A few days ago I read the essay “How Flowers Changed the World” by Loren Eiseley. I thought it was a very combination of a story about the wisteria pods in his kitchen that exploded and the history of how angiosperms began to dominate the world. Like his earlier essay, “The Bird and the Machine,” “How Flowers Changed the World” is an essay that really combines two stories; one from the author’s life and the other from history. The two are woven together seamlessly so that the reader doesn’t notice the two overlapping timelines, only an informative and very interesting story. When I started reading it, I doubted that flowers could change the world, but after reading the book, I saw how they did so. An amazing writer as well as a naturalist, Eiseley made me certain of how flowers changed the world, presenting a case as to how and why flowers could and did change the world. He taught me many facts that I hadn’t known before. While, like the other essay of his I read, rather dense reading in the beginning, it progresses into a well-written, captivating history of the world. Though not very popular, I recommend this book for anybody looking for information of flowers, the history of the world, or just some good reading. I would rate it 9.5/10.
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