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Can anyone recommend work on forests in early modern history?

I'm starting a new research project on pre-industrial landscapes. I need a solid historiographical footing on how forests were perceived, managed, and contested, not just as ecology but as socio-economic and political spaces in the 16th-18th centuries.

 

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By Anuj Patel Answered 2 years ago

I'd recommend starting with two foundational angles. For a sweeping, influential thesis on how forest management was central to state power and modernization, look at James C. Scott's Seeing Like a State (chapters on scientific forestry). For richer, ground-level social conflict, Keith Thomas's Man and the Natural World explores changing English attitudes. Then, dive into region-specific studies like Paul Warde's work on German forests or William Cronon's Changes in the Land (colonial New England). These will frame your approach between macro-state policy and micro-ecological change.

 

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