This book is the product of a symposium on neotropical historical ecology, hosted by the Neotropical Ecology Institute of Tulane University in the fall of 2002. Divided into two parts and 12 chapters, the book constitutes an important addition to the anthropological literature on historical ecology. The map of Latin America included in the first chapter gives an idea of the breadth and scope of William Balee and Clark Erickson’s editorship, as it accounts for fourteen archaeological sites and twenty-one case study locations—from Guatemala and Belize in the north to various locations in the Amazon basin and Andean South America. The first chapter, by the editors, thoroughly reviews concepts and key issues in the field. For the newcomer in historical ecology, it serves as an excellent introduction to the field, mapping its precursors as well as contemporary lines of research. Why and how does the environment change and what are people’s motives to beget changes constitute background questions that follow through all chapters, requiring different disciplinary lenses. Balee and Erickson maintain that historical ecology is an effective approach to bring new light to the understanding of past and present human societies in the Neotropics. The following four chapters in Part 1 address important theoretical and methodological issues in historical ecology. These include forest management in Yucatan (D. Campbell et al.), soil formation (dark earths) and transformation under continual cultivation in Belize (E. Graham), plant domestication and early horticulture in coastal Peru (C. Harstorf), and zooarchaeology and prehistoric deforestation in western Ecuador (P. Stahl). Independently from their different starting points, the authors of these chapters converge in their attempts to sift convincing evidence from various sources of pre-Columbian human environmental interventions that have led to profound and long-lasting landscape transformation(s). Part 2 includes eight chapters that encompass contributions covering various geographic and anthropological contexts, stemming from ethnographic case studies to archaeological research. This Part is nicely introduced by a short review by W. Denevan that address pre-European cultivation in Amazonia, emphasizing the importance of considering temporal changes in societal organization and technology when examining people–environment interactions. The following chapter by C. Clements’ looks at the changing role of fruit trees in subsistence in Amazonia during transition from foraging to horticulture, especially during the mid-Holocene. The author draws data from various sources, including tropical botany, archaeology, and ethnobiology, in attempting to answer why, despite high species diversity and relative abundance, fruits tended to become less central to food ecology in the Amazon. Two case studies derive from archaeological research in Bolivia. The first paper (Erickson and Balee) focuses on anthropogenic forests in the Beni River and present a model for the reconstruction of cultural landscapes of preColumbian earthworks that include mounds and canals situated in present day Siriono territory. The starting point of the second paper (Erickson) is a critique of adaptationist frameworks that permeate the literature about the human ecology of the South American lowlands. The author argues, instead, that the concept of landscape domestication is a useful alternative that holds greater potential to shed light in Hum Ecol (2008) 36:307–308 DOI 10.1007/s10745-007-9148-z