Synopses & Reviews
A] lively, compulsively readable account (Entertainment Weekly) of the world's most beloved weed,
Most people know that Hitler made a serious blunder by invading Russia. Most people don't know that it was the sunflower that prompted him to attempt the invasion. It's true-when the wartime cost of cooking oil spiked, Hitler sought an alternative source of oil. He thought he found it in Russia's cash crop of golden sunflower fields.
Promiscuously social and perennially popular, the sunflower has colored the narrative of human history for the past thousand years. Joe Pappalardo's unexpected and highly entertaining social history of this scandalous flower stretches from the Stone Age to the Space Age braves such topics as plagiarism and flatulence. Pappalardo explains how sunflowers nearly prevented the Irish potato famine and why this deceptively innocent-looking flower is one of the few species that masturbates. This coy tell-all is a delight for flower lovers and trivia buffs alike.
Synopsis
A] lively, compulsively readable account (Entertainment Weekly)
of the world's most beloved weed