Autobiography of tree in 1500 words equals

A New York Times Notable Book and a Forbes, San Francisco Chronicle, and Washington Post Best Book of the Year

"Agassi may have just penned one of the best sports autobiographies of all time. Check--it's one of the better memoirs out there, period. . . . An unvarnished, at times inspiring story [told] in an arresting, muscular style. . . . Agassi's memoir is just as entrancing as his tennis game."
--Time

"Fascinating. . . . Inspiring. . . . Open describes Agassi's personal odyssey with brio and unvarnished candor. . . . [Agassi's] career-comeback tale is inspiring but even more so is another Open storyline. It could be called: The punk grows up. . . . Countless athletes start charitable foundations, but frequently the organizations are just tax shelters or PR stunts. For Agassi helping others has instead become his life's calling. . . . Open is a superb memoir, but it hardly closes the books on an extraordinary life."
--The Wall Street Journal

"Honest in a way that such books seldom are. . . . An uncommonly well-written sports memoir. . . . Bracingly devoid of triumphalist homily, Agassi's is one of the most passionately anti-sports books ever written by a superstar athlete."
--The New York Times

"Not your typical jock-autobio fare. This literate and absorbing book is, as the title baldly states, Agassi's confessional, a wrenching chronicle of his lifelong search for identity and serenity, on and off the court."
--Los Angeles Times

"The writing here is exceptional. It is can't-put-down good."
--Sports Illustrated

"An honest, substantive, insightful autobiography. . . . The bulk of this extraordinary book vividly recounts a lost childhood, a Dickensian adolescence, and a chaotic struggle in adulthood to establish an identity. . . . While not without excitement, Agassi's comeback to No. 1 is less uplifting than his sheer survival, his emotional resilience, and his good humor in the face of the luckless cards he was often dealt."
--The Washington Post

"The mo

English chemist, theologian, educator, and political theorist (1733–1804)

For the English lawyer, see Joseph Child Priestley. For the British lecturer in botany, see Joseph Hubert Priestley.

Joseph PriestleyFRS (; 24 March 1733 – 6 February 1804) was an English chemist, Unitarian, natural philosopher, separatisttheologian, grammarian, multi-subject educator and classical liberalpolitical theorist. He published over 150 works, and conducted experiments in several areas of science.

Priestley is credited with his independent discovery of oxygen by the thermal decomposition of mercuric oxide, having isolated it in 1774. During his lifetime, Priestley's considerable scientific reputation rested on his invention of carbonated water, his writings on electricity, and his discovery of several "airs" (gases), the most famous being what Priestley dubbed "dephlogisticated air" (oxygen). Priestley's determination to defend phlogiston theory and to reject what would become the chemical revolution eventually left him isolated within the scientific community.

Priestley's science was integral to his theology, and he consistently tried to fuse Enlightenmentrationalism with Christian theism. In his metaphysical texts, Priestley attempted to combine theism, materialism, and determinism, a project that has been called "audacious and original". He believed that a proper understanding of the natural world would promote human progress and eventually bring about the Christian millennium. Priestley, who strongly believed in the free and open exchange of

Table of contents :
Cover
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents
Prologue
One. Trees in the Desert
Two. I Count the Rings Down in Africa
Three. Adonis, Methusaleh, and Prometheus
Four. And the Tree Was Happy
Five. The Stone Age, the Plague, and Shipwrecks under the City
Six. The Hockey Stick Poster Child
Seven. Wind of Change
Eight. Winter Is Coming
Nine. Three Tree-Ring Scientists Walk into a Bar
Ten. Ghosts, Orphans, and Extraterrestrials
Eleven. Disintegration, or The Fall of Rome
Twelve. It’s the End of the World as We Know It
Thirteen. Once upon a Time in the West
Fourteen. Will the Wind Ever Remember
Fifteen. After the Gold Rush
Sixteen. The Forest for the Trees
Playlist
List of Tree Species
Recommended Reading
Glossary
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

Citation preview

9781421437774_Trouet_Story_int.indb 1

1/15/20 10:53 AM

Valerie Trouet The History of the World Written in Rings

9781421437774_Trouet_Story_int.indb 2

1/15/20 10:53 AM

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS Baltimore

9781421437774_Trouet_Story_int.indb 3

1/15/20 10:53 AM

© 2020 Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2020 Printed in the United States of America on acid-­free paper 987654321 Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data Names: Trouet, Valerie, author. Title: Tree story : the history of the world written in rings / Valerie Trouet. Description: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019031294 | ISBN 9781421437774 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781421437781 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Dendrochronology. | Tree-­rings. Classification: LCC QK477.2.A6 T76 2020 | DDC 582.16—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019031294 A catalog record for this book is available from the