Evolutionary History: Uniting History and Biology to Understand Life on Earth

by Edmund Russell

• ISBN13: 9780521745093
• ISBN10: 0521745098
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-04-11
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

We tend to see history and evolution springing from separate roots, one grounded in the human world and the other in the natural world. Human beings have, however, become probably the most powerful species shaping evolution today, and human-caused evolution in other species has probably been the most important force shaping human history. This book introduces readers to evolutionary history, a new field that unites history and biology to create a fuller understanding of the past than either can produce on its own. Evolutionary history can stimulate surprising new hypotheses for any field of history and evolutionary biology. How many art historians would have guessed that sculpture encouraged the evolution of tuskless elephants? How many biologists would have predicted that human poverty would accelerate animal evolution? How many military historians would have suspected that plant evolution would convert a counter-insurgency strategy into a rebel subsidy? With examples from around the globe, this book will help readers see the broadest patterns of history and the details of their own life in a new light.

Author Biography

Edmund Russell is Associate Professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society and the Department of History at the University of Virginia. He has won several awards for his work, including the Leopold-Hidy Prize for the best article published in Environmental History in 2003; the Edelstein Prize in 2003 for an outstanding book in the history of technology published in the preceding three years; and the Forum for the History of Science in America Prize in 2001 for the best article on the history of science in America published in the previous three years by a scholar within ten years of his or her PhD. His previous books include Natural Enemy, Natural Ally: Toward an Environmental History of War (coedited with Richard P. Tucker, 2004) and War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (2001). He has published articles in the Journal of American History, Environmental History, Technology and Culture, and the Washington Post.

Table of Contents

Figures	p. xi
Tables	p. xiii
Preface	p. xv
Acknowledgments	p. xix
Matters of Life and Death	p. 1
Evolution's Visible Hands	p. 6
Hunting and Fishing	p. 17
Eradication	p. 31
Altering Environments	p. 42
Evolution Revolution	p. 54
Intentional Evolution	p. 71
Coevolution	p. 85
Evolution of the Industrial Revolution	p. 103
History of Technology	p. 132
Environmental History	p. 145
Conclusion	p. 151
Note on Sources	p. 167
Glossary	p. 171
Notes	p. 177
Index	p. 211
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