Title:
The age of wood : our most useful material and the construction of civilization
Author:
Edition:
First Scribner hardcover edition.
Publication Date:
2020
Publication Information:
New York : Scribner, 2020.
©2020
Physical Description:
xvi, 318 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
ISBN:
9781982114732
Abstract:
A scholarly and scientific examination of the unrecognized role of trees in the planet's ecosystem reveals wood's unexpected influence on human evolution, civilization, and the global economy.
Contents:
Prologue: The road to nowhere -- Wood and human evolution. Our arboreal inheritance ; Coming down from the trees ; Losing our hair ; Tooling up -- Building civilization. Clearing the forest ; Melting and smelting ; Carving our communities ; Supplying life's luxuries ; Supporting our pretensions ; Limiting our outlook -- Wood in the industrial era. Replacing firewood and charcoal ; Wood in the nineteenth century ; Wood in the modern world -- Facing the consequences. Assessing our impact ; Mending our strained relationship.
Language:
English
