Overview

"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 alarming present-day 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."

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9780226899268

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A majestic work of scholarship. It will become instantly one of those classic studies that every bibliography in the field must include. - Stephen J. Pyne, author of Fire: A Brief History What a tour de force! Through exceptional scholasticism, Michael Williams presents the story of our deforested Earth, all the way from the Ice Ages to the new millennium. With abundant documentation and analysis, this book is far and away the finest account of what have been the greatest celebrations of nature, and in the case of tropical forests, may soon be eliminated from our landscapes. - Norman Myers, author of The Primary Source: Tropical Forests and Our Future

"""A majestic work of scholarship. It will become instantly one of those classic studies that every bibliography in the field must include."" - Stephen J. Pyne, author of Fire: A Brief History ""What a tour de force! Through exceptional scholasticism, Michael Williams presents the story of our deforested Earth, all the way from the Ice Ages to the new millennium. With abundant documentation and analysis, this book is far and away the finest account of what have been the greatest celebrations of nature, and in the case of tropical forests, may soon be eliminated from our landscapes."" - Norman Myers, author of The Primary Source: Tropical Forests and Our Future"

Anyone who doubts the power of history to inform the present should read this closely argued and sweeping survey. This is rich, timely, and sobering historical fare written in a measured, non-sensationalist style by a master of his craft. One only hopes (almost certainly vainly) that today's policymakers take its lessons to heart. - Brian Fagan, Los Angeles Times The most comprehensive account ever written of when, where, and how humans have wrought what is surely the most dramatic change in Earth's surface since the end of the Pleistocene.... The book is not simply about deforestation but about every aspect of human use of the forest and the forces that drive this use. - Brian Donahue, Science

Author Information

Michael Williams is professor of geography at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Oriel College. He is the author, most recently, of Americans and Their Forests: A Historical Geography, as well as the editor of Wetlands: A Threatened Landscape and coeditor of A Century of British Geography.

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