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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Introduces the geography, history, government, economy, people, and culture of the troubled Republic of South Africa. ... Read more

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Geography in the 1990s is a dynamic and diverse discipline. South Africa offers a particularly rich and fascinating subject for research because of its unique blend of First and Third Worlds and the challenges presented by political change. The nineteen contributors to this volume debate geographical issues which are at the cutting edge of contemporary local, and international research on South Africa. Environmental degradation, urban and rural planning, transport, the future role of women, and popular culture are among the broad range of topics covered. A full listing of current research into these topics is provided at the end of the book to facilitate further enquiry. ... Read more

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South Africa is currently undergoing great change. Since apartheid is essentially a territorial policy, this change is essentially geographical. This volume offers an analysis of the social implications of these changes. It summarizes the three sets of challenges facing South Africa: the immediate challenges of constitutional transition; the challenges of domestic policy for a new government in terms of meeting exaggerated expectations in the context of a stagnant economy, poverty and unemployment, extreme inequalities and limited resources; and the challenges of reformulating economic and political relations with South Africa's regional neighbours. ... Read more

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Sometime around 1500 A.D., an African farmer planted a maize seed imported from the New World. That act set in motion the remarkable saga of one of the world's most influential crops--one that would transform the future of Africa and of the Atlantic world. Africa's experience with maize is distinctive but also instructive from a global perspective: experts predict that by 2020 maize will become the world's most cultivated crop.

James McCann moves easily from the village level to the continental scale, from the medieval to the modern, as he explains the science of maize production and explores how the crop has imprinted itself on Africa's agrarian and urban landscapes. Today, maize accounts for more than half the calories people consume in many African countries. During the twentieth century, a tidal wave of maize engulfed the continent, and supplanted Africa's own historical grain crops--sorghum, millet, and rice. In the metamorphosis of maize from an exotic visitor into a quintessentially African crop, in its transformation from vegetable to grain, and from curiosity to staple, lies a revealing story of cultural adaptation. As it unfolds, we see how this sixteenth-century stranger has become indispensable to Africa's fields, storehouses, and diets, and has embedded itself in Africa's political, economic, and social relations.

The recent spread of maize has been alarmingly fast, with implications largely overlooked by the media and policymakers. McCann's compelling history offers insight into the profound influence of a single crop on African culture, health, technological innovation, and the future of the world's food supply.

Customer Reviews (2)

Maize and Grace is generally worth reading and is mostly accurate
REVIEW FOR AMAZON OF TWO BOOKS ON CORN PURCHASED THIS PAST
DECEMBER, 2009AS GIFTS FOR MY FATHER, A RESEARCH HYBRID CORN BREEDER, GENETICIST, AND PROFESSOR OF GENETICS AND BOTANY

I ordered two books for my father at Christmas.He is a PhD geneticist specializing in hybrid corn, so the announcement of two new books related to corn crop production was exciting news!

I purchased both books below:
1. Maize and Grace - Africa's Encounter with New World Crop 1500-2000
By James C. McCann

2. Corn Crop Production - Growth, Fertilization and Yield
Edited by Arn T. Danforth

The first book: Maize and Grace is a paperback and reasonably priced at $18.00.At the beginning it goes back to the 3 parent origin of corn which has been proven to be incorrect and out-of-date, is a tri-partite hypothesis (teosinte/tripsacum/primitive) pushed by Harvard Professor Mangelsdorf.

Corn in fact is a descendent of "teosinte" of Mezo America (Southern Mexico and Northern Guatemala) and teosinte is the sole ancestor of corn.This defendable hypothesis came from a graduate student at Cornell named George Beadle.Dr. Beadle went on to earn the Nobel Prize for the recognition that one gene = one enzyme (one gene directs the formation of one enzyme).

Maize and Grace begins with correct information..."Maize comes in five phenotypes...all its forms derive from a single ancestor domesticated in Central Mexico..."- this is all fine, though actually it was geographically Southern Mexico not Central Mexico.However, on page 3 there is an incorrect statement made: "Plant geneticists have focused attention primarily on the Mexican plant teosinte, perhaps a cousin of maize but probably not its progenitor."This is not a correct statement as mentioned above.Teosinte is the sole parent of corn.

This book gets 3 stars, possibly 4 for being generally accurate, well written, and of interest.

The second book: Corn Crop Production, a hard back, is not as scholarly as it could have been and is overpriced at $145.00.It was clearly edited by a non-English speaker.A book claiming to be scholarly which misspells scientific words such as "inbred" (a term crucial to plant breeding and corn) as "inbreed" leads the reader to assume the book will be lacking, and it is.It is somewhat superficial for what it promises to be - for the scientist it is not complete and is not sound enough,for the lay person it is way beyond them.This is a book about corn - yet Chapter 3 is about rice, and Chapter 4 is about millet.There is a degree of dishonesty in this book - a book on corn production with 3 chapters on other grains and those other grains unannounced in the title, is an editorial dishonesty.In terms of what would is needed - editing for logic and English usage would have been a help.It is vastly too expensive a book for what it is.

The book receives one star for looking intriguing - so sorry it was so lacking and unscholarly!



Most sincerely,
Catherine H. Chase Peters (with the help of her father)

Plant it white
Merchants, missionaries, and slave traders probably brought maize, from the New World, to Africa around 1500. Maize has the vegetable vitamins A, C, E. It doesn't have the lower B vitamins of the true grains millet, sorghum, and wheat. Yet it became Africa's most important cereal crop. For it's easy to grow. It needs one plowing, as opposed to 3-4 for true grains. It gives two big harvests a year. Its grains, leaves, roots, stalks, and tassels can be eaten. It's roasted on the cob or made into soup, porridge, gruel, and couscous. Its lighter work load frees farmers for money-making activities; military service; government work projects; and food-for-work projects.

But is it a good choice? It gets lower harvest prices than wheat, teff, and sorghum. It needs nitrogen, sunlight, and water. All three are problems with phosphorous-poor acidic and red porous laterite soils. Acidic soils also have little calcium and magnesium and too much aluminum. Laterite's also low in nutrients. So they're not right soils, right vegetable. African soils only grow maize with fertilizers, herbicides/pesticides, and irrigation. The rest of the world grows maize for chicken and livestock fodder, fuel, paint, penicillin, and plastic. But Africa grows maize to feed Africans. And maize diets are short on proteins and vitamins. So maize-eaters get the diseases kwashiorkor and pellagra.

Maize is behind two modern disasters. One's the crop failures of 1949-52. New World maize got along with two fungal parasites, puccinia sorghi and polysora. Maize and sorghi went to Africa together. It was a rare case of non-native plant and parasite naturalizing beautifully on new soil. Maize and polysora went with American food shipments to Sierra Leone, for re-shipment to America's allies. Polysora calmed down as suddenly as it'd flared up. Was it because local farmers planted from maizes they saw to be polysora-busters?

The other's Ethiopia's malaria epidemic summer 1998. It spread from the expected low-lying lands to the unexpected highlands. Both areas had been irrigated to grow maize. Malaria's historically linked with water. And it may not be the last disaster. Africa grows white maize. But money's not going into white maize research. It's going into hybrid seeds, such as SR-52 for Rhodesia's large commercial farms.

MAIZE AND GRACE reaches a wide readership with its clear organization and writing. The chapters have persuasive examples and illustrations. The conclusion's followed by helpful appendix tables, notes and bibliography. Author James C McCann reaches into history as background for today's problem questions. But he's planted in the present, and facing into the future, with his answers. ... Read more

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Some urgent new thinking is needed if any lessons are to be learnt from the recent disasters. This book brings together the experience of a number of writers who have worked on, or studied, poverty alleviation programmes in Asia and Africa. ... Read more

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Tracing the peopling of Africa from its origins over four million years ago to the onset of the colonial era in the late nineteenth century, James Newman discusses the roles played by genetic background, language, occupation, and religion as well as by differing natural and human environmental circumstances. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Africa: An Encyclopedia for Students, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1491 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Based on the scholarship in the acclaimed Encyclopedia of Africa, this work presents Africa, from Egypt to Cape Town and from prehistoric times to the present day. This set spans many disciplines, covering animals, foods, holidays and festivals, tribal groups, ecology, music and art, trade and economy, geography, religion, folklore, and fossil and skeletal discoveries. ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, founded in London on June 9, 1788, was a British club dedicated to the exploration of West Africa, with the mission of discovering the origin and course of the Niger River and the location of Timbuktu, the "lost city" of gold. The formation of this group was effectively the "beginning of the age of African exploration". Organized by a dozen titled members of London?s upper-class establishment and led by Sir Joseph Banks, the African Association felt that it was the great failing of the Age of Enlightenment that, in a time when men could sail around the world, the geography of the Dark Continent remained almost entirely uncharted. The Ancient Greeks and Romans knew more about the interior of Africa than did the English of the 18th century. Motivated by sincere desires for scientific knowledge and the abolition of the slave trade, yet not averse to gaining opportunities for British commerce, the wealthy members each pledged to contribute five guineas per year to recruiting and funding expeditions from England to Africa. ... Read more