Vestal Fire
An Environmental History, Told Through Fire, of Europe and Europe's Encounter with the World
 
 

University of Washington Press, 1997
 
 

Named by Choice to Best 100 Academic Books of Year
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Prologue: Quest for Fire

Book I:  Elements

Flame
    Diamond in the Rough: A Physical Geography of European Fire
    New Worlds from Old: A Biogeography of European Fire
    Fusain and Flame: A Natural History of European Fire

Torch
    Errant Fire: The Hominid Colonization of Europe
    Cultivated Fire: The Agricultureal Reclamation of Europe
    Pyrotechnia: The Technology of Combustion

Hearth
    Domiciled Fire: Hearth and House
    The Fire in the Cave: Combustion and Cognition
    Need-Fire, Vestal Fire: Ceremony and Ritual

Book II: Europe

Eternal Flame: Fire in Mediterranean Europe
    Prologue: West of Eden
    Behold, Before a Garden, Behind a Waste
    Arcadia and Anarchy: Mediterranean Pastorale
    Grand Traverse: Imperial France
    Mediterranean Miniature: Cyprus
    Epilogue: Fin-de-Siecle Fire

Controlled Combustion: Fire in Central Europe
    Prologue: Ashes and Embers
    Landnam: The Fire of First Contact
    Reclamation: The Fire in the Garden
    Revolution: The Enlightenment Comes to Agricutlure
    Revolution Redux: Forestry Takes Command
    Epilogue: Holocaust

Wild Hearth: Fire in Boreal Europe
    Prologue: Fire and Water
    Fire an Sword: The Historia of Olaus Magnus
    Fire and Ax: The Finnish Colonization
    Fire and Field: The Travels of Linnaeus
    Fire and Iron: The Adventures of Nils
    Epilogue: Final Flame

Flaming Front: Fire in Eurasian Europe
    Prologue: Wooden Rus Is Like a Fire
    The Candle and the Torch
    Lines of Fire, Fields of Fire
    Emanci;ation and Suppression
    When the Sky Burned
    Epilogue: Fire in the Minds of Men

Spot Fires: Fire in Atlantic Europe
    Prologue: Sparks in the Wind
    It Was All a Planted Garden: The British Isles
    Green Fire: The Celtic Isle
    Northern Mists, Northern Smoke: The Norse Islands
    Blessed Isles, Burned Isles: The Iberian Islands
    Epilogue: The World Encompassed

Book 3: Earth

Islands
    New Fire: The Copming of Anthropogenic Fire
    Strange Fire: The Coming of European Fire
    Sacred Fire: The Coming of Conservation

Continents
    Carrying the Fire: Europe Expands
    Counter Fire: Europe Contains
    Fire in the Ashes: Europe Rekindles

Planets
    Cnoduction" Thje European Connection
    Radiation": The New-Europes
    Convection" Black Death, Heatd Death

Epologue: Beyond the Realm of Fire

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography