Environmental History: A Concise Introduction (New Perspectives on the Past) - Softcover

"Simmons exceeds admirably in his formidable task of introducing environmental history concisely, effectively illustrating its major themes and materials selected across time and space. His style is engaging and accessible. His often witty prose, sprinkled with nice touches of irony, never flounders in specialist or preachifying language ... Valuable, refreshing and truly global." Environmental History "Engaging and accessible ..." Geographical Journal "Ian Simmons has written a book that is balanced and informed, avoiding the pitfalls of preconception that too often mar environmental literature." Geographical Journal

Much scholarly work is being undertaken on the fine detail of environmental history, showing how various cultural processes expressed themselves in ecological change. This book provides an outline context for them on a global basis. The main lineaments of the ecological relationships between humans and their surroundings are periodized and characterized and a series of examples show the varieties of change which can be produced. A separate chapter then adumbrates the kind of environmental history that may eventually be written for (in this case) England/Wales and for Japan. Throughout, the dominant epistemology is empirical and realist but in the last chapter Professor Simmons considers other modes of "environmental knowing" and so from a purely scientific beginning the book then locates itself as accessible to humanities scholars.