Themes in Environmental History
About the Book Series
Themes in Environmental History is a series of books aimed at 2nd and 3rd year undergraduate students and postgraduate students in the fields of history and environmental studies. The collection covers key areas of environmental history from across the globe, running from 500 CE to the present day. These books bring together chapters on the historiography of the field and the new research that is being done to move the field forward, making engaging reading for students. Topics covered are varied and expansive and emphasize the importance of looking back at environmental history to date to understand where we are today.
The Nature of Empire: Modern Imperialism and the Roots of the Anthropocene
1st Edition
By Andrea Duffy
September 15, 2025
The Nature of Empire exposes the central role of modern imperialism in the development of contemporary environmentalism and environmental science. It builds this case through an investigation of five major modern empires: Britain, France, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan. This book offers ...
Consumption and Waste in American Environmental History
1st Edition
By Martin V. Melosi
March 30, 2025
Consumption and Waste in American Environmental History is an accessible introduction to the consumption experience, wasting practices, and disposal history of the United States, spanning precontact to the present. Centered around concise case studies, the book confronts consumption and consumerism...
Energy in the Early Modern Home: Material Cultures of Domestic Energy Consumption in Europe, 1450–1850
1st Edition
Edited
By Wout Saelens, Bruno Blondé, Wouter Ryckbosch
August 02, 2023
Uncovering, for the first time, the role played by home users in fostering energy changes, this book explores the effects of energy transitions between the medieval and industrial era on the everyday life of Europeans and considers how cultural, social and material changes in the home facilitated ...
Environmental Justice in North America
1st Edition
Edited
By Paul C. Rosier
June 20, 2023
Emphasizing the voices of activists, this book’s diverse contributors examine communities’ common experiences with environmental injustice, how they organize to address it, and the ways in which their campaigns intersect with related movements such as Black Lives Matter and Indigenous sovereignty. ...
Disease and the Environment in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds
1st Edition
Edited
By Lori Jones
June 06, 2022
This volume brings together environmental and human perspectives, engages with both historians and scientists, and, being mindful that environments and disease recognize no boundaries, includes studies that touch on Europe, the wider Mediterranean world, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Disease and ...
Water in North American Environmental History
1st Edition
By Martin V. Melosi
June 06, 2022
Water in North American Environmental History offers 25 cases studies that explore the range of uses and perceptions of water throughout Canadian, Mexican, and United States history. Water has served a myriad of purposes historically as human sustenance, agricultural irrigation, sanitation, ...