The Cultivated Forest (Paperback)

Synthesizes multiple perspectives on Asian forests from early history to the near present

Forests have histories that need to be told. This examination of wood and woodlands in East and Southeast Asia brings together case studies from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Sumatra to explore continuities in the history of forest management across these regions as well as the distinctive qualities of human-forest relations within each context. With a general introduction to forest histories in East and Southeast Asia and a multidisciplinary set of authors, The Cultivated Forest constructs alternative lineages of forest knowledge that aim to transcend the frameworks imposed by colonial or national histories. Across these regions, forests were sites of exploitation, contestation, and ritual just as they were in Europe and America. This volume puts studies of Asian forests into conversation with global forest histories.

Ian M. Miller is assistant professor of history at St. John’s University. He is author of Fir and Empire: The Transformation of Forests in Early Modern China. Bradley Camp Davis is associate professor of history at Eastern Connecticut State University. He is author of Imperial Bandits: Outlaws and Rebels in the China-Vietnam Borderlands. Brian Lander is assistant professor of history and environment and society at Brown University. He is author of The King’s Harvest: A Political Ecology of China from the First Farmers to the First Empire. John S. Lee is assistant professor of East Asian history at Durham University. Contributors: David A. Bello, John Elijah Bender, Brian Collins, Keala Hagmann, Stevan Harrell, Tom Hinckley, Larissa Pitts, Amanda Schmidt, Faizah Zakaria, and Meng Zhang