The Holocene: An Environmental History

by Neil Roberts

The Holocene provides students, researchers and lay-readers with the remarkable story of how the natural world has been transformed since the end of the last Ice Age around 15,000 years ago.  This period has witnessed a shift from environmental changes determined by natural forces to those dominated by human actions, including those of climate and greenhouse gases. Understanding the environmental changes - both natural and anthropogenic - that have occurred during the Holocene is of crucial importance if we are to achieve a sustainable environmental future. Revised and updated to take full account of the most recent advances, the third edition of this classic text includes substantial material on the scientific methods that are used to reconstruct and date past environments, as well as new concepts such as the Anthropocene. The book is fully-illustrated, global in coverage, and contains case studies, a glossary and more than 500 new references.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, Planetary Science, Environment, Textbooks, Geography

621 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Brian Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this is promoted as a textbook it's actually quite light on detail compared to other texts I've read, as it aims for a general overview rather than drilling down to provide a lot of detail.

The result is a decent introduction behind the science and research methods but by not covering the archaeology of any period in any detail relationships between the environment and people are never really well-defined.

Overall, a decent read, but more of an introduction to geoarchaeology than an in-depth exploration of human-environmental relationships.

[Michael]

Read this as part of my uni course, a concise and easy to understand read on the climate of the last 10,000 years

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for MA. I’d never heard of the holocene prior to this book. Now I see all development in the context of that timeframe.

[for-much-deliberation ...]

Focusing on the late Quartenary, this book takes a look at earth changing events which have occured during the last 15000 years

[Jorgon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still the best overview of climatic and environmental changes of the last 10000 years, the new edition adds most recent information and material.