Customer Reviews

Human Impact on Ancient Environments

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Dr. Redman, an archaeologist with anthropological and historical expertise, doesn't care about myth or political correctness. He simply, factually, and with precision demonstrates that man - for better or worse - has been impacting his environment since the days he hopped off the glacier and wanted dinner. The idea of the "green" primitive people, the noble savages in commune with nature, is broken down. Redman demonstrates that humans have used whatever technologies were available to them to manipulate their environment, usually for short term gains and at the expense of long-term environmental quality. But not always. He also lists examples in which various cultures have managed to strike some sort of equilibrium with their environments, at last for periods of time up to a thousand years or more.

Dr. Redman is optomistic about the future, but sounds important warnings for complex societies, including ours. This is a must-read for anyone concerned about environmental issues and involved with environmental policy. And that should be all of us.

Of the 25 books I've read in the past year this is the one that will have the most lasting impact. The dominant media factions would have us believe that all native people before European contact lived in pristine eco-edens ruled by peaceful matriarichies, with no toll taken on their habitat. Guess again! Hundreds developed sustainable relationships...but thousands were horribly destructive. "Humans have had a role in transforming virtually every environment and locale on this earth"-(fact) no matter which continent they inhabited. If we as a species don't learn from our mistakes of the past...we'd better find another planet to relocate to.

I purchased this book for a gen ed called Human Impacts on the Environment. It has a lot of interesting case studies about past societies and how/why they failed. It was interesting to read, but some chapters dragged on. It is definitely relevant from a sustainability perspective, and I would recommend it to someone interested in sustainability or anthropogenic climate change. It reads like a textbook, but is insightful.

Redman makes a very good point in this novel that should be realized by all, and makes it clear that going back to the new-age hyped "natural" way of living that humanity possesed before contact with the evil Europeans means breaking apart important characteristics of human nature (though he does show that such a way of living is possible and has been done). Yet the amount of time he takes to make his point clear, and the amount of needless background information he includes, makes this book a very tedious read. I recommend this book only to those who have a deep and motivating curiosity about humanity's impact on the world. (Tree huggers, this is a book for you)