Oak: The Frame of Civilization

The oak leaf is the main image of my corporate logo It represents the generations of Burrusses that have worked the forests It is easy to see why I picked up William Bryant Logan s book Oak, the Frame of Civilization at a vacationing bookstore The title jumped at me I knew the importance of the oak tree for my family s company, Burruss Land Lumber Company, and I knew how it was used in other Central Virginia companies but the frame of civilization What was this all about It is sad to say that li [...]

Very nicely written, and bursting with passion for the subject The problem is that, roughly halfway through the book, the author moves to presenting what could have been a series of short articles on oak, without really tying them together Also, there are no in text citations, just a list of sources at the back of the book This tends to make me antsy in general.

nwhytevejournal 2485017mlLogan tries to show that the oak tree is Awfully Important to Western Civilisation, and indeed makes a reasonable case for the place of oak in various foundational texts and physical structures of our society In particular, I liked the points made about the nutritional value of acorn flour though it s odd that it isn t used and the oak structure of Westminster Hall and of early modern sailing ships There were some odd slips Burley for Burghley, Wainright for Wainwright [...]

Everywhere man has developed, there have always been oak trees The author, an arborist, opens with a story about a Jewish couple in Brooklyn preparing for another child Logan is hired to come confirm the imminent demise of a tree in their yard When he arrives, however, he finds a perfectly healthy tree and some desperate homeowners.The couple, their house already crowded, desperately needed to expand, but the apple tree was in the way It turned out that their sect of judaism prevented them from [...]

William Bryant Logan picks book topics better than any author A book about dirt A book about oak Brilliance Oak, especially for fans of Dirt, delivers Logan may make some sketchy though totally intriguing claims into the history of man, but along the way he drastically changed the way I understand humans and our relationship to nature Plus oak trees are fascinating I can t wait to start eating acorns and building things with traditional framing joints Bravo Logan you ve changed my life.Logan con [...]

I enjoyed the part that described how each craft or profession relates to the oak, but I confess I m too ignorant of construction principles to get much out of long descriptions of types of joints and carpentry whatnot No wonder Josh likes it.

Awe inspiring Makes its case that most important turning points in the development of our civilization were because of the oak tree The author has an original and illuminative mind.

Amazing sounds pretty excessive for most books, but this one definitely was than I really liked it I intentionally selected Oak from my stacks because I was sure I d move it out of the house after I finished and wondered why I d purchased it in the first place, tbh wrong Logan has loaded this book with anthropology, botany, archaeology, etymology, architecture, the history of ships, Pangaea, carpentry, zoology, economics, ecology, the list seems endless Though it might sound like a very wonky r [...]

The author undoubtedly gave the majestic oak its due respect Finishing this book the reader will come out with comprehensive knowledge on histories of oak s ecology and economy and cultural place At times with a little bit details on oak s botany and manufacturing The book is not focused it keeps alternating between scholarly, poetic and historical Though one would start to understand how oak was important to civilization western civilization , the author somehow did not capture critically the [...]

Sick at home, used the day to finish this lovely book I ve never taken a hard look or thought onto how trees spread, and the intricate relations humans have developed with trees over our existence This book dives into the history, inspirational throughout, with quotes on the beauty, ingenuity, and resilience of the oak tree.At times it can get too caught up in the details, like through intricacies of forest to production to boat building, but they re essential to get a grasp of how symbiotic, cr [...]

Excellent informative book about the history of civilization from the earliest acorn eaters, to the agrarian peoples who fattened pigs on the acorns, to the naval societies who built oak ships, to today s surgical screws developed from the oak s ability to reinforce limbs based on the stress loads Highly recommended.

This book gives a fascinating account not only of the life of the oak tree, but its crucial place in forests, ecology, and human history The author eloquently shares why the oak is important to our culture, history, and even our world today A great read when you re looking for something about nature, history, or just factoids.

A very interesting and engaging book for the most part I got a little bogged down with the sections on buildings and ships It was fascinating though to learn how the oak has shaped humanity as a food source and raw material for so many useful items.

I loved the book, an excellent view on a unique and engaging subject An entertaining read.

Loved this book and learned so much about oaks I now want to check out our little patch of woods in Maine We have oaks but will enjoy them with a new perspective Thank you William Bryant Logan

Very detailed Lots of history Engagingly written Surprises abound Fans of The Age Of Sail will find an interesting chapter.

It s possible to read Oak and simply come away with an appreciation of quercus and the many benefits it has provided to humans and a host of other creatures But that would be to miss what I consider to be major underlying themes of the book trees and nature have an intrinsic worth that extends beyond mere monetary value, and humans reach their greatest potential when they appreciate and work with the natural world.One of the most moving stories recounted occurs near the beginning of the book Log [...]

This is a very readable book with a few persistent problems.Let s start with what s good about it If you re interested in acorns as food, naval history from Pepys to ironclads US Civil War , barrel making, leather tanning or wooden roof construction, and a pop description of oak propagation Corvidae , and a little char colliery, this book is for you The book falls apart, well had me scratching my head in discussing acorn economy cultures in the fertile crescent, specifically the Zagros Mountains [...]

i knew oak trees were beautiful, but who knew they were so important to humans, to cities, to economies, to progressis book is by the same guy who wrote dirt the estatic skin of the earth that book is like poetry and is amazing, the way the author puts words together, absolutely lyrical and beautiful this book is straight forward information but i never could have guessed there could be so much to know about oak trees according to the author, and he makes a good case for it, human civilazations [...]

I feel incredibly nerdy admitting this is the best book I ve read in a long time It is incredibly interesting, well written and illuminating I am absolutely in love with oak trees after reading this book It is like a sinful, indulgent dessert for english majors, history enthusists, nature lovers and the naturally curious I am all of these, and he touches on all these areas with artistry The only reason I did not give it five stars is because he really lost me in all of the terminology in the arc [...]

Interesting, intriguing if problematic Best when Logan is dealing in broad strokes, describing just so stories on pre historic balanocultures The 2nd half of the book unfortunately feels like a series of interesting bits of Euro centric trivia strung together And some of that trivia, whether it s on the mystery of why Winchester doesn t collapse, or the historically unprecedented yields of the dehesas agricultural system But it doesn t live up to the promise of the early chapters or the introdu [...]

One of the most informative and interesting books I read last year Sections on barrel making and ship building it took something like 2000 acres of oak forest to build a large English navel ship were particularly engrossing Of course like most of the recent spate of natural history books, he has to engage in some creative thinking to show how said nature is integral to the whole history of the world In this case he tries to show how early human communities in the middle east were balano cultures [...]

Thus far, its interesting but not overwhelmingly so If you are generally a tree or plant person and feel like learning minute details about oaks, this might be a good book My major problems with it is that the author makes generalizations and assertions that are not cited in the text, and so it is hard to know where his facts come from There is a bibliography, which helps, but since the work seems somewhat scholarly yet doesn t cite as an academic book would, one isn t quite sure what certain ge [...]

Yes, I did enjoy much of this book, but I couldn t quite give it stars because there were long sections devoted to things that weren t really terribly interesting that I ended up having to skip to get to the directly Oak related info Things like boat building, etc No doubt there are folks who might love those sections and skipped ones I cared about Still there was good an interesting info throughout the book, but overall I think it could have worked out so much better as a shorter focused boo [...]

This was an interesting read, but ultimately it didn t stick with me nearly as much as his other book Dirt I think its because this was a lot informative and focused on a specific type of plant And while oak trees can have a lot of literal and figurative qualities ascribed to it, and even though it does live throughout the world, it is nowhere near as universal as the Soil Its a good book definitely worth the read if you are interested in the subject matter, but not a keeper in my world.

This book was everything I expected, and just a little bit I could have done without the lengthy middle chapters with heavy lumberyard diction I think the author got a lot of information on the subject and was too proud to edit it out But the beginning chapters on Blanoculture and ending section on how the Oak has survived to be one of the fittest plants in the world were highly interesting and educational I ve already used bits of it to teach ecology to my 5th and 6th graders.

I thoroughly enjoyed contemplating the evolution of humans from hominids through our relationship with oaks Encountered many many words I hadn t known before, discovered the origins of words such as cranky and found out about ship building than I ever thought I wanted to know Ditto carpentry joints Fun last chapter too, in which the Eiffel Tower is revealed as an inferior imitation of an oak tree.

It may be surprising that one can find a book on oaks stirring, and even moving, but I did The compassion Logan extends to the natural world, the way he tells the story of oaks as remarkably adaptive survivors, and the beauty of his writing convince me that even people who don t tend to choose this kind of book would find it eye opening It will transform the way you look at trees Perhaps it will make you, like Mary Oliver, walk slowly and bow often.

Beginning and ending sections were good, exactly what I was hoping for They discussed the oak tree itself in both a scientific and cultural manner The middle sections were devoted to uses of oak throughout history, but they essentially felt like a course on shipbuilding Very drawn out chapters on how to build ships took away from the readability of this book I was expecting something else, and came away a bit unsatisfied with this look at the oak.

This was a solid micro history about how one tree has been helpful to humankind I m a bit skeptical of Logan s ideas that early humans lived on acorns in a golden age that eventually diminished However, it s certainly an engaging idea myth The descriptions of bridges, boardwalks and even an artificial island of oak in Britain was my favorite part along with the explanation of how Viking boats worked parts of the boat actually moved with the water in different directions.