AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: Empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism by Gregory Allen Barton, Alan R. H. Baker, Richard Dennis, Deryck Holdworth ISBN: 0-521-81417-0 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 15 September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $60.00

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Unlearning the Myths of Environmentalism
Comment: There are many myths in the history of environmentalism. The author, Gregory Barton, has carefully taken apart a multitude of myths about the origins of the environmental movement. Carefully researched and carefully reasoned this thoughtful book explains the sub-continental beginning of the Ideas and legislation that has protected nature around the world. I cannot praise this book too highly.

Rating: 5
Summary: Empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism
Comment: In this remarkable book, Gregory Barton answers the most important questions that can be asked in environmental history. Where did environmentalism come from? How did it arise? How did it change the earth? How did it change us? Where is the movement going from here? Most environmental history is centered on the United States and misses the global dynamics of the movement. I am sorry to say that many environmental history books share in the general malaise of bad academic writing, or are such a jumble of superfluous footnotes that little meaning can be extracted, even with the most strenuous effort on the part of the reader. This book can not be more different. Empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism place the environmental movement in clear global perspective, giving us the When, Where, Why, and How it all began. It ties together legislation, political propaganda, economics, trade, empire, and of course, forestry, to weave a single explanatory narrative. In this ambitious endeavor, Gregory Barton brilliantly succeeds. The result is a highly readable and convincing argument that introduces a cast of historical actors-wholly forgotten-- that have forever changed the face of the world.

Environmentalism, Barton argues, began in British India. From there it spread to the other colonies and then to the United States. The magnitude of the changes are mind boggling. Lord Dalhousie introduced "the constitution of environmentalism" in India in 1855, the Forest Charter, decisively changing the status of "waste land" into government property. This is a key intellectual revolution. Private property-in the absolute sense-had been carved out by the British land owning elite in England in 1688 and is thought by many scholars to be the foundation of the industrial revolution. Barton reveals how the government of British India extended this private concept of absolute property from the individual to the state. Here also is born the concept of "multi-use," the idea that government land must be professionally and scientifically managed for the whole national family, peasants, industry, and romantic conservationists alike, a concept that still guides the management of most protected forest areas. The Forest Charter became a model that overcame political opposition to conservation and quickly spread to the other British colonies and the United States.

This book clears away long-standing myths. Victorians were not only conservative--but innovative, practical and romantic all rolled into one. Imperialists were not mere exploiters--the altruism of the Indian foresters who sacrificed health and sometimes their life to preserve nature can be described as nothing less than heroic. Christianity did not postulate a radical divorce between God and nature--most of these early environmental innovators were Christian. Environmentalism did not arrive in the early twentieth century from the American frontier full grown, with murky parentage in the Romantic Movement and pagan country dances. Imperialism mothered environmentalism and gave environmentalism all the nourishment it required to grow--the rule of law, absolute property rights (for individuals and government), police action, romantic concern for nature, concern for global climate stability, and great doses of fair play to "settle" the conflicting land claims.

A note on the author's sources. He translates from a variety of languages, and utilizes archives in Europe, the United States, Africa, and the Subcontinent. The book, for all its impressive research, is actually rather short and gives a lot of information for a brief read. But his scholarship doesn't stand in the way of telling an exciting story. Surprisingly, I learned a fascinating fact about my favorite piece of literature, the Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling. I did not know that Kipling wrote his first Mowgli story with Mowgli an adult, discovered by empire foresters in the jungles of India. Kipling wrote a now forgotten short story that preceded the Jungle Book. Mowgli, raised entirely by Mother Nature, became the perfect recruit to join the Queen's service as an early conservator- an empire forester. With a pension at the end to retire on.