Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects As Weapons of War - Couverture rigide

Lockwood, Jeffrey A.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0195333055 ISBN 13 : 9780195333053

Editeur : Oxford University Press Inc, 2008

Synopsis

The emir of Bukhara used assassin bugs to eat away the flesh of his prisoners. General Ishii Shiro during World War II released hundreds of millions of infected insects across China, ultimately causing more deaths than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. These are just two of many startling examples found in Six-legged Soldiers, a brilliant portrait of the many weirdly creative, truly frightening, and ultimately powerful ways in which insects have been used as weapons of war, terror, and torture. Beginning in prehistoric times and building toward a near and disturbing future, the reader is taken on a journey of innovation and depravity. Award-winning science writer Jeffrey A. Lockwood begins with the development of "bee bombs" in the ancient world and explores the role of insect-borne disease in changing the course of major battles, ranging from Napoleon's military campaigns to the trenches of World War I. He explores the horrific programs of insect warfare during World War II: airplanes dropping plague-infested fleas, facilities rearing tens of millions of hungry beetles to destroy crops, and prison camps staffed by doctors testing disease-carrying lice on inmates. The Cold War saw secret government operations involving the mass release of specially developed strains of mosquitoes on an unsuspecting American public-along with the alleged use of disease-carrying and crop-eating pests against North Korea and Cuba. Lockwood reveals how easy it would be to use insects in warfare and terrorism today: In 1989, domestic ecoterrorists extorted government officials and wreaked economic and political havoc by threatening to release the notorious Medfly into California's crops. A remarkable story of human ingenuity-and brutality-Six-Legged Soldiers is the first comprehensive look at the use of insects as weapons of war, from ancient times to the present day.

A propos du livre

Revue de presse

Compelling. (Simon Schama, Financial Times)

Lockwood's approach is fresh. (PD Smith, The Guardian)

The book is an excellent read. (Michelle Harvey, Times Higher Education Supplement)

It's a delightfully gory book. (James Delingpole, Irish Mail on Sunday)

He writes with vigour and clarity, making the book very accessible. (Joanna Bourne, The Times)

Lockwood has produced an engaging work. (Robin McKie, The Observer)

'Six-Legged Soldiers' exposes convincingly the likely devastating impact. An infectious, haunting read. (Emmanuelle Smith, Financial Times)

It's a delightfully gory book. (James Delingpole, Mail on Sunday)

'Six Legged Soldiers' is an excellent account of the effect that anthropod-borne diseases have had on warefare. (Kenneth J. Lithicum, Nature.)

Biographie de l'auteur

Jeffrey A. Lockwood is Professor of Natural Sciences & Humanities at the University of Wyoming, where he teaches in the department of philosophy and in the MFA program in creative writing. An accomplished writer, his work has been included in the popular anthology Best American Science and Nature Writing, and he is winner of both a Pushcart Prize and the John Burroughs Award. He is the author of Grasshopper Dreaming: Reflections on Killing and Loving and Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Oxford University Press Inc
• Date d'édition: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0195333055
• ISBN 13: 9780195333053
• Reliure: Relié
• Langue: anglais
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 400