Table of Contents

Introduction: props and scenery; 1. An old world before it was 'new'; 2. Nature's conquests; 3. The colonial balance sheet; 4. Tropical determinism; 5. Human determination; 6. Asphyxiated habitats; 7. Developing environmentalism; Epilogue: Cuba's latest revolution.

Promotional Information

A narration of the mutually mortal historical contest between humans and nature in Latin America.

About the Author

Shawn W. Miller is the author of Fruitless Trees: Portuguese Conservation and Brazil's Colonial Timber (2000), and has published on Latin America's environmental history in the Hispanic American Historical Review, Forest & Conservation History, and Colonial Latin American Historical Review.

Reviews

"For years to come, studies of Latin American environmental history will have to begin with references to Shawn Miller's book." -Alfred W. Crosby, Professor Emeritus of American Studies, History, and Geography, University of Texas at Austin "Sailing over the last six centuries in just over two hundred pages, Shawn Miller presents readers with a magnificent panorama of the turbulent environmental history of Latin America. Specialists, students, and general readers will all find Miller's pages intellectually intriguing and often entertaining. A delightful book and an important story." -J. R. McNeill, Georgetown University, author of Something New Under the Sun "Shawn Miller has done us a great favor. He has synthesized the Latin American environmental history literature from the past fifteen years, without leaving earlier works behind, to produce the first general text of its kind. [...] It should find an audience in any classroom tackling the topic. [...] One book cannot cover everything, although this one almost does." -Myrna I. Santiago, Saint Mary's College of California, The Americas