Table of Contents
Acknowledgements vii Introduction: Praising Wood, Caring for Wood, Splitting Wood – and a Historical Synthesis 1
Chapter 1 Paths into the Thicket of History 13
1 The ‘Wood Age’ 14
2 Man and Forest: Stories and History 28
3 Wood and Historical Change 34
Chapter 2 Middle Ages and Early Modern Period: Maximum Exploitation and the Beginnings of Sustainability 56
1 Medieval Society and the Limits of the Forest 57
2 Timber Becomes a Commodity 70
3 Large- Scale Firewood Consumption and the First Wave of Forest Ordinance 92
Chapter 3 From the Apogee of the ‘Wood Age’ to the Industrial Revolution 135
1 Reform, Revolution and the Wood Economy 136
2 The ‘Spectre of Shortage’: Did the Timber Trade Face Catastrophe? 156
3 The Forest: From Living Space to Capital 172
4 Wood Consumers: Economies in the Home and Outside 205
5 Rollback 228
Chapter 4 Wood in the High Industrial Age: Degradation and Rebirth 239
1 The Forest as an Economic Factor 240
2 Technological Revolution in the Timber Industry 256
3 Fissile Material and Bonding Agent: Forest and Wood in the Eco- Age 276
Chapter 5 Global Prospects and Contrasts 294
1 Lessons from Asia 295
2 Conflicts and (Ostensible) Solutions 318
3 Looking Back to the Future: Six Spotlights on the History of Forest and Wood 324
Postscript: The Mystery of Certificates, or, Sustainable Forestry versus Greenwashing 327
Wood Talk 330
References and Bibliography 340
Index 376