Natural Enemy, Natural Ally: Toward An Environmental History of War

by Richard P. Tucker

Contributors to this volume explore the dynamic between war and the physical environment from a variety of provocative viewpoints. The subjects of their essays range from conflicts in colonial India and South Africa to the U.S. Civil War and twentieth-century wars in Japan, Finland, and the Pacific Islands. Among the topics explored are: - the ways in which landscape can influence military strategies - why the decisive battle of the American Civil War was fought - the impact of war and peace on timber resources - the spread of pests and disease in wartime.

280 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

Reviews

[Michael Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays dealing with a relatively new area of historical research: the impact of war on the environment. An interesting approach for further study, but it is hard to see how you can objectively weight the impact of war on humans vs. the environment.