Managing Northern Europe's Forests: Histories from the Age of Improvement to the Age of Ecology - Paperback

by K. Jan Oosthoek (Editor), Richard Hölzl (Editor)

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.

Author Biography

Richard Hölzl is teaching history at the University of Göttingen. He is the author of a book on scientific forestry in Germany (Umkämpfte Wälder, 2010) and Catholic missions in East Africa (Gläubige Imperialisten, 2021). His article "Historicizing Sustainability" in Science as Culture was awarded the 2011 Best Article Prize by the European Society for Environmental History.