An introduction to the rapidly developing field of global environmental history, edited by one of its foremost practitioners, and featuring a broad and thought-provoking range of expert contributions. Environmental history is a subject especially suited to global and transnational approaches and, over the course of the present generation, an increasing number of scholars have taken up the challenge that it presents. in this unique volume, John McNeill and Alan Roe pull together a number of leading perspectives on the field, chosen for their readability and representativeness, to cover the full historical depth of interactions between humankind and the natural world. The collection begins with a series of chapters offering truly global visions; they range from reflections on the role of animals in environmental history to a summary of environmental change over the past ten millennia. Part Two switches to a sharper focus, featuring essays that characterize the distinctiveness of certain key regions such as China, Russia, West Africa, South Asia, Europe, and Latin America. The final part of the book examines different forms of modern environmentalism, ranging from the U.S. and its obsession with wilderness, to Japanese concern with human health, and on to Peru and India, where the environmental debate centres on access to resources. The study of environmental history faces in two directions: toward the past in its own terms, and also explicitly toward the contemporary world and today's policy challenges. This volume, the ideal introduction for students of the subject, appropriately includes discussions of major dimensions of gender, class and race, linking the reader to the broad debate over environmental justice.