Caroline Ford is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles.
This interesting and thought-provoking book looks at the start of
environmental awareness with innovative legislation to protect the
Fontainebleau landscape and its oak trees. * The Connexion *
By tracking individual engagement, public concern, and state
responsibility, Ford reveals the evolving character and widening
scope of environmental awareness and activity in France from the
1800s to the 1930s, from forest regeneration to the 'greening' of
Paris. But she also exposes the tensions within that movement and
illuminatingly situates French experience within a critical
narrative of colonial expansion and transnational exchange. This is
a book to interest environmental and imperial historians as much as
historians of the making of modern France. -- David Arnold, author
of The Problem of Nature
Seldom does one encounter a book that crosses national and
disciplinary boundaries with such ease and force of persuasion.
Ford's argument is bold yet meticulously researched. It details the
emergence in modern France and its empire of an environmental
consciousness that encompassed new cultural sensibilities, new
forms of expertise and protection, new bodies of knowledge-not to
mention leisure, tourism, urban green spaces, garden cities, and so
much more. With its broad range, this environmental history shines
a new light on our understandings of nation-states, empires, and
transnational circulations. Whether they are environmental
historians or not, scholars will need to read this beautifully
crafted and boundary-shifting book. -- Stephane Gerson, author of
The Pride of Place
A fascinating book reflecting wide-ranging research. Natural
Interests revises our understanding of the history of the
environment in France. -- Eric Jennings, author of Imperial
Heights
This thoughtful analysis of the people, documents, and
controversies evoked by ecological themes in France since the
revolution highlights the play of anxiety and nostalgia that
underpinned sites of consciousness and trajectories in
environmental actions and policies. -- G. W. McDonogh * Choice *
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