A Forest Journey
The Role of Trees in the Fate of Civilization
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Narrated by:
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Sean Runnette
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By:
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John Perlin
About this listen
A Foundational Conservation Story Revived.
Ancient writers observed that forests always recede as civilizations develop and grow. The great Roman poet Ovid wrote that before civilization began, “even the pine tree stood on its own very hills” but when civilization took over, “the mountain oak, the pine were felled.”
This happened for a simple reason: trees have been the principal fuel and building material of every society over the millennia, from the time urban areas were settled until the middle of the nineteenth century. To this day trees still fulfill these roles for a good portion of the world’s population.
Without vast supplies of wood from forests, the great civilizations of Sumer, Assyria, Egypt, Crete, Greece, Rome, the Islamic World, Western Europe, and North America would have never emerged. Wood, in fact, is the unsung hero of the technological revolution that has brought us from a stone and bone culture to our present age.
Until the ascendancy of fossil fuels, wood was the principal fuel and building material from the dawn of civilization. Its abundance or scarcity greatly shaped, as A Forest Journey ably relates, the culture, demographics, economy, internal and external politics and technology of successive societies over the millennia.
The Forest Journey was originally published in 1989 and updated in 2005. The book's comprehensive coverage of the major role forests have played in human life—told with grace, fluency, imagination, and humor—gained it recognition as a Harvard Classic in Science and World History and as one of Harvard's "One Hundred Great Books." Others receiving the honor include such luminaries as Stephen Jay Gould and E.O. Wilson. This is a foundational conservation story that should not be lost in the archives. This new, updated and revised edition emphasizes the importance of forests in the fight against global warming and the urgency to protect what remains of the great trees and forests of the world.
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People often believe that the years immediately prior to AD 1000 were, with just a few exceptions, lacking in any major cultural developments or geopolitical encounters, that the Europeans hadn’t yet reached North America, and that the farthest feat of sea travel was the Vikings’ invasion of Britain. But how, then, to explain the presence of blond-haired people in Maya temple murals at Chichén Itzá, Mexico? Could it be possible that the Vikings had found their way to the Americas during the height of the Maya empire?
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Long on Speculation, Short on Evidence
- By Phyllis on 10-10-20
By: Valerie Hansen
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Ramp Hollow
- The Ordeal of Appalachia
- By: Steven Stoll
- Narrated by: Brian Sutherland
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Appalachia - among the most storied and yet least understood regions in America - has long been associated with poverty and backwardness. But how did this image arise, and what exactly does it mean? In Ramp Hollow, Steven Stoll launches an original investigation into the history of Appalachia and its place in US history, with a special emphasis on how generations of its inhabitants lived, worked, survived, and depended on natural resources held in common.
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Almost unlistenable
- By Golf Fan on 09-13-18
By: Steven Stoll
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The Company
- The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Empire
- By: Stephen R. Bown
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The Hudson’s Bay Company started out small in 1670, trading practical manufactured goods for furs with the indigenous inhabitants of inland subarctic Canada. Controlled by a handful of English aristocrats, it expanded into a powerful political force that ruled the lives of many thousands of people - from the lowlands south and west of Hudson Bay, to the tundra, the great plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the Pacific Northwest.
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Distracting and Annoying racist tropes
- By Eric on 10-28-22
By: Stephen R. Bown
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Changes in the Land
- Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England
- By: William Cronon
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In this landmark work of environmental history, William Cronon offers an original and profound explanation of the effects European colonists' sense of property and their pursuit of capitalism had upon the ecosystems of New England. Reissued here with an updated afterword by the author and a new preface by the distinguished colonialist John Demos, Changes in the Land provides a brilliant interdisciplinary interpretation of how land and people influence one another.
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Excellent histgory and ecology
- By Eugene Gallagher on 09-26-20
By: William Cronon
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The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
- Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor
- By: David S. Landes
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 21 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The Wealth and Poverty of Nations is David S. Landes' acclaimed, best-selling exploration of one of the most contentious and hotly debated questions of our time: Why do some nations achieve economic success while others remain mired in poverty? The answer, as Landes definitively illustrates, is a complex interplay of cultural mores and historical circumstance.
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A detailed explanation
- By Kaarlis on 12-07-21
By: David S. Landes
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Open Veins of Latin America
- Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
- By: Eduardo Galeano, Isabel Allende - Foreward
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America. It is also an outstanding political economy, a social and cultural narrative of the highest quality, and perhaps the finest description of primitive capital accumulation since Marx. Rather than chronology, geography, or political successions, Eduardo Galeano has organized the various facets of Latin American history according to the patterns of five centuries of exploitation.
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Please up-date the addition
- By fishrock on 02-20-10
By: Eduardo Galeano, and others
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A Perfect Red
- By: Amy Butler Greenfield
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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A Perfect Red recounts the colorful history of cochineal, a legendary red dye that was once one of the world's most precious commodities. Treasured by the ancient Mexicans, cochineal was sold in the great Aztec marketplaces, where it attracted the attention of the Spanish conquistadors in 1519. Shipped to Europe, the dye created a sensation, producing the brightest, strongest red the world had ever seen. Soon Spain's cochineal monopoly was worth a fortune. Desperate to find their own sources of the elusive dye, the English, French, Dutch, and other Europeans tried to crack the enigma of cochineal.
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History of a peculiar substance through the ages
- By Tobia on 08-17-16
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Nature's Metropolis
- Chicago and the Great West
- By: William Cronon
- Narrated by: Jonah Cummings
- Length: 18 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In this groundbreaking work, William Cronon gives us an environmental perspective on the history of nineteenth-century America. By exploring the ecological and economic changes that made Chicago America's most dynamic city and the Great West its hinterland, Mr. Cronon opens a new window onto our national past. This is the story of city and country becoming ever more tightly bound in a system so powerful that it reshaped the American landscape and transformed American culture. The world that emerged is our own.
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Moving
- By JB on 02-09-18
By: William Cronon
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Trees in Paradise
- A California History
- By: Jared Farmer
- Narrated by: Kevin Scollin
- Length: 19 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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California now has more trees than at any time since the late Pleistocene. This green landscape, however, is not the work of nature. It’s the work of history. In the years after the Gold Rush, American settlers remade the California landscape, harnessing nature to their vision of the good life. Horticulturists, boosters, and civic reformers began to "improve" the bare, brown countryside, planting millions of trees to create groves, wooded suburbs, and landscaped cities.
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lovely audiobook
- By Michael M. on 08-02-22
By: Jared Farmer
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Coal
- A Human History
- By: Barbara Freese
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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The fascinating, often surprising story of how a simple black rock altered the course of history. Yet the mundane mineral that built our global economy, and even today powers our electrical plants, has also caused death, disease, and environmental destruction. In this remarkable book, Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins three hundred million years ago and spans the globe.
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Uses Coal to push her Political Agenda
- By Kismet on 08-22-06
By: Barbara Freese
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The Rational Optimist
- How Prosperity Evolves
- By: Matt Ridley
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Life is getting better at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enriching people's lives as never before.
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Personal
- By Robert F. Jones on 09-15-17
By: Matt Ridley
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A Shorter History of Australia
- By: Geoffrey Blainey
- Narrated by: Humphrey Bower
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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After a lifetime of research and debate on Australian and international history, Geoffrey Blainey is well-placed to introduce us to the people who have played a part and to guide us through the events which have created the Australian identity: the mania for spectator sport, the suspicion of the tall poppy, the rivalries of Catholic and Protestant, Sydney and Melbourne, new and old homelands, the conflicts of war abroad and race at home, the importance of technology, the recognition of our Aboriginal past and Native Title.
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Just couldn't stand the paternalism
- By Matthew on 04-02-14
By: Geoffrey Blainey
What listeners say about A Forest Journey
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Nico Vela
- 05-28-24
An interesting book on trees.
An interesting book.
Largely focusing on Western Europe and America, with shorter chapters on the Ancient Near East and empires like Greece and Rome, Perlin offers a concise, intellectual work that discusses the role of trees in both empire and civilization.
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- Karin Engstrom
- 09-25-23
This book should be read by everyone!
I read the first edition while living in a wilderness home in the mountains. No electricity and I pumped the water into a cistern but drank my water from the steam. I lived on earth time. This book and his other on solar were a gift. Thank you Patagonia for having the wisdom and insight to have Mr Perlin update and reissue this book. I borrowed the book from my library for its photos and illustrations but love listening.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Sarah Ewing
- 07-20-23
Life changing
I never thought about history in relation to trees.
Well researched. Thank you, John Perlin.
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- knuknu.co
- 04-17-24
Incredible connections
This should be the principle part of a course everyone should study, as part of an understanding of humans as part of a biosphere, as contrasted with being isolated lords of a realm in which the living world, with trees as elemental beings, are viewed only as commodities for exploitation. This story is both wondrous and tragic. We neglect its import at our peril.
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- Roben Cahoon
- 03-31-23
Everybody interested in environmental history, read this book!
This book is excellent! It puts an unbelievable deeper understanding of greed and lack of sustainability built into civilization from the beginning of the modern age. I read thru hiking books, historical fiction, science, metaphysical and more. I don’t generally write reviews. This book is seriously impactful and if you like any of the above topics I hope you listen and it motivates everyone into more…. Understanding and love! I am even more grateful now for the old ( 100-200 yo Ponderosas) I get to hang out with! XO
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1 person found this helpful
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- Salty Sailor
- 07-23-23
Our Disappearing Woodlands
This book is a tragic history of the wastage of Earth's treasured forest lands.
Bill Dudley
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1 person found this helpful
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- JOSHUA R. BRIGHT
- 06-21-24
Amazing History
Highly recommended for anyone interested in the power sources and consequences of early civilizations. Though focused on Western Civilization the lessons are virtually universal and apply to nearly every civilization. A must read for anyone interested in ecology and historical development. We have simply moved on from wood to coal and now oil as the prize 🏆
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- Joe
- 08-17-24
Seeing the arc of history over the last 8000 years
Powerful and heartbreaking story of humans cutting and devastating our planets forests. everyone needs to understand what we've been doing to the natural world. May Humbaba be resurected!
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