Energy continues to be one of the most hotly debated topics in America today. Public discussion often focuses on issues related to Americans’ use of fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and gasoline. With topics like gasoline prices and global warming in the news almost every day, Americans are also talking about alternative sources of energy that could replace fossil fuels. These alternative energies include solar, wind, and water power, and fuel made from trees, plants, and waste products.
Forgotten Fires: Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness
A common stereotype about American Indians is that for centuries they lived in static harmony with nature in a pristine wilderness that remained unchanged until European colonization. Omer C. Stewart was one of the first anthropologists to recognize that Native Americans made a significant impact across a wide range of environments. Most important, they regularly used fire to manage plant communities and associated animal species through varied and localized habitat burning.
Native Americans Today: A Biographical Dictionary focuses on the lives of contemporary Native Americans. Such treatments are rare, as most Native American biographies are historical (pre-1900) and cover familiar figures. Profiles collected here are written to be enjoyable as well as instructive, presented as examples of personal storytelling that should be savored not only for their factual content, but also for the humanity they evoke.
In the second installment (of four), Turtledove returns to the same characters, picking up the stories mere days after he left them in the first book (the first two books comprise just over a year's time). Without giving away too much, even after finishing this book it is difficult to say which way the balance is tilting. The Race is beginning to learn to cope with warfare on Earth (Tosev 3), and is waging victorious war against the Germans, Soviets, and Americans.
From Sidney Poitier and Billie Holiday to Halle Berry and Tupac Shakur, African Americans in the Performing Arts profiles African Americans, from the early years to the present day, who have built successful careers in the performing arts. With up-to-date information, including commentary on the history-making event at the 2002 Oscars when African American actors won both best lead actor awards, this volume in the new A to Z of African Americans series offers a wealth of useful information for students, general readers, and lovers of the performing arts.
