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(More customer reviews)There was a time when we believed - or perhaps it was just westerners, or even Americans - that we could conquer anything nature had to throw at us. We've since found out that is not true. The gypsy moth had a role in that change of thought.
The grand machismo of the men of the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Victorian Era, led them to boast of things they had not yet accomplished, yet felt they could. The story of the gypsy moth outbreak in Massachusetts and the men who tried to stop it is full of just such braggadocio.
For Massachusetts residents, the story hits home directly. For those folks interested in birds, the surprise inclusion of Edward Howe Forbush as the street level general in the war on the moth is surprsing and revealing. And for armchair entomologists, well, it doesn't get any better than this. Descriptions of the moth larvae invading homes, sliding down chimneys and through windows will make the most steadfast skin crawl.
As other reviewers have stated, the author certainly packs every detail possible into the book. But that does not take away from the story for one truly interested in the tale.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Great Gypsy Moth War: The History Of The First Campaign In Massachusetts To Eradicate The Gypsy Moth, 1890-1901
In "The Great Gypsy Moth War," Robert J. Spear presents the untold story behind the importation and release of the gypsy moth in North America and the astonishing series of coincidences that brought the state of Massachusetts to a decade-long war against this tenacious insect. Spear traces the events leading up to the beginning of the war in 1890, notes the causes for its failure, and shows the terrible legacy it left as the precedent for all subsequent insect-eradication campaigns. During the Civil War, when the supply of cotton from southern fields was disrupted, the owners of northern textile mills looked elsewhere for raw fiber. One source was silk. Among those experimenting with silkworm production was a Frenchman named Etienne Leopold Trouvelot, who had settled outside of Boston. It was Trouvelot who imported the gypsy moths and inadvertently allowed them to escape. Soon the invasion was on and a counteroffensive was required. Spear reveals the turbulent undercurrents in the eradication campaign when the enthusiasm of the entomologists in charge turned into desperation upon the discovery that their alien adversary was much tougher than they thought. Fighting a war they could not win and dared not lose, the leaders of the campaign resorted to political maneuvering, cheap tricks, and outright misrepresentation to maintain a façade of success, urging the Commonwealth to continue funding the war long after any chance of victory had faded. More than just reviewing the important events of this historic episode, Spear tells the story in an engaging way, often through the first-hand accounts of those who were directly involved. Much of what Spear has written is new, the recounting is lively, and the information he presents shows that almost all of the previous beliefs about the campaign to eradicate the gypsy moths are myths. In the process, he also traces the rise of modern economic entomology and the birth of the pesticide industry.
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