Book Log 2006 #17: Oak: The Frame of Civilization by William Bryant Logan

From food to ink to the material used to build bigger and better ships and buildings, this book details the integral part oak played in the development of modern civilization. And it does a pretty good job at that, though I wish the book was actually a little simpler at times, most notably when talking about the new jointing that oak allowed builders to use in building. Having little to no experience in this area, I wasn't always able to follow as well as I'd have liked. The drawings didn't help as much as I'd hoped, either, as they were fairly complicated (to someone like me). The few basic drawings were much more helpful.

I did lose focus as the book went on, I think because so much time was spent on the naval and building uses of oak. I'd have liked more on the balanocultures, groups of people who used the collection of nuts as a primary source of food, for example.

Overall, the book had a good concept but only satisfactory execution. If the topic is of interest, or if you are the type to get suckered in by books about the major impact a particular item had on the world, it's worth a browse I suppose.