Ivory's Ghosts
The White Gold of History and the Fate of Elephants
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Narrated by:
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David Colacci
About this listen
Coveted since prehistory for its beauty and scarcity, ivory was the master carver's medium in cultures from ancient Egypt to the industrializing United States. It was used for sacred amulets, classical nudes, Japanese netsuke, piano keys, and billiard balls.
By the 19th century ivory had become the plastic of its age and the subject of a global addiction that drove the exploration and exploitation of Africa at great human and animal cost. It was taken to the coasts on the shoulders of slaves who were then sold along with the tusks they carried, and insatiable demand led to the wholesale slaughter of elephants. By the 1980s, organized poaching reached record levels in East Africa, provoking an international outcry that led to an ivory trade ban still in effect today.
But as long as there are elephants, there will be ivory, and the question of what to do with the lustrous material is at the heart of a heated and ongoing international debate. In this richly detailed narrative, John Frederick Walker examines both ivory's past and its uncertain future - and the future of elephants themselves.
©2009 John Frederick Walker (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Is the archeologist who discovers a lost tomb a sort of hero - or a villain? If someone steals a relic from a museum and returns it to the ruin it came from, is she a thief? Craig Childs's riveting new book is a lyrical ghost story - an intense, impassioned investigation into the nature of the past and the things we leave behind. We visit lonesome desert canyons and fancy Fifth Avenue art galleries, journey throughout the Americas, Asia, the past and the present. The result is a brilliant book about man and nature, remnants and memory, a dashing tale of crime and detection.
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I roam the deserts
- By matt hewman on 08-21-19
By: Craig Childs
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Poached
- Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking
- By: Rachel Love Nuwer
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Our insatiable demand for animals - for jewelry, pets, medicine, meat, trophies, and fur - is driving a worldwide poaching epidemic, threatening the continued existence of countless species. Rachel Nuwer, an award-winning science journalist with a background in ecology, takes listeners on a narrative journey to the front lines of the trade: to killing fields in Africa, traditional medicine black markets in China, and wild meat restaurants in Vietnam. Through exhaustive first-hand reporting that took her to 10 countries, Nuwer explores the forces currently driving the demand.
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Fascinating
- By Annie on 11-30-18
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Old Man River
- The Mississippi River in North American History
- By: Paul Schneider
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In Old Man River, Paul Schneider tells the story of the river at the center of America's rich history - the Mississippi. Some fifteen thousand years ago, the majestic river provided Paleolithic humans with the routes by which early man began to explore the continent's interior. Since then, the river has been the site of historical significance, from the arrival of Spanish and French explorers in the 16th century to the Civil War. George Washington fought his first battle near the river, and Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman both came to President Lincoln's attention after their spectacular victories on the lower Mississippi.
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Amazing, inspiring and informative
- By Rodney Curlee on 04-27-23
By: Paul Schneider
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The Dinosaur Artist
- Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy
- By: Paige Williams
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In this 2018 New York Times Notable Book,Paige Williams "does for fossils what Susan Orlean did for orchids" (Book Riot) in her account of one Florida man's attempt to sell a dinosaur skeleton from Mongolia—a story "steeped in natural history, human nature, commerce, crime, science, and politics" (Rebecca Skloot).
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More filler than Joan Rivers’ face.
- By Brandi on 03-13-19
By: Paige Williams
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The Dragon Behind the Glass
- A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the World's Most Coveted Fish
- By: Emily Voigt
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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A young man is murdered for his prized pet fish. An Asian tycoon buys a single specimen for $150,000. Meanwhile, a pet detective chases smugglers through the streets of New York. Delving into an outlandish realm of obsession, paranoia, and criminality, The Dragon Behind the Glass tells the story of a fish like none other: a powerful predator dating to the age of the dinosaurs.
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A "must read" for all fish professionals.
- By Fishgen on 06-26-16
By: Emily Voigt
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River Kings
- A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads
- By: Cat Jarman
- Narrated by: Christine Rendel
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Three years ago, a Carnelian bead came into Catrine Jarman's temporary possession. River Kings sees her trace the path of this ancient piece of jewelry back to eighth-century Baghdad and India, discovering along the way that the Vikings' route was far more varied than we might think—that with them came people from the Middle East, and that the reason for this unexpected integration between the Eastern and Western worlds may well have been a slave trade running through the Silk Road, all the way to Britain.
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Like school
- By Amazon Customer on 09-08-24
By: Cat Jarman
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1493
- Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
- By: Charles C. Mann
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed radically different suites of plants and animals. When Christopher Columbus set foot in the Americas, he ended that separation at a stroke. Driven by the economic goal of establishing trade with China, he accidentally set off an ecological convulsion as European vessels carried thousands of species to new homes across the oceans.
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Fascinating Mindbending History.
- By Betsy Powel on 12-19-11
By: Charles C. Mann
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Gold
- The Race for the World's Most Seductive Metal
- By: Matthew Hart
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Since the 2008 financial crisis, the price of gold has skyrocketed - in three years, it has more than doubled from $800 an ounce to $1,900. This massive spike kicked off an unprecedented global gold-mining and exploration boom, much bigger than the Gold Rush of the 1800s. In Gold, acclaimed author Matthew Hart takes you on an unforgettable journey around the world and through history to tell the incredible story of how gold became the world's most precious commodity.
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in the eyes of the beholder
- By Andy on 12-10-13
By: Matthew Hart
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Encounters at the Heart of the World
- A History of the Mandan People
- By: Elizabeth A. Fenn
- Narrated by: Christine Marshall
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Encounters at the Heart of the World concerns the Mandan Indians, iconic Plains people whose teeming, busy towns on the upper Missouri River were, for centuries, at the center of the North American universe. We know of them mostly because Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804-1805 with them, but why don't we know more? Who were they really? In this extraordinary book, Elizabeth A. Fenn retrieves their history by piecing together important new discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, geology, climatology, epidemiology, and nutritional science.
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Well deserved Pulitzer Prize winner!
- By DaveF on 11-10-19
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Three Stones Make a Wall
- The Story of Archaeology
- By: Eric H. Cline
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1922, Howard Carter peered into Tutankhamun's tomb for the first time, the only light coming from the candle in his outstretched hand. Urged to tell what he was seeing through the small opening he had cut in the door to the tomb, the Egyptologist famously replied, "I see wonderful things". Carter's fabulous discovery is just one of the many spellbinding stories told in Three Stones Make a Wall.
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Some shallow digs into archaeology
- By Beechwold on 10-09-20
By: Eric H. Cline
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Wild Horse Country
- The History, Myth, and Future of the Mustang
- By: David Philipps
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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In a powerful blend of history and contemporary reporting, New York Times reporter David Philipps traces the rich history of wild horses in America: their introduction by the Spanish conquistadors, their role in the epic battles between Native Americans and settlers, their vital place in American self-mythology. He travels through some of the most remote parts of the American West, known as Wild Horse Country, to investigate the wild horse's current dilemma, caught between the clashing ideals of ranchers, scientists, and more.
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Inaccurate Read
- By Lara Hooper on 07-09-19
By: David Philipps
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Lost Cities, Ancient Tombs
- 100 Discoveries That Changed the World
- By: Ann R. Williams - editor, Douglas Preston - introduction
- Narrated by: Mari Weiss
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Blending high adventure with history, this chronicle of 100 astonishing discoveries from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the fabulous “Lost City of the Monkey God” tells incredible stories of how explorers and archaeologists have uncovered the clues that illuminate our past.
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Just what I wanted
- By Amazon Customer on 01-16-22
By: Ann R. Williams - editor, and others
What listeners say about Ivory's Ghosts
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Steve
- 03-12-15
Historical and Even Handed
If you could sum up Ivory's Ghosts in three words, what would they be?
What other book might you compare Ivory's Ghosts to and why?
I was surprised at how many similarities the Ivory trade has to the illicit drug trade.
What does David Colacci bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
The narrator was efficient.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
I enjoyed the stories of some of the old tuskers and even old-time hunters.
Any additional comments?
This book seemed to be an interesting blend of the history of the ivory trade and an analysis of the pro and con of different ways of addressing elephant conservation. Early on I found it a bit tedious to slog through all the details of the ivory trading statistics, but later when he got into a discussion about the pro and con of different management strategies, I thought the book really picked up steam. I felt the author was not faction driven as is so often the case when it comes to the management of elephants. He genuinely seemed like a scholar intent or educating people about the issues and history. Overall, it was a worthwhile listen.
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