MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 04014cam a2200349 a 4500
001 6518205
005 20221122040143.0
008 070521s2008 nyuaf b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2007019872
020 $a9780670018536
020 $a0670018538
024 $a40015233211
035 $a(OCoLC)ocn141482653
035 $a(OCoLC)141482653
035 $a(NNC)6518205
035 $a6518205
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dBAKER$dBTCTA$dYDXCP$dC#P$dOrLoB-B
043 $asa-----
050 00 $aHD9161.A562$bJ33 2008
082 00 $a338.4/7678209811$222
100 1 $aJackson, Joe,$d1955-$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n99018311
245 14 $aThe thief at the end of the world :$brubber, power, and the seeds of empire /$cJoe Jackson.
260 $aNew York :$bViking,$c2008.
300 $a414 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates :$billustrations ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 363-389) and index.
505 00 $tPrologue: Henry's Dream -- $gPt. I.$tThe Need -- $g1.$tThe Fortunate Son -- $g2.$tNature Belongs to Man -- $g3.$tThe New World -- $g4.$tThe Mortal River -- $g5.$tInstruments of the Elastic God -- $gPt. II.$tThe Source -- $g6.$tThe Return of the Planter -- $g7.$tThe Jungle -- $g8.$tThe Seeds -- $g9.$tThe Voyage of the Amazonas -- $gPt. III.$tThe World -- $g10.$tThe Edge of the World -- $g11.$tThe Talking Cross -- $g12.$tRubber Madness -- $g13.$tThe Vindicated Man -- $tEpilogue: The Monument of Need -- $gAppendix I.$tWorld Rubber Production, 1905-1922 -- $gAppendix II.$tThe World's Rubber Requirements, 1922 -- $gAppendix III.$tNew York Price Quotations for Crude Rubber.
520 1 $a"At the height of the Victorian era, Henry Wickham - a man with no formal education, little funding, and limited experience - went adventuring in the darkest jungles of Venezuela and Brazil. He had learned of a particular kind of rubber tree that produced the strong and durable rubber that scientists and entrepreneurs in England craved. After repeated brushes with death, disease, and madness that awaited the unwary in the Amazon valley, he emerged exhausted, ragged, and transformed, with 70,000 illegally obtained rubber tree seeds. It was the first case of massive biopiracy in the modern era, and it would change the world." "The Thief at the End of the World is the story of the use and misuse of nature in the quest for global dominance, and of how one ordinary man's obsessions drove him to extraordinary lengths. Wickham's seeds were transported successfully to London's famous Kew Gardens, and biologists there quickly shipped them off to colonial outposts throughout the far-flung British Empire. Within a few years, those seeds produced the trees that yielded the rubber used in everything from trains and airplanes to condoms and baby bottles. It is no exaggeration to say that rubber was the oil of its day - an incredibly valuable resource found in only a few remote places that powerful governments would go to great lengths to get their hands on." "Henry Wickham and his wife Violet were gradually shut out of the wealth and glory of the rubber boom by the very government they had hoped to serve, and they wandered further and further from the new world they had helped to create. Joe Jackson draws from their letters and journals and the innumerable records left behind to paint a vivid, fascinating portrait of the man known in Great Britain as "the father of the rubber trade" and in Brazil as the "Executioner of Amazonas."" "Ultimately, Wickham's tale is also the story of Victorian England's adventures in the Amazon with all the characteristics of the era: idealistic patriotism, ambitious colonialism, and a colossal greed rivaled only by fanatic industry."--BOOK JACKET.
650 0 $aRubber industry and trade$zAmazon River Region$xHistory.
856 41 $3Table of contents only$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0719/2007019872.html
852 00 $bglx$hHD9161.A562$iJ33 2008