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Editorial Reviews
Review
"In an epic undertaking, Michael Williams has provided a seven-millennium overview of the impact human beings have had on ''their incomparable heritage, a green, global mantle of forest.'' .... This is a breathtaking work in the sweep of what it encompasses. It is also a book important for many interests: environmental, historical, economic and more. Clearly it will endure for decades to come, even after the current struggle over remaining forests has largely played out."-Thomas E. Lovejoy, American Scientist (Thomas E. Lovejoy American Scientist )
"This book is a tour de force in historical geography. The original volume . . . was much larger, but even the new summarized version is a comprehensive account of the destruction of natural forests. . . . [A] great achievement." (John Flenley New Zealand Geographer )
"[The book] will be of interest to academics, students, and practitioners in many disciplines and professions, but for those who care about natur in general and forestes in particular, and for whom history and geography matter, it constitutes essential reading." (Judith Tsouvalis Royal Geographical Society )
Product Description
See all Editorial Reviews
"In an epic undertaking, Michael Williams has provided a seven-millennium overview of the impact human beings have had on ''their incomparable heritage, a green, global mantle of forest.'' .... This is a breathtaking work in the sweep of what it encompasses. It is also a book important for many interests: environmental, historical, economic and more. Clearly it will endure for decades to come, even after the current struggle over remaining forests has largely played out."-Thomas E. Lovejoy, American Scientist (Thomas E. Lovejoy American Scientist )
"This book is a tour de force in historical geography. The original volume . . . was much larger, but even the new summarized version is a comprehensive account of the destruction of natural forests. . . . [A] great achievement." (John Flenley New Zealand Geographer )
"[The book] will be of interest to academics, students, and practitioners in many disciplines and professions, but for those who care about natur in general and forestes in particular, and for whom history and geography matter, it constitutes essential reading." (Judith Tsouvalis Royal Geographical Society )
Product Description
Since humans first appeared on the earth, we've been cutting down trees for fuel and shelter. Indeed, the thinning, changing, and wholesale clearing of forests are among the most important ways humans have transformed the global environment. With the onset of industrialization and colonization the process has accelerated, as agriculture, metal smelting, trade, war, territorial expansion, and even cultural aversion to forests have all taken their toll.
Michael Williams surveys ten thousand years of history to trace how, why, and when human-induced deforestation has shaped economies, societies, and landscapes around the world. Beginning with the return of the forests to Europe, North America, and the tropics after the Ice Ages, Williams traces the impact of human-set fires for gathering and hunting, land clearing for agriculture, and other activities from the Paleolithic through the classical world and the Middle Ages. He then continues the story from the 1500s to the early 1900s, focusing on forest clearing both within Europe and by European imperialists and industrialists abroad, in such places as the New World and India, China, Japan, and Latin America. Finally, he covers the present-day and alarming escalation of deforestation, with the ever-increasing human population placing a possibly unsupportable burden on the world's forests.
Accessible and nonsensationalist, Deforesting the Earth provides the historical and geographical background we need for a deeper understanding of deforestation's tremendous impact on the environment and the people who inhabit it.
(10/01/2003)
Michael Williams surveys ten thousand years of history to trace how, why, and when human-induced deforestation has shaped economies, societies, and landscapes around the world. Beginning with the return of the forests to Europe, North America, and the tropics after the Ice Ages, Williams traces the impact of human-set fires for gathering and hunting, land clearing for agriculture, and other activities from the Paleolithic through the classical world and the Middle Ages. He then continues the story from the 1500s to the early 1900s, focusing on forest clearing both within Europe and by European imperialists and industrialists abroad, in such places as the New World and India, China, Japan, and Latin America. Finally, he covers the present-day and alarming escalation of deforestation, with the ever-increasing human population placing a possibly unsupportable burden on the world's forests.
Accessible and nonsensationalist, Deforesting the Earth provides the historical and geographical background we need for a deeper understanding of deforestation's tremendous impact on the environment and the people who inhabit it.
See all Editorial Reviews
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Inside This Book Citations: 7 books that cite this book Explore: Citations | Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Key Phrases - SIPs: forces and cultural climates, interrupted woodland, forêts allemandes, constructional timber, charcoal iron industry (more) Key Phrases - CAPs: United States, North America, Southeast Asia, Latin America, New York (more) Browse Sample Pages: Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Surprise Me! |
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Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
If ever there was a beginning to the modern forest it was at the end of the Ice Age just over 10,000 years ago when the great sheets of ice that covered the Northern Hemisphere began to melt and retreat. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
forces and cultural climates, interrupted woodland, forêts allemandes, constructional timber, charcoal iron industry, green archipelago,
If ever there was a beginning to the modern forest it was at the end of the Ice Age just over 10,000 years ago when the great sheets of ice that covered the Northern Hemisphere began to melt and retreat. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
forces and cultural climates, interrupted woodland, forêts allemandes, constructional timber, charcoal iron industry, green archipelago,