Lynn W. Day Distinguished Lectureship in Forest and Conservation History

2002 Lecture:
"Forests and War in World History"
by Dr. John R. McNeill

[Full text of lecture in PDF format]

A version of this paper was published as "Woods and Warfare" in Environmental History 9 (July 2004): 388-410.

The 2002 Lynn W. Day Distinguished Lectureship in Forest and Conservation History welcomed Professor John R. McNeill, an environmental historian from Georgetown University, to address connections between forests and warfare in history, including both the impacts of war upon forests and the roles of forests in war. The lecture was held at 4:00 p.m. on 5 November 2002 in White Lecture Hall on Duke University's East Campus. This lecture was free to the public. A reception followed at 5:00 p.m. in the East Duke Parlors.

John R. McNeill writes about the history of human ecology and environmental change, with a particular focus on world history. His articles have appeard in such journals as Environment and History, Environmental Review, and Renewable Resources Journal. He has contributed essays to several books and is the author of such notable works as The Mountains of the Mediterranean World: An Environmental History (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1992) and Something New under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000).

The Lynn W. Day Distinguished Lectureship in Forest and Conservation History is sponsored by the Forest History Society, the Duke University Department of History, and the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. For more information please contact Dr. Steven Anderson, Forest History Society president, at tel.: (919) 682-9319.