Nature - Western Attitudes Since Ancient Times (Paperback)

A scholarly book on the history of the Western relationship to nature, this book will be useful for university students as well as students of environmental matters who wish to probe beyond the issues of the day. The book traces the emergence of human ideas about nature in ancient Greece and Rome and through early Christianity, and follows that thread to the present day. Coates's research and inclusion of sources is encyclopedic in every era and the scholarship is well documented in the notes section and in the index. This is academic writing, clearly written but definitely not aimed at the general reader. (Kirkus UK)

a Naturea is a deceptively simple and ahistorical term, suggesting intrinsic, unchanging reality. Yet nature has a history too, both in terms of human attitudes and human impacts. Coates outlines the major understandings of a naturea in the western world since classical times, from nature as higher authority to its more recent meaning of threatened physical space and life forms. Unlike many others, this book places the history of attitudes to nature within the story of human--induced changes in the material environment. And few others take a supranational perspective, or cross the divides between historical eras. A distinctive unifying theme is Coatesa s interest in how a greena writers over the last thirty years have interpreted our past dealings with nature, specifically their efforts to diagnose the roots of contemporary ecological problems and their search for ancestors. He concludes with a discussion of the future of nature in the context of developments such as the a newa ecology, global warming, advances in genetic engineering and research on animal behaviour. Assuming no previous knowledge, Nature provides the reader with an accessible synthesis and introduction to some of environmental historya s central features and debates, confirming its status as one of the most enthralling current pursuits within historical studies. This will be essential reading for second--year undergraduates and above in cultural history and environmental history, as well as to the general reader interested in environmental issues.

General

Imprint:	Polity Press
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	September 1998
Authors:	P Coates
Dimensions:	228 x 152 x 17mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	256
ISBN-13:	978-0-7456-1656-8
Categories:	Books > Sport & Leisure > Natural history, country life & pets > General Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Cultural studies > General Books > Earth & environment > The environment > Applied ecology > General
LSN:	0-7456-1656-9
Barcode:	9780745616568

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