Abstract

Northern Europe was, by many accounts, the birthplace of much of modern forestry practice, and for hundreds of years the region’s woodlands have played an outsize role in international relations, economic growth, and the development of national identity. Across eleven chapters, the contributors to this volume survey the histories of state forestry policy in Scandinavia, the Low Countries, Germany, Poland, and Great Britain from the early modern period to the present. Each explores the complex interrelationships of state-building, resource management, knowledge transfer, and trade over a period characterized by ongoing modernization and evolving environmental awareness.

K. Jan Oosthoek is an environmental historian based in Brisbane, Australia. He is author of Conquering the Highlands: A History of the Afforestation of the Scottish Uplands (2013). He has also served as vice-president of the European Society for Environmental History (2005–2007) and manages the website “Environmental History Resources” (www.eh-resources.org).

Richard Hölzl is a researcher for the German Science Foundation at the University of Göttingen. He is the author of a book on scientific forestry in Germany (Umkämpfte Wälder, 2010) and co-editor of a collection on the global history of missions (Mission Global, 2013). His article “Historicizing Sustainability” in Science as Culture was awarded the 2011 Best Article Prize by the European Society for Environmental History.

“This comprehensive and truly transnational collection provides fascinating comparative studies of the history of forestry. It will be of wide interest to environmental historians and students of silviculture everywhere.” · Tom Brooking, University of Otago