Trees Ancient and Modern
Woodland Cultures and Conservation
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Reaktion Books
Publishing:1st Oct '25
£25.00
This title is due to be published on 1st October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
While trees are celebrated as symbols of natural beauty, they are increasingly at risk from climate change, disease, fires and urban expansion. Trees Ancient and Modern explores humanity’s deep connection with trees and woodlands, highlighting their beauty and importance and the challenges they face. The book looks at debates about creating new woodlands, exploring questions of location, ownership and management.
Using diverse sources such as literature, art, historical records, scientific surveys and oral histories, Charles Watkins reveals how people have used, valued and understood forests over time. He also evaluates modern threats to woodlands and considers how best to conserve them. Richly illustrated, this is a global social and cultural history of forests that provides valuable insights for future management.
Extraordinarily erudite, richly detailed, beautifully illustrated and deeply felt, Trees Ancient and Modern captures a lifetime of thinking with and through trees. On every page Charles Watkins challenges us to think of trees and woodland as central to our engagement with the world and our acts of world-making – and shows how our attitudes to, and management of, trees reveal a great deal about the human condition. If much of this wonderful book provides a salutary warning for our acts of exploitation and mismanagement, ultimately it proves genuinely hopeful. Our trees and woodlands are not only remarkably resilient, Watkins shows, but they are our homes, our places to learn, to play, to think, to heal. * Carl Griffin, Professor of Historical Geography, University of Sussex *
ISBN: 9781836391180
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
264 pages