Overview

Throughout human history our relationship with trees, woods and forests has remained central to the development of our technology, culture and expansion as a species. In this engaging book Charles Watkins examines and challenges our historical andmodern attitudes to wooded environments, and our continuing anxiety about humanity's impact on these natural realms.

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9781780236643

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Reviews

Watkins constantly sets imaginative or lyrical appreciation against a stricter focus on forest and woodland management, and on human intervention in the landscape over the centuries. . . . Always brisk and informative, Watkins draws on a variety of disciplines. . . . The 'history of trees' is constantly being rewritten, ' Watkins concludes--and his book is a welcome, lively and intriguing addition to this continuing line. --Times Literary Supplement Rural geographer Watkins's history of the interactions between humans and trees is both sprawling and highly detailed. . . . Weaves together evidence from the sciences (archaeology, genetics, ecology), the humanities (history, poetry, prose, painting), and the social sciences (politics, policy, economics) to document the ever-changing perception that Western culture has had of trees and forests. --Choice Charcoal, warships, fruit, houses, shade and sheer beauty--the manifold uses of trees have bound them inextricably to human culture. Geographer Watkins's interdisciplinary exploration of that long, convoluted relationship is a fact-packed dazzler. With Watkins we walk a Neolithic 'road' of ash planks, delight in Pliny's description of German forests as 'untouched by the ages and coeval with the world, ' celebrate the rise of scientific forestry and ponder the diseases and creeping urbanization now threatening the future of these stupendous organisms. Sumptuously illustrated. --Nature

Author Information

Charles Watkins is professor of rural geography at the University of Nottingham, UK. He is coauthor of Uvedale Price 1747-1829: Decoding the Picturesque and The British Arboretum: Science, Trees and Culture in the Nineteenth Century.

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