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Series in Ecology and History

About Series in Ecology and History

This series publishes important regional and subregional studies of global and comparative environmental history. The editors seek to publish the best of emerging literature on the environmental history of the wider world.

Series Editors
James L. A. Webb, Jr., Series Editor
Dept. of History
Colby College
Waterville, ME 04901 e-mail: jlwebb@colby.edu

Featured Titles


Inventing Global EcologyOn Sale

Tracking the Biodiversity Ideal in India, 1947–1997

By Michael L. Lewis

Blue jeans, MTV, Coca-Cola, and… ecology? We don't often think of conservation sciences as a U.S. export, but in the second half of the twentieth century an astounding array of scientists and ideas flowed out from the United States into the world, preaching the gospel of conservation-oriented ecology.…

Cover of Triumph of the Expert

Triumph of the Expert

Agrarian Doctrines of Development and the Legacies of British Colonialism

By Joseph Morgan Hodge

The most striking feature of British colonialism in the twentieth century was the confidence it expressed in the use of science and expertise, especially when joined with the new bureaucratic capacities of the state, to develop natural and human resources of the empire.…


All Titles

Cover of Encountering the Past in Nature

Encountering the Past in Nature

Essays in Environmental History

Edited by Timo Myllyntaus and Mikko Saikku

A deeper understanding of contemporary environmental problems requires us to know where we come from, and the study of environmental history will help us in that quest. Environmental history, in short, may be described as an attempt to study the interaction between humans and nature in the past.…

Cover of The Green Archipelago

The Green Archipelago

Forestry in Preindustrial Japan

By Conrad Totman

This inaugural volume in the Ohio University Press Series in Ecology and History is the paperback edition of Conrad Totman’s widely acclaimed study of Japan’s environmental policies over the centuries.…


Cover of Highland Sanctuary

Highland Sanctuary

Environmental History in Tanzania's Usambara Mountains

By Christopher A. Conte

For more than a century, the world has recognized the extraordinary biological diversity of the forests of Tanzania’s Usambara Mountains. As international attention has focused on forest conservation, farmers, foresters, biologists, and the Tanzanian state have realized that only complex negotiations will save these treasured, but rapidly disappearing, landscapes.…

Cover of How Green Were the Nazis?

How Green Were the Nazis?

Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich

Edited by Franz-Josef Bruggemeier, Mark Cioc and Thomas Zeller

The Nazis created nature preserves, championed sustainable forestry, curbed air pollution, and designed the autobahn highway network as a way of bringing Germans closer to nature. How Green Were the Nazis?: Nature, Environment, and Nation in the Third Reich is the first book to examine the Third Reich's environmental policies and to offer an in-depth exploration of the intersections between brown ideologies and green practices.…


Cover of Imperial Gullies

Imperial GulliesOn Sale

Soil Erosion and Conservation in Lesotho

By Kate B. Showers

Once the grain basket for South Africa, much of Lesotho has become a scarred and degraded landscape. The nation’s spectacular erosion and gullying have concerned environmentalists and conservationists for more than half a century.…

Cover of Inventing Global Ecology

Inventing Global EcologyOn Sale

Tracking the Biodiversity Ideal in India, 1947–1997

By Michael L. Lewis

Blue jeans, MTV, Coca-Cola, and… ecology? We don't often think of conservation sciences as a U.S. export, but in the second half of the twentieth century an astounding array of scientists and ideas flowed out from the United States into the world, preaching the gospel of conservation-oriented ecology.…


Cover of Inventing Pollution

Inventing Pollution

Coal, Smoke, and Culture in Britain since 1800

By Peter Thorsheim

Britain's supremacy in the nineteenth century depended in large part on its vast deposits of coal. This coal not only powered steam engines in factories, ships, and railway locomotives but also warmed homes and cooked food.…

Cover of Resurrecting the Granary of Rome

Resurrecting the Granary of Rome

Environmental History and French Colonial Expansion in North Africa

By Diana K. Davis

Tales of deforestation and desertification in North Africa have been told from the Roman period to the present. Such stories of environmental decline in the Maghreb are still recounted by experts and are widely accepted without question today.…


Cover of Social History and African Environments

Social History and African EnvironmentsOn Sale

West African Strategies

Edited by William Beinart and JoAnn McGregor

The explosion of interest in African environmental history has stimulated research and writing on a wide range of issues facing many African nations. This collection represents some of the finest studies to date.…

Cover of South Africa’s Environmental History

South Africa’s Environmental HistoryOn Sale

Cases and Comparisons

Edited by Stephen Dovers, Ruth Edgecombe and Bill Guest

Environmental history in southern Africa has only recently come into its own as a distinct field of historical inquiry. While natural resources lie at the heart of all environmental history, the field opens the door to a wide range of inquiries, several of which are pioneered in this collection.…


Cover of Triumph of the Expert

Triumph of the Expert

Agrarian Doctrines of Development and the Legacies of British Colonialism

By Joseph Morgan Hodge

The most striking feature of British colonialism in the twentieth century was the confidence it expressed in the use of science and expertise, especially when joined with the new bureaucratic capacities of the state, to develop natural and human resources of the empire.…

Cover of Tropical Pioneers

Tropical Pioneers

Human Agency and Ecological Change in the Highlands of Sri Lanka, 1800–1900

By James L. A. Webb Jr.

In 1800, the highlands of Sri Lanka had some of the most biologically diverse primary tropical rainforest ecosystems in the world. By 1900, only a few craggy corners and mountain caps had been spared the fire stick.…


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