Finalist for the Lane Anderson Award
Finalist for the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize
"Unexpectedly delightful reading -- there is much to learn from the buck-toothed rodents of yore." -- National Post
"Fascinating and smartly written." -- Globe and Mail
Beavers, those icons of industriousness, have been gnawing down trees, building dams, shaping the land, and creating critical habitat in North America for at least a million years. Once one of the continent's most ubiquitous mammals, they ranged from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Rio Grande to the edge of the northern tundra. Wherever there was wood and water, there were beavers -- sixty million, or more -- and wherever there were beavers, there were intricate natural communities that depended on their activities. Then the European fur traders arrived.
Once They Were Hats examines humanity's fifteen-thousand-year relationship with Castor canadensis, and the beaver's even older relationship with North American landscapes and ecosystems. From the waterlogged environs of the Beaver Capital of Canada to the wilderness cabin that controversial conservationist Grey Owl shared with pet beavers; from a bustling workshop where craftsmen make beaver-felt cowboy hats using century-old tools to a tidal marsh where an almost-lost link between beavers and salmon was recently found, it's a journey of discovery to find out what happened after we nearly wiped this essential animal off the map, and how we can learn to live with beavers now that they're returning.
The store known for serving pure brain food has returned to our old digs for a few months to sell down inventory and bid fare thee well to our decades of in-store customers.
Days and hours subject to change.
Note: This site lists what's available for special order from Ingram Content Group.
Visit our pages at Alibris or Biblio to survey in-store stock priced above $19.95.
Discount applies only to in-store purchases.
Once hosted by UPB, Cafe Ohlone now serves guests outside the Hearst Museum of Anthropology on the Cal campus.
Savor the foods which characterized east bay cuisine for thousands of years, before European contact. Brought to you by Mak'amham.
For information and to place reservations, see their web page at makamham.com/cafeohlone
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