A Brief History of Fire - Ecology and Humanity

Author: (American) Stephen Pyne, translated by Mei Xueqin and others
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-04-01
Features: Stephen Pyne is a historian, not a prophet, so this small book cannot unravel the mystery of the future of fire. It can only predict which types of combustion can avoid future global warming and which kinds of fuels can prevent future energy crises. What it can do is help explain why things like energy crises and global warming—needless to say, along with 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. If their stories are told in isolation, they will 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, as well as the frustrating limitations we repeatedly encounter when exercising this power. If someone wants to understand how the story of human history is also, quite literally, 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 pivotal role in shaping landscapes. 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 leading authority on the history of fire, with extraordinary scholarship. He provides us with 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, through 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. He received his Ph.D. in biology from the University of Texas (Austin) in 1976. His teaching and research areas include environmental history, the history of fire, and exploration history. He has a deep passion for history, ecology, and fire management. His major works include Brittlebrush Valley (Brittlebush Valley, Patson's 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).