spruce tree.
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Guns Germs and Steel
by Jared Diamond
"Fascinating.... Lays a foundation for understanding human history."—Bill Gates Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples. This edition includes a new chapter on Japan and all-new illustrations drawn from the television series. Until around 11,000 BC, all peoples were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved. In Eurasia, parts of the Americas, and Africa, farming became the prevailing mode of existence when indigenous wild plants and animals were domesticated by prehistoric planters and herders. As Jared Diamond vividly reveals, the very people who gained a head start in producing food would collide with preliterate cultures, shaping the modern world through conquest, displacement, and genocide.The paths that lead from scattered centers of food to broad bands of settlement had a great deal to do with climate and geography. But how did differences in societies arise? Why weren't native Australians, Americans, or Africans the ones to colonize Europe? Diamond dismantles pernicious racial theories tracing societal differences to biological differences. He assembles convincing evidence linking germs to domestication of animals, germs that Eurasians then spread in epidemic proportions in their voyages of discovery. In its sweep, Guns, Germs and Steel encompasses the rise of agriculture, technology, writing, government, and religion, providing a unifying theory of human history as intriguing as the histories of dinosaurs and glaciers.
