A Forest Journey: The Role of Wood in the Development of Civilization

Chronicles the destruction of the world's forests as a result of overdependency on wood as a building and energy source, and points out the resultant declining soil productivity, flooding, and depletion of firewood supplies

Perlin has accumulated what seems every reference to the use and misuse of forests in the period beginning with Gilgamesh and ending with the 1880 U.S. census. In between, he chronicles the deforestation of Asia, the Mediterranean, Europe, the West Indies, and the United States by kings, warlords, and robber barons for purposes ranging from building navies to smelting iron to clearing land for cash crops. The research is exhaustive, but the book disappoints in two ways. First, the style is flat. All information is treated as equal in weight, without interpretation or expert opinion. This makes for heavy reading; the hundreds of subheadings in the text accentuate a sense of the book as a compilation, rather than a narrative. Second, given how deforestation has recently become a hot topic, one wishes for a connection to the present time, so that the information might be applied, rather than simply noted.
- Mark L. Shelton, Columbus, Ohio
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.