"This is a fascinating book. Tucker draws together an amazing amount of material to demonstrate how the U.S., through exploitation, consumption, and demand over the past several centuries, has had a major impact on the ecology of tropical landscapes. It is a sobering, much-needed wake-up call to those who view the tropics as an endless cornucopia of resources." --Charles M. Peters, The New York Botanical Garden "This well-written book presents a critical and much-needed new insight into an important problem." --Otto T. Solbrig, Bussey Professor of Biology, Harvard University