Environmental Studies
Book Details

Ecology and Empire

Environmental History of Settler Societies

Edited by Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin

A major and provocative contribution to the fast-growing field of environmental history.

Opinion

'. . . the book contains many interesting and insightful gems about past environmental practices and the individuals who practised them.'
--Sue Salthouse

'I found Ecology and Empire to be a useful addition in an emerging field.'
--John Dargavel, ANU, Prometheus

About this Title

This ground-breaking book reflects the growing awareness of the relationship between the expansion of empires and the environmental experience of the extra-European world.

The work of an international team of eminent historians, it provides a comparative historical approach to the impact of humankind on the ecological systems on which the settler societies were ultimately based, including the impact of introduced plants and animals. It also explores the way in which the science of ecology itself was an artefact of empire, an examination that brings together imperial history and the history of science.

Ecology and Empire is a major and provocative contribution to the fast-growing field of environmental history.

Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; I ECOLOGY AND EMPIRE: Ecology and Empire: Towards an Australian History of the world by Tom Griffiths; Empire and the Ecological Apocalypse by John MacKenzie; Ecology: A Science of Empire by Libby Robin; Frontiers of Fire by Stephen J. Pyne; II COMPARING AUSTRALIA: The Nature of Australia by Eric Rolls; The Fate of Empire in Low Energy Ecosystems by Tim Flannery; Mawson of the Antarctic: Flynn of the Inland: Progressive Heroes on Australia's Ecological Frontiers, Brigid Hains; Enterprise and Dependency: Water Management in Australia by J. M. Powell; III COMPARING AMERICA: Ecology, Imperialism and Deforestation by Michael Williams; Universal Science, Local Uses: Ecology, Empire and Environmentalism by Tom Dunlap; Global Developments and Latin American Environments by Elinor Melville; IV COMPARING AFRICA: Nationhood and National Parks: Comparative Examples from the Post-Imperial Experience by Jane Caruthers; Vets, Viruses and Environmentalism in the Cape Colony by William Beinart; The Transvaal Beef Frontier: Environment, Ideology and Intent by Shaun Milton; Epilogue: The Environmental History of Settler Societies: A Reflection by David Lowenthal; Bibliography; Index

About the Author

Tom Griffiths is author of the multi-award-winning Hunters and Collectors and co-editor of Prehistory to Politics.

Libby Robin is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Politics at La Trobe University.

Contributors include Eric Rolls and Tim Flannery.

978-0-522-84793-2