John Gifford

A Short Address to the Members of the Loyal Associations - On the present state of public affairs: containing a brief exposition of the designs of the French upon this country is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1798. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other genres. As a publisher we focus on the preservation of historical literature. Many works of historical writers and scientists are available today as antiques only. Hansebooks newly publishes these books and contributes to the preservation of literature which has become rare and historical knowledge for the future.

Inspired by the mystique of a uniquely American tree, the pecan, Oklahoma writer John Gifford Set out to explore the US pecan industry, which provides 80 percent of the world's supply of this special tree nut. What he discovered during his two-year immersion was a nut—one that’s suprisingly symbolic of America itself—that’s poised to become the next superfood and an industry that today finds itself in the most important juncture in its history.Though the US pecan belt extends from the Carolinas to California, the pecan tree, which was revered by some of our nation’s founders, has its origins in the South Central United States, where wild pecans still grow along the region’s rivers and streams, and in its floodplain forests. The pecan is the only native tree nut that has been developed into a significant agricultural crop. Though native pecans continue to figure into the 280-million-pound annual US crop, wild pecan trees face an uncertain future as worldwide demand centers on the larger and more lucrative “improved” varieties.Pecan America provides readers with a look at how the rising demand for pecans around the world is transforming the way this nut is grown, promoted, and consumed here in the United States. Along the way, Gifford explores its presence in American folk art and culture, documents the pecan industry’s quest for share of stomach in a market brimming with other tree nuts, examines the pecan’s surprising array of health benefits, and profiles some of the fascinating people who bring this food to our tables. In the end, Gifford reveals the pecan to be much more than a food, but also a cultural curiosity and even a metaphor for America itself, one whose diverse nature may be its greatest quality.

From airport birdwatching and getting lost in an urban forest, to rethinking society's ill-fated war on wildlife and our struggle to reshape the American landscape, Red Dirt Country invites readers to savor the joys of our natural surroundings. Written by Oklahoma native John Gifford, this timely book is a literary meditation on the Oklahoma landscape and the rich biodiversity of the southern Great Plains. Inspired by such naturalists as Gilbert White, Susan Fenimore Cooper, and Henry David Thoreau, the essays in Red Dirt Country reveal the rewards of close observation and the author's deep respect for the natural world. With his keen eye for detail, Gifford chronicles life along a suburban creek, noting from month to month the habits of the area's birds, mammals, and trees. With particular attention, he captures the grace and majesty of that sleek raptor, the Mississippi Kite, during its yearly nesting cycle in the southern plains. Even as Gifford extols the surprising beauty of Oklahoma, he ponders the larger environmental concerns and challenges that we face today, such as the cataclysmic wildfires and droughts threatening the American West, and modern society's impact on vital lands and wildlife. A compelling work of creative nonfiction, Red Dirt Country harkens back to America's most beloved masterpieces of nature writing. At the same time, Gifford provides a distinctly contemporary reflection on today's suburban wilderness, inspiring us all to develop a deeper connection to our natural surroundings.

This volume in the Buildings of Scotland series explores the rich architectural diversity of Dundee and Angus. Dundee, the fourth-largest city in Scotland, boasts some of the country's finest ecclesiastical, public, industrial, and commercial buildings, including the unique Maggie's Centre designed by Frank Gehry. Beyond Dundee lies the predominantly rural county of Angus, where visitors can see stunning Pictish and early Christian monuments, castles, country houses, and the famed Bell Rock Lighthouse, the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse.

Perth and Kinross, at the geographical heart of Scotland, contains a wide diversity of buildings including the remains of a Roman line of forts and watch towers, carved stones erected by the warrior aristocracy of the sixth to ninth centuries, the inventive medieval Dunkeld Cathedral, and the island fortress of Lochleven Castle. Blair Castle's mid-eighteenth-century stucco work is unequalled in Scotland. A multitude of smaller country houses embrace a variety of styles, while Georgian and Victorian churches, many with superb stained glass, abound. Towns and villages range from Dunkeld, the epitome of a small Scottish burgh, to the Royal burgh of Perth.This is the tenth volume in the Buildings of Scotland series.

From Stirling Castle to the tower houses of Clackmannan, from the colleries and shipyards to the Millennium Wheel at Falkirk, the buildings of Stirling and Central Scotland reflect the divisions between Highland and Lowland, between rural and industrial Scotland.Published in association with the Buildings of Scotland Trust

This volume covers the vast area of the Highland region, the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland and highlights buildings and monuments as varied as its landscapes: brochs, cairns and ceremonial settings of standing stones; cathedrals and abbeys, both medieval and Victorian; churches of every period and denomination, their interiors and graveyards often housing unexpected delights. Castles and tower-houses and a string of Hanoverian forts contrast with prehistoric farmsteads and Georgian and Victorian farmhouses. Country houses range from the display of ducal splendour at Dunrobin, through the Georgian elegance of Cromarty and Culloden and a mass of Victorian baronial, to expressions of the high ideals and simple life of the Arts-&-Crafts movement.

The historic capital of Scotland is well known as a fortified medieval city with castle and crown-steepled church, its Royal Mile leading down to the Abbey and Palace of Holyrood; as a merchant city of the Stuart period with Parliament House and closely built houses and tenements; as a Georgian town with the largest sequence of planned developments in Britain; as a Victorian town of churches and banks, hotels and pubs, of quiet surburbs; and as a twentieth-century city where the Festival and its Fringe have encouraged the rediscovery of old buildings and the planning of new ones. A comprehensive gazetteer is provided to all notable developments of central Edinburgh, the seaport town of Leith and the suburban neighbourhoods.