A review by saguaros
Dispersals: On Plants, Borders and Belonging by Jessica J. Lee

4.0

GREAT collection of essays. It had such a nice blend of personal/memoir-esque details and science/history facts. Lee is a plant historian basically, but I loved how she approached a lot of her subjects in ways that often made me think. There’s a lot here about climate, about hope, about empire/colonization, about family, and history—humanity and personal and both because how can they not be. The history of plants is the history of humanity, of trade and culture and nations. I’ve studied art history, and just like art, you can never really separate things from their historical and sociological contexts. Things are connected in ways we don’t always think about and imagine, and I found it fascinating how Lee often connected those things. It worked in some essays more than others in my opinion, and I definitely felt my attention drift in a couple essays, or wished some had been longer/shorter, but overall it was such a solid collection with beautiful writing. I will probably revisit some of these in the future (and I appreciate all the notes/links to articles and scientific papers/sources etc)