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Explores the transnational movements of people, plants, agricultural sciences, and techniques from Russia's steppes to North America's Great Plains.
Understanding the current state and dynamics of any forest is extremely difficult - if not impossible - without recognizing its history. Białowieża Primeval Forest (BPF), located on the border between Poland and Belarus, is one of the best preserved European lowland forests and a subject of myriads of works focusing on countless aspects of its biology, ecology, management. BPF was protected for centuries (15th-18th century) as a game reserve of Polish kings and Lithuanian grand dukes. Being, at that time, a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, BPF was subject to long-lasting traditional, multi-functional utilisation characteristic for this part of Europe, including haymaking on forest mea...
Historians of Russia were relative latecomers to the field of environmental history. Yet, in the past decade, the exploration of Russian environmental history has burgeoned. Thinking Russia's History Environmentally showcases collaboration amongst an international set of scholars who focus on the contribution that the study of Russian environments makes to the global environmental field. Through discerning analysis of natural resources, the environment as a factor in historical processes such as industrialization, and more recent human-animal interactions, this volume challenges stereotypes of Russian history and inso doing, highlights the unexpected importance of Russian environments across a time framewell beyond the ecological catastrophes of the Soviet period.
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to the History of Science is a single volume companion that discusses the history of science as it is done today, providing a survey of the debates and issues that dominate current scholarly discussion, with contributions from leading international scholars. Provides a single-volume overview of current scholarship in the history of science edited by one of the leading figures in the field Features forty essays by leading international scholars providing an overview of the key debates and developments in the history of science Reflects the shift towards deeper historical contextualization within the field Helps communicate and integrate perspectives from the history of science with other areas of historical inquiry Includes discussion of non-Western themes which are integrated throughout the chapters Divided into four sections based on key analytic categories that reflect new approaches in the field
The rise of industrial capitalism in the nineteenth century forged a new ecological order in North American and Western European states, radically transforming the environment through science and technology in the name of human progress. Far less known are the dramatic environmental changes experienced by Eastern Europe, in many ways a terra incognita for environmental historians and anthropologists. A New Ecological Order explores, from a historical and ethnographic perspective, the role of state planners, bureaucrats, and experts—engineers, agricultural engineers, geographers, biologists, foresters, and architects—as agents of change in the natural world of Eastern Europe from 1870 to ...
The Polish dispute on an adequate approach towards the Białowieża Forest has been significantly internationalised, primarily by UNESCO and the European Union. The judgment of the CJEU has not settled the substance of the dispute, although it points to a violation of EU legal standards. The authors of The Disputed Białowieża Forest: Legal Remedies for the Protection of Cross-border Properties address the dispute in a constructive and interdisciplinary manner, rather than merely expressing concern towards in situ conservation, and derive universal legal remedies from it. They conclude that in the case of unique invaluable goods, adequate individual solutions should be applied in the form of a localised agreement, open to many entities (interested states, international organisations and even socially responsible private corporations), on the condition that organisational and financial co-responsibility are accepted.
In the second half of the 19th century visions of an infrastructurally integrated imperial space captivated the minds of Russian administrators and businessmen. Infrastructural integration promised to unravel the economic and political potential of the Russian Empire but it also revealed its administrative weakness. The book explores the challenges the Tsarist administration faced in harmonizing the multitudinous regional economic regimes in its vast landed empire. It analyzes conflicting logics towards the imperial space and demonstrates how the modern project of an infrastructurally integrated space limited the leeway in resorting to imperial administrative practices and accelerated the "nationalization" of the Russian Empire's economic space.
In 1908, thunderous blasts and blazing fires from the sky descended upon the desolate Tunguska territory of Siberia. The explosion knocked down an area of forest larger than London and was powerful enough to obliterate Manhattan. The mysterious nature of the event has prompted a wide array of speculation and investigation, including from those who suspected that aliens from outer space had been involved. In this deeply researched account of the Tunguska explosion and its legacy in Russian society, culture, and the environment, Andy Bruno recounts the intriguing history of the disaster and researchers' attempts to understand it. Taking readers inside the numerous expeditions and investigations that have long occupied scientists, he foregrounds the significance of mystery in environmental history. His engaging and accessible account shows how the explosion has shaped the treatment of the landscape, how uncertainty allowed unusual ideas to enter scientific conversations, and how cosmic disasters have influenced the past and might affect the future.