Table of Contents

List of Maps x

Notes on Contributors xi

Acknowledgments xv

Global Environmental History: An Introduction xvi
J. R. McNeill and Erin Stewart Mauldin

PART I TIMES 1

1 Global Environmental History: The First 150,000 Years 3
J. R. McNeill

2 The Ancient World, c. 500 BCE to 500 CE 18
J. Donald Hughes

3 The Medieval World, 500 to 1500 CE 39
Daniel Headrick

4 The (Modern) World since 1500 57
Robert B. Marks

PART II PLACES 79

5 Southeast Asia in Global Environmental History 81
Peter Boomgaard

6 Environmental History in Africa 96
Jane Carruthers

7 Latin America in Global Environmental History 116
Shawn W. Miller

8 The United States in Global Environmental History 132
Erin Stewart Mauldin

9 The Arctic and Subarctic in Global Environmental History 153
Liza Piper

10 The Middle East in Global Environmental History 167
Alan Mikhail

11 Australia in Global Environmental History 182
Libby Robin

12 Oceania: The Environmental History of One-Third of the Globe 196
Paul D'Arcy

13 The Environmental History of the Soviet Union 222
Stephen Brain

PART III DRIVERS OF CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATIONS 245
 
14 The Grasslands of North America and Russia 247
David Moon

15 Global Forests 263
Nancy Langston

16 Fishing and Whaling 279
Micah S. Muscolino

17 Riverine Environments 297
Alan Roe

18 War and the Environment 319
Richard P. Tucker

19 Technology and the Environment 340
Paul Josephson

20 Cities and the Environment 360
Jordan Bauer and Martin V. Melosi

21 Evolution and the Environment 377
Edmund Russell

22 Climate Change in Global Environmental History 394
Sam White

23 Industrial Agriculture 411
Meredith McKittrick

24 Biological Exchange in Global Environmental History 433
J. R. McNeill

PART IV ENVIRONMENTAL THOUGHT AND ACTION 453

25 Environmentalism in Brazil: A Historical Perspective 455
José Augusto Pádua

26 Environmentalism and Environmental Movements in China since 1949 474
Bao Maohong

27 Religion and Environmentalism 493
Joachim Radkau

28 The Environmentalism of the Poor: Its Origins and Spread 513
Joan Martinez-Alier

Index 530

About the Author

J. R. McNeill is Professor of History at GeorgetownUniversity, where he held the Cinco Hermanos Chair in Environmentaland International Affairs before becoming University Professor in2006. His book Something New under the Sun: An EnvironmentalHistory of the Twentieth-Century World was listed by TheTimes as one of the best science books ever written. The bookwas cowinner of the World History Association and Forest HistorySociety book prizes and runner-up for the BP Natural World bookprize. McNeill has authored a number of other award-winning bookson environmental history, and in 2010 he was awarded the ToynbeePrize for academic and public contributions tohumanity. Erin Stewart Mauldin is a PhD candidate in USenvironmental history at Georgetown University. She is currentlywriting her dissertation on the environmental history of theReconstruction period in the southern United States.

Reviews

This broad-ranging and ambitious book, edited by J.R.McNeill and Erin Stewart Mauldin, sees the welcome convergence oftwo fertile historiographical trends of the past several decades:globalism and environmentalism... Nevertheless, the editors haveproduced a volume of a consistently high standard, with all theessays of good quality. (English HistoricalReview, 1 August 2014) In 28 chapters, the book provides a broad introductionthat is aimed at historians with an interest in striking topics andissues as well as at environmental history researchers wishing towiden or deepen their knowledge. (H-Soz-u-Kult,June 2014) "There is much in this book that will be of interest toenvironmentalists, geographers and politicians, and the generalpublic. Environmental historians should find this a useful overviewof their topic." (Reference Reviews, Vol. 28 no. 1,2014) "Those whose interest is world environmental history will findthis book a pleasure to read from cover to cover, and thebibliographies are current and extensive." (Choice,September 2013)