Book Reviews A Seamless Blend of Science and History Deforesting the Earth: from Pre- history to Global Crisis. Williams, M. 2003. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL. 689 pp. $70.00 (hard- cover). ISBN 0–226–899268. The title of this impressive book suc- cinctly indicates its very ambitious scope, describing how most of the earth’s forests have been cleared, for many regions not once but repeat- edly, from the time people came to new areas to the present. Its subject is summarized in the preface as be- ing “... how, why, and when humans eliminated trees and changed forests, and so shaped the economies, soci- eties, and landscapes that lie around us” (p. xxi). Deforesting the Earth is a seamless blend of historical ge- ography and environmental history. But as Williams also says in this sec- tion, this book is not a history of forests, forestry, industrial and do- mestic fuel use or of conservation and environmental concern. The com- mon theme throughout is that hu- mans have cleared nearly all forests in all countries for a variety of good and services, including fuel, agricul- ture, building material, and money. No time period or region of the world receives inadequate attention. This book also represents a fine prospec- tive about the beginnings of many conservation-related topics, includ- ing soil science, forest science (in- cluding forest health), ecology, con- servation, and animal husbandry, and the underlying development of peo- ples’ attitudes toward trees and na- ture. The subject of global deforesta- tion during the past 10,000 years re- ceives the space it deserves. Nearly 700 pages of small print summa- rize a tremendous number of refer- ences examined: 76 pages of notes to supplement material in each chap- ter and over 1600 sources included in the bibliography. So many statements seem so significant that it was diffi- cult to refrain from underlining the majority of this book. The nearly 50 plates, 100 figures, and 46 tables add much substance throughout. Fourteen chapters comprise three main parts. Part 1, “Clearing in the Deep Past,” documents the effects of agriculture, domestication, and use and suppression of fire from the time forests returned after retreat of the glaciers until before the industrial age. Chapters in this part briefly sum- marize the return of the temperate and tropical forests following glacia- tion and detail the many ways early humans used or took advantage of fire, the history of agriculture, and land use in classical (Mediterranean) and medieval (western and central) Europe and Asia. Part II, “Reaching Out: Europe and the Wider World,” covers key aspects of the development of a world so- ciety as they affected global defor- estation in six chapters arranged pri- marily by geography and two main time periods, 1500–1750 and 1750– 1920. The book organizes changes to forests prior to 1750 primarily by what happened in Europe ver- sus “the wider world.” Between 1750 and 1900, deforestation in the tem- perate versus tropical world is distin- guished. It is especially during this period of very intensive and exten- sive deforestation that conservation, forest management, and environmen- tal ethics began to develop, includ- ing George Perkins Marsh’s Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography As Modified by Human Action, pub- lished in 1864. The three chapters of Part III, “The Global Forest,” examine global deforestation during 1900–1995, in- cluding serious concerns, some re- alized and some not, about world wood shortages. Foreboding about tropical deforestation was warranted, however, because about 318 mil- lion ha 2 of tropical forests were cleared between 1950 and 1980, a result of ever-expanding popula- tions and further advances in tech- nology (e.g., gasoline-powered mo- tors). Most of Part III examines trop- ical deforestation. Forest acreage ac- tually increased during this period in the United States and Europe because agricultural land was left to natural succession or planted to trees. The epilogue, “Backward and For- ward Glances,” is a too-brief section of introspection and modest predic- tions, toward the end stating that “Deforestation is no longer a purely economic issue ... as it is also fast becoming a matter of humanitarian concerns mixed with long-term envi- ronmental ethics” (p. 500). The au- thor states that world population is expected to stabilize at between 9 and 10 billion by 2100, with most of the three to four billion extra people living in and depending on tropical forests. And although the population of the developed world is expected to remain about the same, real incomes are expected to continue to rise, in- creasing demands on wood and pulp among other world resources. One source cited forecasts of a 25% in- crease in demand for global wood 1693 Conservation Biology, Pages 1693–1700 Volume 18, No. 6, December 2004