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The Mountains That Remade America: How Sierra Nevada Geology Impacts Modern Life Paperback – Illustrated, February 25, 2020

by Craig H. Jones (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 5 ratings
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From ski towns to national parks, fresh fruit to environmental lawsuits, the Sierra Nevada has changed the way Americans live. Whether and where there was gold to be mined redefined land, mineral, and water laws. Where rain falls (and where it doesn’t) determines whose fruit grows on trees and whose appears on slot machines. All this emerges from the geology of the range and how it changed history, and in so doing, changed the country.
 
The Mountains That Remade America combines geology with history to show how the particular forces and conditions that created the Sierra Nevada have effected broad outcomes and influenced daily life in the United States in the past and how they continue to do so today. Drawing connections between events in historical geology and contemporary society, Craig H. Jones makes geological science accessible and shows the vast impact this mountain range has had on the American West.
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  1. Print length
    360 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of California Press
  4. Publication date
    February 25, 2020
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0520325508
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0520325500
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book details a remarkable example of the lived human history of a place and its intersection with the natural." ― Environment, Space, Place

"This book serves both as a deep dive into how the Sierra Nevada range was formed (Jones is a geology professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder) and the montains' importance in American history (the Gold Rush, the perservation of Yellowstone and Yosemite, and more)." ― Landscape Architecture Magazine

From the Inside Flap

&;&;Why are these mountains here?&; Craig Jones asks about the Sierra Nevada. History and geology buffs alike will celebrate as he reveals the answers in this captivating book. With meticulous research and breezy prose, Jones probes both the human history of the Sierra Nevada and the cutting-edge geologic discoveries that inform not just our knowledge of these mountains but the workings of the earth itself.&;&;Keith Meldahl, author of Rough-Hewn Land: A Geologic Journey from California to the Rocky Mountains
 
&;We look up to the Sierra mountains because they are big and they are magnificent. But, as this book makes entirely clear, we also look up to them because they are important&;far more important than we might otherwise realize.&;&;William Deverell, Director, Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West
 
&;Rocks don&;t lie, but we Homo sapiens haven&;t quite grasped the full stories that mountains are silently telling us. The Mountains That Remade America redresses this, masterfully revealing human history in the Sierra as it intersects with geological history to show how these mountains create the world we live in now. Focusing on the Sierra Nevada Range, Craig Jones finds startling new ways to consider events like the Gold Rush and the protection of Yosemite. The book offers one revelation after another: compelling, deeply informative, new. This is essential reading that will change the way you look up at a peak and down at a valley.&;&;Mary Ellen Hannibal, author of Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction 

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; First Edition (February 25, 2020)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 360 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0520325508
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520325500
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 5 ratings

About the author

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Craig H. Jones

Craig H. Jones

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Craig Jones hails from the San Fernando Valley in LA, where he was exposed at an early age to such geological adventures as earthquakes, landslides, and beach erosion. Between backpacks in the Sierra Nevada and courses at Caltech, he decided to enjoy the outdoors in a more quantitative way by studying geophysics and geology, which has led him to being a professor in geological sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he ponders the mysteries surrounding the creation of mountain ranges, particularly in the American West.

Jones has authored many scientific papers, none of which will be reprinted any time soon in Readers Digest. His first foray into book publishing was to write the software included in the Applied Geophysics text by Burger, Sheehan and Jones.

The second book is intended for a far less technical audience and is, in some sense, his answer to all those Thanksgiving dinner conversations about what he does and why it matters. Marrying history and geology to show the deeper roots of many aspects of modern American life, The Mountains that Remade America connects some well-known and lesser-know history to the geology that made it all possible. Sadly, the book came out a year too late for him to deliver copies to John Muir Trail hikers when he llama-packed the trail in 2016.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
5 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Hedgehog
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for California history enthusiasts with interest or experience in geology.
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2017
Verified Purchase
The exploration and settling of California's Sierra Nevada mountains is explained with new insights based on the author's experiences. For example, difficulties traversing the Sierra's western slopes and streams when explorers traveled East to West (shown to be inherently more difficult) versus West to East (easier), due to the long term geologic development of the major rivers. This is also a subject of modern research which is introduced.
I recommend this book together with the book "Rough Hewn Land: A Geologic Journey from California to the Rocky Mountains" for a complete education (in plain English with specialized vocabulary introduced for the non-geologists) about the geology and geologic forces (tectonics) now generally understood for the western USA. This has been developed over the last 40 to 50 years since the general acceptance of plate tectonic theory in the late 1960's early 1970's. We now have available a grand narrative of events (a great geologic story!) which is due to Earth's forces that are easy to grasp and should be intuitively understood by the non-specialist.
4 people found this helpful
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Warwick
4.0 out of 5 stars Craig Jones is one of the world's experts on the ...
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2018
Verified Purchase
Craig Jones is one of the world's experts on the geology of the Sierra Nevada micro plate. This book is well written and well worth reading. My only complaint is that the book is not technical enough. That's probably because the book was written primarily for general audiences.
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