Through the pages of<i>Environmental History Review</i>, now<i>Environmental History</i>, an entire discipline has been created and defined over time through the publication of the finest scholarship by humanists, social and natural scientists, and other professionals concerned with the complex relationship between people and our global environment.<i>Out of the Woods</i> gathers together the best of this scholarship.Covering a broad array of topics and reflecting the continuing diversity within the field of environmental history,<i>Out of the Woods</i> begins with three theoretical pieces by William Cronon, Carolyn Merchant, and Donald Worster probing the assumptions that underlie the words and ideas historians use to analyze human interaction with the physical world. One of these - the concept of place - is the subject of a second group of essays. The political context is picked up in the third section, followed by a selection of some of the journal's most recent contributions discussing the intersection between urban and environmental history. Water's role in defining the contours of the human and natural landscape is undeniable and forms the focus of the fifth section. Finally, the global character of environmental issues emerges in three compelling articles by Alfred Crosby, Thomas Dunlap, and Stephen Pyne.Of interest to a wide range of scholars in environmental history, law, and politics,<i>Out of the Woods</i> is intended as a reader for course use and a benchmark for the field of environmental history as it continues to develop into the next century.

Char Miller is W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and director of the Environmental Analysis Program at Pomona College. He is the author or editor of numerous books, includingGifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism; Public Lands/Public Debates: A Century of Controversy; Out of the Woods: Essays in Environmental History; andBetween Ruin and Restoration: An Environmental History of Israel.