Title | Author | Content Sample

• Item# 226-3
• ISBN13: 978-0-942679-20-5
• ISBN: 0-942679-20-2
• Copyright 1998
• 239 pp.
• 1.10lb
• Form: Paperback, Trade paperback (US)
• Price: $12.95

Herbs of the Earth
A Self-Teaching Guide to Healing Remedies

By Stephen Carlson

This book is becoming the herbalist's bible. For the beginner, it's an outstanding introduction to the subject. For those who are already knowledgeable, it is a ready reference and thorough review. To challenge the serious student, it lists questions at the end of each chapter: "What family of herbs, useful at other times, should not be used by pregnant women?"

There are a great many herbals. This one deserves to be on the bookshelf of everybody who has a serious interest in the subject.

• Mary Carse held classes for aspiring herbalists for more than a quarter of a century. She couldn't find an appropriate text, so she wrote her own, duplicating it at the local copy shop. Day after day, for over 25 years, her interactions with students led to improvements. Finally, she got tired of duplicating her materials and asked us to publish them in book form. We were thrilled.

• Even after we published the book, Mary Carse was still teaching classes, interacting with students, and coming up with improvements and refinements to the book. So we had to come out with a second edition. No other herbal has been more thoroughly researched and tested by students.

• Mary Carse became an herbalist in the rural American tradition, beginning her practice long before anybody thought up the term "New Age." She gets along well with New Age herbalists who come to her for studies. But there's nothing mystical about her approach to herbal healing. She describes what has been proven to work in practice, not just what should work according to theory.

• Her writing style is like that of an old-fashioned school marm. She tells you what you need to know, then asks questions at the ends of chapters to see if you were reading carefully enough. Herbs are powerful medicine, and Mary Carse wants to be sure that before you use or prescribe them, you know what you're doing. In her book, you'll get the most thoroughly established information possible, with the most complete warnings to prevent any mis-use of herbs.

What People are Saying

From Library Journal:

Another in the field of complementary health care devoted to herbal remedies, this book provides the general reader with an overview of botanical families, directions for herbal preparations, and descriptions of herbs and ailments. Designed as a self-teaching text and handbook, the guide . . . combines formats, with a dictionary arrangement and chapter lessons followed by review questions. The guide's best feature is that it allows the reader to approach the study of herbalism from a botanical or medical viewpoint.

- Marilyn Rosenthal, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Independent Publisher

As expenses for conventional medical treatments skyrocket, many people have embraced alternative forms of medicine. One of the fastest growing practices is herbalism—a return to traditional healing techniques using plants commonly found throughout North America. Mary Carse, a registered herbalist, has written a thorough guide for anyone interested in treating disorders with plants and herbs that can be cultivated or found in nature.

Many of the techniques in the book have been largely forgotten and in danger of being lost, since they have been limited in use by isolated communities in the Appalachians or Indian reservations, until the publication of this guide.

The book, generously sprinkled with illustrations, offers information on the most frequently used herbs-how to find them and how best to prepare them for use. The book is cross-referenced with a listing of common disorders and the best ways to treat them with herbs.The author offers a laid-back, easy to understand writing style that fits perfectly with the philosophy that herbalism embraces. People that seek a simpler and more natural way to live are likely to accept the subtleties of herb-growing and herb-gathering and the realization that time, by slowing down, takes on new meaning and becomes part of the healing process.

The author encourages the serious reader to step back from the fast, instant-cure world of conventional medicine and treat the disorder at a more leisurely pace. Taking the time to boil water and let a remedial brew steep slowly is part of the treatment not found by simply popping a pill.The book, based on 25 years of instruction, is a labor of love. The author has stipulated that all royalties are to go to a monastery in Massachusetts.