Introduction

Abstract

Previous articleNext article FreeIntroductionStephen Brain, Mark D. Hersey, and Sarah Stanford-McIntyreStephen Brain Search for more articles by this author , Mark D. Hersey Search for more articles by this author , and Sarah Stanford-McIntyre Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreIn recent years, the world has seemed to careen from one crisis to another, with little time to recover from the last before the next begins. Electoral conflicts, public health emergencies, economic upheavals, and geopolitical cataclysms have followed each other or overlapped with one another, sometimes with no reprieve. Few of us have much influence on the trajectory of these histories-in-the-making, but one way to cope with a potential sense of overwhelm is through greater understanding. The essays in this issue work to that end by providing insight into many of the challenges facing us today, including climate change, political tumult, commodity shocks, and epidemics.The first feature in this issue is a set of reflections centered on the concept of political realignment and shifting public mores, analyzing the rise of right-wing populist movements around the world and their environmental policies. Interested in the consequences of this important and widespread political phenomenon, we reached out to six environmental historians who study countries with strong right-wing populist political parties and asked them to discuss the place of environmentalism (if any) in the ascent of those parties to prominence. Their responses are thought-provoking and nuanced—sometimes charged with emotion, but also grounded in historical perspective and historiographical context.Each of the monographic articles addresses, in one form or another, the concept of disorienting environmental change and human reactions to those changes. Kelly Enright’s essay about the disappearance of Franklinia alatamaha offers a fresh look at the concept of extinction, not only by turning our attention away from animals and toward plants but by illustrating the lengths that naturalists would go to in search of a vanished member of the native biota that continued to exist in the wild only in their imaginations. Samuël Coghe’s essay visits sub-Saharan Africa and describes the conclusion of a long and draining livestock epidemic and the events that ensued as scientists and animal breeders worked to limit the effect of Trypanosomiasis in the development of a new cattle frontier. Sky Michael Johnston’s contribution recounts the reaction of religious leaders and the lay public to the Little Ice Age, and shows how faith and perceptions of climate change shaped one another. Emily Brownell takes up the theme of economic disruption and explores how government officials and ordinary people responded to the oil crisis in Tanzania the late 1970s by developing new commodity flows and new partnerships. Finally, Isacar Bolaños takes up the theme of imperial competition and decline by surveying the attempts of French hydrological engineers to leverage their expertise into imperial influence. Together, these essays exploring histories of Africa, North America, Europe, and the Middle East show humans reckoning with, causing, or seeking to leverage environmental transformations.Looking beyond the monographic articles, we are pleased to report that the journal’s subsections are better positioned than they have been in some time. Although the journal will go to press without a Gallery essay for the second time since the start of the pandemic, the book review section has returned to its former strength. The editors of that subsection are excited by the range and breadth of books reviewed in this issue, which collectively highlight the capacious scope and bright future of the discipline. That the book review section is once again on firm footing is due in no small part to the tireless work of Margaret Cook, who will be stepping down as coeditor, as of this issue. While her hard work, humor, and dedication will be missed, we are excited to welcome Matthew Himel as the coeditor of the book reviews. Matthew has already been involved with the journal as its social media coordinator and will bring this outreach experience to the role.The publication of this issue also marks the conclusion of our first year with the University of Chicago Press. We’d like to express our gratitude to the UCP team for their enthusiastic support during the transition, as well as for their efforts to make the journal more visually appealing and intellectually stimulating. We are very encouraged about the future of the partnership, and we look forward to many years of productive cooperation. Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 27, Number 4October 2022 Published for the American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society Views: 187Total views on this site Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/721439 Views: 187Total views on this site HistoryPublished online October 06, 2022 © 2022 Forest History Society and American Society for Environmental History. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.