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A Foundational Conservation Story RevivedAncient writers observed that forests always recede as civilizations develop and grow. The great Roman poet Ovid wrote that before civilization began, "even the pine tree stood on its own very hills" but when civilization took over, "the mountain oak, the pine were felled."
This happened for a simple reason: trees have been the principal fuel and building material of every society over the millennia, from the time urban areas were settled until the middle of the nineteenth century. To this day trees still fulfill these roles for a good portion of the world's population.
Without vast supplies of wood from forests, the great civilizations of Sumer, Assyria, Egypt, Crete, Greece, Rome, the Islamic World, Western Europe, and North America would have never emerged. Wood, in fact, is the unsung hero of the technological revolution that has brought us from a stone and bone culture to our present age.
Until the ascendancy of fossil fuels, wood was the principal fuel and building material from the dawn of civilization. Its abundance or scarcity greatly shaped, as
A Forest Journey ably relates, the culture, demographics, economy, internal and external politics and technology of successive societies over the millennia.
The Forest Journey was originally published in 1989 and updated in 2005. The book's comprehensive coverage of the major role forests have played in human life -- told with grace, fluency, imagination, and humor -- gained it recognition as a Harvard Classic in Science and World History and as one of Harvard's "One Hundred Great Books." Others receiving the honor include such luminaries as Stephen Jay Gould and E.O. Wilson. This is a foundational conservation story that should not be lost in the archives. This new, updated and revised edition emphasizes the importance of forests in the fight against global warming and the urgency to protect what remains of the great trees and forests of the world.
List of contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO THE UPDATED EDITION 7
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO THE PREVIOUS EDITION 9
AUTHOR'S FOREWORD 11
FOREWORD BY LESTER R. BROWN 15
1 INTRODUCTION 25
THE OLD WORLD
2 MESOPOTAMIA 35
3 BRONZE AGE CRETE AND KNOSSOS 44
4 MYCENAEAN GREECE 58
5 CYPRUS 69
6 ARCHAIC, CLASSICAL, AND HELLENISTIC GREECE 75
7 ROME 203
8 THE MUSLIM MEDITERRANEAN 131
9 THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC 245
10 ENGLAND 163
EARLY TUDOR 163
ELIZABETH I 171
THE EARLY STUARTS 191
CIVIL WAR TO LATE STUARTS 211
ENGLAND LEAVES THE WOOD AGE 227
THE NEW WORLD
11 MADEIRA, THE WEST INDIES, AND BRAZIL 249
12 AMERICA 263
NEW ENGLAND: DEVELOPMENT 263 NEW ENGLAND: STRATEGIC VALUE 278 NEW ENGLAND: SEEDS OF INDEPENDENCE 286 THE THIRTEEN AMERICAN COLONIES 301 AMERICA AFTER THE REVOLUTION 324
NOTES AND COMMENTS 363
EPILOGUE 432
NOTES AND COMMENTS TO THE EPILOGUE 442
INDEX
About the author
John Perlin is the author of four books: A Golden Thread: 2500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology; A Forest Journey: A History of Trees and Civilization; From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity; and Let It Shine: The 6000-Year Story of Solar Energy. Perlin taught physics at University of California, Santa Barbara. He lives in Santa Barbara
Summary
A Foundational Conservation Story Revived
Ancient writers observed that forests always recede as civilizations develop and grow. The great Roman poet Ovid wrote that before civilization began, “even the pine tree stood on its own very hills” but when civilization took over, “the mountain oak, the pine were felled.”
This happened for a simple reason: trees have been the principal fuel and building material of every society over the millennia, from the time urban areas were settled until the middle of the nineteenth century. To this day trees still fulfill these roles for a good portion of the world’s population.
Without vast supplies of wood from forests, the great civilizations of Sumer, Assyria, Egypt, Crete, Greece, Rome, the Islamic World, Western Europe, and North America would have never emerged. Wood, in fact, is the unsung hero of the technological revolution that has brought us from a stone and bone culture to our present age.
Until the ascendancy of fossil fuels, wood was the principal fuel and building material from the dawn of civilization. Its abundance or scarcity greatly shaped, as A Forest Journey ably relates, the culture, demographics, economy, internal and external politics and technology of successive societies over the millennia.
The Forest Journey was originally published in 1989 and updated in 2005. The book's comprehensive coverage of the major role forests have played in human life -- told with grace, fluency, imagination, and humor -- gained it recognition as a Harvard Classic in Science and World History and as one of Harvard's "One Hundred Great Books." Others receiving the honor include such luminaries as Stephen Jay Gould and E.O. Wilson. This is a foundational conservation story that should not be lost in the archives. This new, updated and revised edition emphasizes the importance of forests in the fight against global warming and the urgency to protect what remains of the great trees and forests of the world.
Foreword
A sort of Western Civ 101 with a focus on the crucial role of wood in the rise and fall of states and cultures.
