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Civilizations: Culture, Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature
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Author
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Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.
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Publisher
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Touchstone
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Format
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paperback
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Product Dimensions
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9.25
x
6.25
x
1.4
inches
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ISBN
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9780743202497
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Pages/Publication Date
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545/2002
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Daedalus Item Code
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23226
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List Price:
$17.99
Sale Price:
$5.98
You Save:
$12.01
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Description
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To Felipe Fernández-Armesto, a society is civilized in direct proportion to its development of the natural environment, achieved by its taming and warping of climate, geography, and ecology. Each chapter of this treatise connects the world of the ecologist and geographer to a panorama of cultural history. Unlike most comparative histories of civilizations, it is arranged environment by environment, rather than period by period or society by society. Thus, tundra civilizations from Ice Age Europe are linked with the Inuit of the Pacific Northwest, while the Mississippi mound-builders and the deforesters of 11th-century Europe are both understood as civilizations built on woodlands. "Grand comparative histories have become respectable again.... Do not expect a neutral account of the ascent of man from barbarism. This is a contentious, provocative work, full of utterly original and sometimes perverse perspectives."—Independent (London)
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