Overview

The State in the Forest uses a case study of conflict over use of wood – the principal source of energy and the primary raw material at the time – to offer an environmental history of the nineteenth century ‘great transformation’. The focus is on Cadore, a supposedly peripheral area that was, in fact, at the core of the wood economy. The region comprises several valleys of the Eastern Italian Alps that constituted the main timber supply basin of Venice and other cities of the Veneto plain. With vivid and in-depth description of the role of forest resources for both local communities and state apparatus, the book sheds new light on key aspects of the nineteenth century agrarian world: the debate on wood shortage and the rise of scientific forestry; the social and environmental consequences of Napoleonic administrative reforms; the ambivalent relationship between privatisation of common lands and the restrictions imposed by state authorities on common and customary activities; the reorganisation of timber trade networks during the first steps of the industrial transition in continental Europe. Local socio-economic dynamics illuminate the interrelations between the macro and micro scales, showing how general transformations were perceived and experienced on the ground and how local actors were both subjects and agents of these events.

Full Product Details

9781912186679

Table of Contents

Reviews

'an expertly crafted and inspiring political and social history of forestry and state-making in the formative period of the nineteenth century.' Richard Hoelzl; 'an important milestone and a point of departure for historiography on the Italian commons ... The State in the Forest reminds us about the importance of local history as a tool to understand the consequences of epistemic socio-environmental transformations that still permeate our daily reality.' Claudio de Majo

‘an expertly crafted and inspiring political and social history of forestry and state-making in the formative period of the nineteenth century.’ Richard Hölzl; ‘an important milestone and a point of departure for historiography on the Italian commons … The State in the Forest reminds us about the importance of local history as a tool to understand the consequences of epistemic socio-environmental transformations that still permeate our daily reality.' Claudio de Majo

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available