An Environmental History of the Early Modern Period

Environmental history of early modern times is a seminal and lively field of historical research. Ten concise essays provide an overview of current debates on topics as historical climatology and climate reconstruction, coping with disaster, land use and agricultural knowledge, forest history, urbanization as well as the perceptions of (alpine) nature, and societal dealing with water and rivers. Taken together, the contributions establish early modern studies as a promising laboratory for new avenues in environmental history.

Martin Knoll teaches modern history at TU Darmstadt, Germany. Reinhold Reith is Professor for economic, social and environmental history at the Department of History at the University of Salzburg, Austria.