Ecology and Empire: Environmental History of Settler Societies

In this important compilation of new work, Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin reflect on the nature of ecology and empire - combining the essences, as Griffith puts it, of power and innocence...The book sets itself apart from the typically self-regarding US tradition in environmental history by insisting on presenting environmental history on a regional and global comparative scale. 'Think locally, but act globally' becomes more than a bumper sticker in their capable hands. This text, already a primer in its field, will help anyone wishing to take up the task. In this important compilation of new work, Tom Griffiths and Libby Robin reflect on the nature of ecology and empire - combining the essences, as Griffith puts it, of power and innocence...The book sets itself apart from the typically self-regarding US tradition in environmental history by insisting on presenting environmental history on a regional and global comparative scale. 'Think locally, but act globally' becomes more than a bumper sticker in their capable hands. This text, already a primer in its field, will help anyone wishing to take up the task.

Ecology and Empire examines the relationship between the expansion of empire and the environmental experience of the extra-European world. For the first time it moves the debate beyond the North American frontier by comparing the experience of settler societies in Australia, South Africa and Latin America. From Australian water management and the crisis of deforestation in Latin America, to beef farming in the Transvaal, this topical book provides a broad comparative historical approach to the impact of humanity on the ecological systems on which settler societies base their livelihood.