Microsoft Word - Book review assignment 2019
Book Review (60 points)
Commodity Marketing / ApEc 3411 / Fall Semester 2019
DUE AT THE START OF CLASS, WEEK 8 (MONDAY, OCTOBER 21)
Select a commodity-related book from the list below (you must read two books, if selecting the
short books published by Reaktion Books). You can purchase the book in any form you
wish, and most are available for $5-25 online. Your assignment is to read the book and in
XXXXXXXXXXwords, tell me the three most interesting things you learned from the book. The grading
u
ic below explains what I am looking for in the review, and how I will assign grades. Please
submit a paper copy, and note the word count next to your name on the paper.
Students may choose a commodity-related book that is not on this list. However, your book
choice must have my approval.
Grading ru
ic
Excellent Acceptable Needs Work
Your opinion
about what's in
the book
(10 points)
Clearly stated and
well-written opinion;
specific reasons
given in support.
10
Opinion clear;
somewhat general
easons and/or
evidence given in
support.
8-9
Opinion unclear;
inaccurate or vague
easons and/or
evidence given in
support.
7
Your
discoveries
and
implications
from the book
(45 points)
Three distinct
discoveries noted.
Each discovery
includes at least one
plausible and specific
consequence.
40-45
Three different but
similar discoveries
noted. Each
discovery includes a
plausible but
somewhat general
consequence.
34-39
Fewer than three
different discoveries
noted (overlap is
significant).
Implications of the
discoveries are
missing, vague or
implausible.
33
Length
(5 points)
XXXXXXXXXXwords
5
450 words
2-4
500 words
0
Total points XXXXXXXXXX <40
All Creatures Great and Small by James He
iot (fiction)
457 pages / Open Road Media (ebook November 15, 2011)
In the rolling dales of Yorkshire, a simple, rural region of northern England, a young veterinarian from
Sunderland joins a new practice. A stranger in a strange land, he must quickly learn the odd dialect and
humorous ways of the locals, master outdated equipment, and do his best to mend, treat, and heal pets
and livestock alike. This witty and heartwarming collection, based on the author’s own experiences,
ecame an international success, spawning sequels and winning over animal lovers everywhere.
Beef: The Untold Story of How Milk, Meat, and Muscle Shaped the World by Andrew Rimas
Pape
ack: 256 pages / William Mo
ow Pape
acks October 2009
A lively history of our ongoing relationship with an animal that we have worked alongside, consumed, and
even worshipped for thousands of years. The history of the cow is both surprising and fascinating, and
Beef offers a unique overview of cattle yesterday, today, and tomo
ow – from adoration to
eeding to
aising; from ancient Medite
anean bullfight rings to African villages to American stockyards – complete
with amazing facts and trivia, wonderful recipes, and an important warning for the future of beef
production.
Bread: A Global History by William Rubel
160 pages / Reaktion Books (October 15, 2011) read two!
Common to the diets of both the rich and the poor,
ead is one of our oldest foods. Loaves and rolls
have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs, and wheat has been found in pits where human settlements
flourished 8,000 years ago. Many anthropologists argue that the ability to sow and reap cereals, the
grains necessary for making
ead, could be one of the main reasons why man settled in communities,
and even today the concept of “
eaking
ead together” is a lasting symbol of the uniting power of a
meal.
Butter: A Rich History by Elaine Khosrova
368 pages / Algonquin Books (November 15, 2016)
After traveling across three continents to stalk the story of butter, food writer and pastry chef Elaine
Khosrova serves up a story as rich, textured, and culturally relevant as butter itself. From its humble
agrarian origins to its present-day artisanal glory, butter has a fascinating story to tell. With tales about the
ancient butter bogs of Ireland, the pleasure dairies of France, and the sacred butter sculptures of Tibet,
Khosrova details butter’s role in history, politics, economics, nutrition, and even spirituality and art.
Cargill: Trading the World’s Grain Hardcover by Wayne G. Broehl Jr.
Hardcover 1,027 pages / Dartmouth (Fe
uary 15, 1992)
A full-scale history of Cargill and its rise to international leadership among the "big five" grain traders, a
group whose distinctions are private ownership and a passion for secrecy, even though they deal in the
most "public" of commodities, the grains that feed the world. In Broehl's account, the Cargill story
ecomes a grand na
ative history and reveals a classic example of the American tradition of
development from a small-scale frontier enterprise to a complex international organization and a
successful competitor in global markets.
Centennial by James A. Michener (fiction)
909 pages / Random House Publishing Group (July 12, 1974)
Written to commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976, Michener’s magnificent saga of the West is an
enthralling cele
ation of the frontier. Brimming with the glory of America’s past, the story of Colorado –
the Centennial State – is manifested through its people: Lame Beaver, the Arapaho chieftain and wa
ior,
and his Comanche and Pawnee enemies; Levi Zendt, fleeing with his child
ide from the Amish country;
the cowboy, Jim Lloyd, who falls in love with an Englishwoman, Charlotte Seccombe. Trappers, traders,
homesteaders, gold seekers, ranchers, and hunters are
ought together in the dramatic conflicts that
shape the destiny of the legendary West.
Cheese and Culture: A History of Cheese and its Place in Western Civilization by Paul
Kindstedt
Pape
ack: 272 pages / Chelsea Green Publishing (April 1, 2012)
Behind every traditional type of cheese there is a fascinating story. By examining the role of the
cheesemaker throughout world history and by understanding a few basic principles of cheese science
and technology, we can see how different cheeses have been shaped by, and tailored to, their
su
ounding environment, as well as defined by their social and cultural context. Cheese and Culture
endeavors to advance our appreciation of cheese origins.
The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin
307 pages / Harper Perennial; 3rd edition (October 11, 2005)
Thousands of impoverished Northern European immigrants sought a prairie that offered "land, freedom,
and hope." The disastrous blizzard of 1888 revealed that their free homestead was not a paradise but a
hard, unforgiving place governed by natural forces they neither understood nor controlled, and America’s
heartland would never be the same.
Cotton: The Biography of a Revolutionary Fiber by Stephen Yafa
432 pages / Harper Perennial; 3rd edition (June 27, 2006)
Cotton is the world's most powerful cash crop. It has shaped the destiny of nations. Domesticated 5,500
years ago, this book gives us an intimate look at the plant that fooled Columbus into thinking he'd reached
India. Cotton helped create Calvin Klein and the Gap, helped start the Industrial Revolution as well as the
American Civil War, and made the boll weevil world famous.
The Day of the Bonanza by Hiram M. Drache
239 pages / Interstate Publishers (December 1964)
The conquest of the West includes some of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the United
States. The successful experiment of bonanza farming in the Red River Valley of Minnesota in the latter
part of the nineteenth century is an important facet of this ever-moving frontier. This book describes the
giant bonanza farms. This is a must-read for knowing farming advancement; Pillsbury milling and
production; Understanding Hill and his railroad. Fascinating read. Dalrymple was the world's first large
scale farmer as Ford was for the automobile.
Eggs: A Global History by Diane Toops
128 pages / Reaktion Books (April 15, 2014) read two!
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Throughout history, the egg has taken on numerous meanings
outside of the famous philosophical dilemma: it was used for curing the evil eye by the Mayans, as
protection against lightning in Greece, and to signify rebirth in Christian tradition. Diane Toops offers a
tour of egg history and lore, looking at how its significance has represented the preoccupations of the
cultures that consume it.
Giants in the Earth by O.E. Rølvaag (fiction)
560 pages / English edition published 1927
Giants in the Earth follows a Norwegian pioneer family's struggles with the land and the elements of the
Dakota Te
itory as they try to make a new life in America. The book is based partly on Rølvaag's
personal experiences as a settler, and on the experiences of his wife’s family who had been immigrant
homesteaders. The novel depicts storms, locusts, poverty, hunger, loneliness, homesickness, the
difficulty of fitting into a new culture, and the estrangement of immigrants who grow up in a new land.
Grain Marketing is Simple (it's just not easy), 2nd Edition by Edward Usset
220 pages Center for Farm Financial Management (November 2015)
When "Grain Marketing is Simple" was released in 2007, Edward Usset
oke new ground with a different
approach to grain marketing. This is not a textbook – your typical textbook would not illustrate marketing
plans with cele
ity producers like May Sellers and Hank Holder, or explore the value of options with
Peter Paperfarmer. The characters help illustrate the simple – but not easy – aspects of marketing. This
ook is a must-have resource for grain producers and ag professionals with an interest in grain markets
and marketing.
The Grapes Of Wrath by John Steinbeck (fiction)
215 pages / Penguin Classics; Reissue edition (March 28, 2006)
First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the
Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from
their homestead and forced to travel west to California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions
against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a