A companion to global environmental history /

McNeill (Georgetown Univ.; Something New under the Sun, CH, Oct'00, 38-0908) is currently the world's leading environmental historian, and Mauldin (Samford Univ.) was one of his doctoral students at Georgetown. They have organized their work into 28 chapters grouped under headings titled "Times" (ancient to modern), "Places," "Drivers of Change and Environmental Transformations," and "Environmental Thought and Action." Some readers will consult this work for only one or two chapters, but those whose interest is world environmental history will find this book a pleasure to read from cover to cover, and the bibliographies are current and extensive. Some of the well-selected contributors describe the environmental history of their subject, others focus on the historiography of their subject, and still others provide a mixture of these two approaches. The 20 maps are adequate, although a map of Canada or Europe would have been more useful than the large one of Easter Island. America is covered in two of the chapters, but surprisingly Wiley-Blackwell's A Companion to American Environmental History, edited by Douglas Sackman (CH, Dec'10, 48-2043), is not included in the bibliography of either one. Europe is neglected, which may indicate that a companion to European environmental history is in the works. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals. F. N. Egerton emeritus, University of Wisconsin--Parkside

Editors McNeill (Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean; The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History) and Mauldin have compiled 28 essays on the influence and interdependence of environmental factors and the living world. Each essay delves into an area of global environmental history, such as how geography and climate affected early human migration, how harvesting trees affected shipbuilding and hence the ability to explore and defend land, and how theology that encourages mastery of natural elements influences environmental history differently from theology that encourages harmony with nature. Books such as Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel (Norton 2005) and Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (Penguin, 2007) have touched on some of these topics for the general reader, but McNeill and Mauldin's book covers this relatively new field in a broader and more academic way. The first section addresses environmental history chronologically, and the latter three sections are roughly grouped by place, theme, and current issues such as the environmental impact of China and how economic issues affect environmental issues. The intelligent essays, written primarily by college professors, and occasionally by PhD candidates, are between 15-20 pages, with thorough notes, references, and sometimes suggested further reading. The black-and-white maps add clarity. VERDICT Adults, college students, and thoughtful high school readers interested in environmental topics out of the "global warming" mainstream can find here meaty examination of such diverse subjects as poaching, Agent Orange, the environmental effects of expanding urban areas, and the commercial livestock industry.-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.