Fire : [nature and culture]

"Fire has been an integral feature of our planet for over 400 million years. It has defined human culture from the beginning; it is something without which we cannot survive. For while fire is among the most destructive forces on earth, it has equally tremendous powers of cleansing renewal and controlled energy. In this galvanizing book Stephen J. Pyne delivers a masterclass history of fire and its use by humanity, explaining how fire has always been at the core of how people have made their world habitable, whether hunting, foraging, farming, herding or urbanizing, and of course in managing nature reserves. Fire was deployed in the bast by aboriginal communities, and early agricultural societies began to cornol and contain fire and fuel. But our mastery of the science and art of fire has not given us absolute power: fire disasters have altered the course of history, and unexpected fires that begin as the result of other disasters can have shocking efffects. In addition, wildfires are a crucial component of natural regeneration. The past 200 years has also seen the growth of a massive new role of combustibles in the form of fossil biomass: 'people burn fuels from the geological past and release their effluents into the geological future. The present they overload with noxious emissions and greenouse gases." New combusion practices have radically changed the world's ecological balance" -- p. [2] of cover. Lavishly illustrated with images rarely reproduced or unseen in this context, and which reveal the effects of fire on landscape and cities, in the arts, in science, and in recent times, on the climate too, Fire will appeal to readers curiou sto understand fire beyojd wha tis seen in the media, and to fire specialsisticls lookign for a broadly cultural explanation behind gtheir discipline.