Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #324135 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 559 pages

Synopsis
The Amazon river basin contains the world's largest remaining rain forest as well as its longest river. Countless Indian tribes live there, as well as vast numbers of plant species, many of them still unknown to science. This book tells the story of three scientists who explored the region: the ethnobotanist Richard Edward Shultes, and two of his students, Tim Plowman and Wade Davis. Davis's account is one of danger, and of extraordinary discoveries as Shultes sought to understand the psychoactive plants of the rain forest. It is also a celebration of the Indian way of life, and a lament for the wanton destruction of landscape, culture and spirit throughout the Americas.

Customer Reviews

A fascinating book - everyone should have a copy!
"One River" is one of the most fascinating and readable books about South America that I have ever come across. Although Wade Davis obviously intends his work to be a tribute to his mentor, Schultes, and his friend Tim Plowman, the book is much more than a mere botanical biography. Davis writes with great enthusiasm and combines subjects that continually entertain and inform the reader. The book is filled with true tales of adventures on the Amazon, encounters with jungle tribes, fanatical hunts for rare plants, and wild journeys through the remote Andes. Exploration, excitement and ethnobotany are skilfully blended with a well-researched history of South America. The reader is presented with a great deal of thought-provoking material about the past, present and future of this contradictory continent. HIGHLY recommended.

Depswa disclosed
Anyone still doubting the superiority of fact over fiction need only take this book to a quiet corner and start reading. Wade Davis relates the stories of two Richards, Schultes and Spruce, plus his own in their respective excursions in the upper Amazon. Schultes, Davis' Harvard mentor, spent many years there seeking medicinal plants and new sources of rubber when access to Asian resins were lost during World War II. No work of fiction, including Hollywood's almost trifling account in the film "Medicine Man", can match the scope of what Schultes accomplished during his extensive travels. Schultes had the good sense to approach the Native American shamans with respect, dealing with them on their terms and not as a latter-day conquistador. They responded to his inquiries in kind, leading to countless new medicines for treating our "civilized" illnesses. He became a "depswa" - medicine man - sharing their rituals while gaining knowledge. Davis is able to use his close relationship with Schultes to provide an engrossing and detailed account of Schultes' career in the bush.

The second Richard is Schultes' own model. Richard Spruce came to the Upper Amazon from mid-Victorian England. Prompted by an inestimable source, Charles Darwin's account of the Beagle voyage, Spruce entered the Amazon country in 1849. Few of the celebrated explorers in Africa in the same period can match the perils Spruce faced and dealt with. As did his follower Schultes, Spruce avoided the overbearing colonialist image - his desires were achieved by finding new medicinal plants. Spruce dealt with the dispensers of drugs and their tales of visions incurred as an equal. In their turn they imparted valuable information leading to useful medicines. Clearly, both Schultes and Spruce operated as Davis stipulates: "botanists in the Amazon must come to peace with their own ignorance." As Schultes, Spruce and Davis himself demonstrate, the peaceful approach brings substantial rewards in information and experience.

Davis' own, modern, story enhances that of his mentor Schultes, carrying the research and adventure forward. Only the ability to travel further and faster than his teacher separates the two. Davis has a sensitive touch in describing the world of the Upper Amazon, its dense forests and often mysterious people. His grief at the loss of their culture is manifest, buttressed by a strong historical sense of what they once were. Certainly this account belies the image of the "detached" scientist scouring the forest's resources for personal gain. He is there to learn and to teach us. He accomplishes both with a fascinating narrative. This is a book to be treasured and read again. A single sitting with this book is but an introduction to this disappearing world. Read it and discover that adventure is not a lost experience.

a fascinating story
Absolutely fascinating story of the Amazon this/last century. A fantastic chapter on the rubber boom and its side affects on the Amazon peoples. Also contains a chapter on the Waorani which the book is worth buying for alone as I learnt more on the Wao's from this chapter than I did from one whole book on the waorani by another author. This book does not contain one tedious moment between its two covers.