European imperialism was extraordinarily far-reaching: a key global historical process of the last 500 years. It locked disparate human societies together over a wider area than any previous imperial expansion; it underpinned the repopulation of the Americas and Australasia; it was the precursor of globalization as we now understand it. Imperialism was inseparable from the history of global environmental change. Metropolitan countries sought raw materials of all kinds, from timber and furs to rubber and oil. They established sugar plantations that transformed island ecologies. Settlers...

The influence of human economies and cultures on ecosystems is particularly striking in the new worlds into which Europeans expanded over the past 500 years. Using a comparative approach, Beinart and Dubow examine the neglected historical subject of settler incursion and dominance. They also seek to explain change in indigenous ideas and practices towards the environment. This work culminates with a discussion of the rise of popular environmentalism and traces its manifestations down to the present day.

Understanding local knowledge has become a central academic project among those interested in Africa and developing countries. In South Africa, land reform is gathering pace and African people hold an increasing proportion of the livestock in the country. Animal health has become a central issue for rural development. Yet African veterinary medical knowledge remains largely unrecorded. This book seeks to fill that gap. It captures for the first time the diversity, as well as the limits, of a major sphere of local knowledge. Beinart and Brown argue that African approaches to animal health rest...