Encyclopedia of World Environmental History. Edited by Shepard Krech, III, J. R. McNeill, and Carolyn Merchant. New York: Routledge, 2004. 3 vols. Illustrations, maps, list of contributors, further reading, index. $495.
The editors of this volume set an ambitious goal for themselves: "This Encyclopedia offers a comprehensive, up-to-date, in-depth, worldwide vision of environmental history, on every scale from local to global" (p. x). In many ways, they realize their ambitions. In others, they fall short. Both the successes and shortcomings provide insight into the state of environmental history.
The successes are formidable. As should be the case in an encyclopedia, the editors have pulled together an enormous quantity of information. The numbers give some sense of the scale: 3 volumes, 1,429 pages, 520 entries, 20 maps, in photos, and 115 sidebars. The categories of topics range widely, from technology and science to religion, from people to nonliving resources, from exploitation to arts, literature, and architecture, and from energy sources to law and regulation. The editors include a useful overview of major topics in environmental history in their introduction.
To test coverage, I brainstormed a list of topics and then compared it with the list of entries. The encyclopedia performed well. The 520 essays include longtime favorite topics for environmental historians, such as conservation, preservation, environmentalism, wilderness, hunting and fishing, ecology, dams, National Park Service, Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Alice Hamilton, Rachel Carson, romanticism, air pollution, water pollution, technology, endangered species, diseases, urbanization, and commodification.
Other topics have not played such prominent roles in the field but deserve more attention. Entries on areas outside North America and Europe (still the dominant foci of the field) are good examples. They describe countries in Asia (such as Japan and Philippines), Latin America (such as Brazil and Mexico), and Africa (such as Soutli Africa and Egypt), and Australia and Antarctica. They analyze religions, such as Jainism and Shinto. They include resources, such as manioc, guano, peat, and taro. And they cover natural features, such as the Niger Delta and the Rio de la Plata. Their inclusion speaks highly of the editors' commitment to furthering a global perspective.
