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Book
Review |
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Hughes, J. Donald. An Environmental History of the World: Humankind's
Changing Role in the Community of Life (Routledge, 2001). 264 pp, illustrations,
bibliographic essay, index, $37.95 paper. |
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J. Donald Hughes understands that history
entails more than the study of political and economic systems and the exchange
of ideas over time. As a renowned environmental historian, he has
written extensively about nature's role in the unfolding of human events.
But since the field's inception in the early 1970s, most environmental histories
have focused on regional or national issues, both in the US and Europe.
In An Environmental History of the World, Hughes demonstrates how
natural forces and resources have shaped societies on a global scalehow
people and the environment share a reciprocal relationship, giving and taking,
but often in unequal amounts. The use and subsequent abuse of landscapes
often crosses arbitrary political and cultural boundaries and even continents
and oceans, making the study of the environment the perfect vehicle for
elucidating global topics. This compact volume takes its examples
from well before recorded history through the end of the twentieth century,
from well-known locales and obscure places alike, to tell us that the natural
world and humans imprint one another in significant ways. It is an
ambitious task, but one that is ultimately rewarding for scholar and student
alike. |
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Hughes makes no attempt to interpret all,
or even most, of the human-environmental interactions that have transpired
since people began walking upright. Instead of striving for a comprehensive
tome, his nine chapters, chronologically oriented, begin with a brief analysis
of an historical epoch, e.g., ancient cultures in Sumeria and Asia, classical
Greece and Rome, and the Industrial Revolution. The introductions
are then followed by three case studies that magnify the preceding text.
With so few examples for each chapter there is a good deal of historical
material missing, but Hughes is not interested in writing a comprehensive
account; his introductory pages outline his thesis and subsequent evidence
proves his case. It is a simple, effective formula and a definite
improvement on Clive Ponting's more thorough, yet far more ponderous A
Green History of the World (1991). Hughes deftly weaves together
personal anecdotes and historical data from select places and times with
broader theories about the repercussions of land and resource use to craft
an insightful narrative. It is at once weighty and readable. |
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The scope and depth of Hughes's knowledge
is impressive. He is as conversant with the nuances of ecological
theory and the ideological origins of environmental ethics as he is with
the Clinton Administration's 1993 Timber Summit. The reader learns
about the African Serengeti, the place where homo sapiens first emerged,
and about London's infamous Great Stink of 1858, a nasty combination of
untreated sewage and unusually low tides on the Thames that resulted in
a week-long adjournment of Parliament. More familiar subjects are
also covered, such as the importation of people, domestic animals and plants,
weeds, and pathogens from Europe to North and South America in the 15th
and 16th centuries. The themes here are borrowed heavily
from Alfred Crosby's and Elinor Melville's works, but Hughes manages to
give these events a certain freshness by focusing on 16th century
Tenochtitlán as his exclusive example. These are disparate
places and times, to be sure, but the connective tissue for all these stories
is strong: they are "an account of changes in human societies as they
relate to changes in the natural environment" (p. 4). In this
sense, Hughes is decidedly anthropocentric, in contrast to the claims made
by critics that environmental historians care little about humans and are
academic misanthropes. Such criticism cannot be made about An Environmental
History of the World. Humans, and their relationship with the
organic and inorganic world, take center stage. |
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Another of this book's strengths is its emphasis
on non-Western environmental history. The title is indeed appropriateit
is a world history of the environment and its people. In fact,
Hughes provides far more case studies from non-Western areas than Western,
including topics such as irrigation in Bali, the Aswan dam in Egypt, the
Galápagos Islands, and environmental change in pre-contact Tahiti,
Hawai'i, and New Zealand, among others. He is particularly interested
in how the more remote places on the map have been raided for their natural
resources, only to have the indigenous inhabitants be forced to pick up
the pieces when environmental damage or disaster resulted. And readers
in and out of the United States may also appreciate Hughes's use of metric
measurements, a rare decision for an American historian. |
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This thoroughly-researched global study would
be best suited for undergraduate and graduate university students.
Because of the complexity of its concepts and the depth of its writing,
the book is simply too advanced for most high school students. But
as a text in a world civilizations, humanities, or world environmental history
course, An Environmental History of the World would exceed a professor's
expectations. If the course calls for the study of the environment
over a broad sweep of time, Hughes would be a wise choice. |
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Andrew Duffin
Washington State University |