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| Vestal Fire |
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An Environmental History, Told through Fire, of Europe and Europe's Encounter with the World
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Stephen J. Pyne
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$29.95 Paperback
Release Date: 11/1/1997
ISBN: 9780295979489
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| 408 Pages |
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Canadian rights only
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Distributed for University of Washington Press
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| OTHER WAYS TO ORDER |
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About the Book
Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books -- Cycle of Fire
Vestal Fire is Stephen Pyne's masterpiece. In it, he offers nothing less than a retelling of all of European history from a vantage point no other historian has ever adopted so consistently before: that of the fire which in Pyne's view burns at the very heart of Western civilization.
-- William Cronon, Foreword
Stephen Pyne has been described as having a consciousness "composed of equal parts historian, ecologist, philosopher, critic, poet, and sociologist." At this time in history when many people are trying to understand their true relationship with the natural environment, this book offers a remarkable contribution - breathtaking in the scope of its research and exhilarating to read.
Pyne takes the reader on a journey through time, exploring the terrain of Europe and the uses and abuses of its lands as well as, through migration and conquest, many parts of the rest of the world. Whether he is discussing the Mediterranean region, Russia, Scandinavia, the British Isles, central Europe, or colonized islands; whether he is considering the impact of agriculture, forestry, or Enlightenment thinking, the author brings an unmatched insight to his subject.
Vestal Fire takes its title from Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth and keeper of the sacred fire on Mount Olympus. But the book's title also suggests the strengths and limitations of Europe's peculiar conception of fire, and through fire, of its relationship to nature. Between the untamed fire of the wilderness and the tended fire of the hearth lies a never-ending dialectic in which human beings struggle to control natural forces and processes that in fact can sometimes be directed but never wholly dominated or contained.
About the Author(s)
Stephen J. Pyne has written extensively on fire in such books as Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire and most recently Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910. He is a professor in Arizona State University's Biology & Society Program, in which he teaches courses on the history of fire, exploration, and environmental history.
Table of Contents
Table of contents information is not available at this time.
Reviews
Stephen Pyne's Vestal Fire is an astounding tour de force, even by this writer's demandingly high standards: nothing less than a total history of the western conception, practice, and response to fire through (at least) three millennia.
--Simon Schama, author of Landscape and Memory
Vestal Fire can be described as Pyne's masterpiece, a prodigious and eloquent narration of European history spanning several millennia, woven together by a common thread, fire.
-- Choice
A work of marvelous intellectual force and considerable learning.
--Atlantic Monthly
No one is better qualified to teach us about fire's history, fire's crucial role in shaping landscapes, than Stephen Pyne. His discussions of forestry, land-management elitism, pastoral incendiarism, nature reserves, the conservation movement and the ecology of disturbance are profoundly valuable.
-- New York Times Book Review
Sample Chapter
A sample chapter of this title is not available at this time. For further information, please email info@ubcpress.ubc.ca.
Related Topics
Environmental Studies
Other Ways To Order
In Canada, order your copy of Vestal Fire from UTP Distribution at:
UTP Distribution
5201 Dufferin Street
Toronto, Ontario
M3H 5T8
Phone orders: 1(800)565-9523 or (416)667-7791
Fax orders: 1(800)221-9985 or (416)667-7832
Email: utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca
Ordering information for customers outside Canada
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