Agricultural History Review, Volume 67 Part 1 (2019), p. 154

Historical ecology has a long history, and as a term has been used in a variety of ways, in different times and places. In essence, however, it refers to the study of change over time in ecological systems and also – due to the fact that, for millennia, and globally, these have been modified by human agency – the long-term character of human/natural interactions. The extent to which the environment has been shaped by human activities affects, of course, the very definition of ‘nature’, and as several of the contributors to this excellent volume emphasize, nature and the natural are culturally defined. More than that: definitions of what is ‘natural’ change with progressive modifications to ecosystems, an idea articulated in the concept of the ‘shifting baseline’, which describes how declines in biodiversity are insufficiently recognized because each successive generation reads the present situation as ‘normal’. The entanglement of humans and the natural environment ensures the need for a measure of historical awareness when setting goals for nature conservation. Indeed, one of the attractive things about this book, and about the subject of historical ecology itself, is that it is more than an abstract academic enquiry, but a pursuit with urgent practical relevance in a fast-changing world. The opening chapter is entitled ‘Is there a future for the past?’

To understand the history of nature involves not only a measure of collaborative and transdisciplinary working but also the sharing of concepts and approaches between the humanities – especially social and economic history and archaeology – and the natural sciences – principally ecology. Much of the book is thus, as its title makes clear, concerned with conceptual and theoretical issues, the discussion of which is often challenging and invigorating, sometimes repetitive and on occasions, for some tastes, unnecessarily tortuous. In the first category one might place the excellent discussion by Sinclair, Moen and Crumley of how we think of time and causation in complex systems; and the exploration in chapter six of how frameworks and concepts in the natural sciences (such as niche construction or ‘adaptation’) can inform enquiries in the social sciences, and vice versa. The discussion of such matters in the abstract can become a little laboured, and so it is fortunate that most of the contributors employ case studies which both make these ideas clear and, in many cases, are simply interesting and informative in their own right. Of particular note are the discussions by Lennartsson and his collaborators of reindeer husbandry in Sweden, and of agriculture in colonial America, in their chapter on ‘Diversity in ecological and social contexts’.

At times, the discussion of the relationship between changes in eco-systems, and changes in human societies, can appear slightly naïve. Explaining the European witch-craze of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a direct consequence of climate change seems to ignore many generations of scholarship. And at times cross-disciplinary interchange seems strained, as arguably in the discussion of the use of the concept of ‘diversity’ in biological and cultural contexts. Indeed, in some cases the subtlety of the analysis of human/ natural interaction does not appear to be matched by a similar level of sophistication in the discussion of the workings of human societies. Concepts like ‘class’, for example, or of social inequality more generally as a driver of environmental change, are largely ignored. Moreover, the reader is left with a lingering suspicion that the particular concepts and issues which the contributors have chosen to focus on are themselves to a large extent the product of their own intellectual and social milieu. Of the key influences shaping our current environmental crisis only climate change – fashionable and topical – receives a chapter of its own, written with particular clarity by Frerik Ljunqvist. Much less is said about the impact of globalization over the past few centuries, and the consequent impact on ecosystems of alien introductions – surely one of the key impacts of humans on the ‘natural’ world. Nor is there any real discussion of the effects over time of population growth, of the impact of billions of humans on the natural environment. To some extent, it might reasonably be argued that the cross-disciplinarity which the book serves to foster is best realized, and certainly explained, in more focused local and small-scale case studies. But both human numbers and globalization must count as among the basic ‘issues’ which historical ecology needs to examine and evaluate, and even the demographics of small-scale societies is a topic which receives limited attention, in spite of the vital part it plays in the shaping of local ecological systems.

Such minor quibbles aside, this is an invigorating book, full of new ideas and striking arguments. The contributors have worked hard, and successfully, in their attempt to provide a conceptual framework to a vitally important field of intellectual enquiry. And the editors have done an excellent service in bringing together such a powerful team.