Global Environmental History 10,000 BC to AD 2000

About this book

Courses which deal with environmental history have long lacked an overview: a book which looks at the long-term history of environment and humanity, have considered the whole world and recognized the contributions of both the natural sciences and the social sciences, together with, increasingly, the humanities.

This book takes the major phases of human technological evolution in the last 12,000 years and looks at the ways in which they have been deployed to change the natural world and which in turn have responded to factors such as climatic change. Today's environmental anxieties are this put into a long-term perspective, though this book is of history and not prophecy - it makes no judgements on current preoccupations. The accessibility of the writing will make the book useful for readers of all backgrounds and a glossary is included of any unfamiliar terms.

Contents

Preface Prologue - Mustering the Marks Chapter 1 - Resonances Chapter 2 - The Gatherer-hunters and their World Chapter 3 - Pre-industrial Agriculture Chapter 4 - An industrious world Chapter 5 - A Post-industrial Era? Chapter 6 - Emerging themes Further Reading Glossary

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Biography

I. G. Simmons retired in 2001 from his position as Emeritus Professor of Geography at the University of Durham. He has written many books and worked on the earliest environmental manipulations of uplands in the Holocene and on the wider field of human impact on the natural environment in both its scientific and humanistic dimensions. His publications include An Environmental History of Great Britain (2001) and The Moorlands of England and Wales (2003). He is a Chartered Geographer; a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the British Academy; and a Victoria medallist of the Royal Geographical Society.