A Brief History of Fire

Author: Stephen J. Pyne (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: April 1, 2006
Features: Stephen Pyne is a historian, not a prophet, so this small book cannot unravel the mystery of the future of fire. Beyond predicting which types of combustion can prevent future global warming and which kinds of fuels can avoid future energy crises, it can only help explain why things like energy crises and global warming—not to mention rural and urban land use, human food supply, forest management, industrial production, and the constant threat of wildfires—are not only related to human history but also to the history of fire. Indeed, the book's greatest insight lies in showing that these two types of history are inextricably intertwined, and telling their stories in isolation would ultimately be meaningless. In Stephen Pyne's Cycle of Fire series, no other book has more convincingly demonstrated this point.
The fire that first burned in the human family, the fire we use to reshape the world, carries a profound dual symbolism: it symbolizes the Prometheus-like power we wield to control the Earth, but also the frustrating limitations we repeatedly encounter when exercising this power. If someone wants to understand how the story of human history is also entirely the story of fire on Earth, there is no better place to begin than this small book. No one is more qualified than Stephen Pyne to teach us the history of fire and its crucial role in shaping the landscape. His discussions on forestry, the elite theory in land management, rural arson, nature reserves, conservation movements, and disturbance ecology are extremely important. Pyne is a major authority on the history of fire, with extraordinary knowledge. He provides a broad panorama of ecological and human history within the framework of geology and geography. He confirms the immense role fire has played in shaping the world's landscapes, flora, and fauna, and shows how, at the end of the Pleistocene, humans, by learning to manipulate fire, became, in a sense, united with it.
About the Author: Stephen J. Pyne is a professor at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Arizona in the United States. He graduated from the University of Texas (Austin) in 1976 with a Ph.D. in biology. His teaching and research fields include environmental history, the history of fire, and exploration history. He has a deep passion for history, ecology, and fire management, and has written extensively. His major works include Brittlebrush Valley (Brittlebush Valley, Patsons Printing, 2005), Tending Fire: Coping with America's Wildland Fires (Island Press, 2004), Smoke Chasing Tucson (University of Arizona Press, 2003), Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910 (New York: Viking, 2001), Fire on the Rim: A Firefighter's Season at the Grand Canyon (University of Washington Press, paperback edition, 1995), and the Cycle of Fire series (6 books).