| Book Review | Environmental History, 8.1

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| Book Review | Environmental History, 8.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Fire: A Brief History. By Stephen J. Pyne. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001 xvii + 204 pp. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. Paper $18.95.

Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910. By Stephen J. Pyne. New York: Viking, 2001. xiii + 322 pp. Plates, notes, bibliographical essay, index. $25.95.

Fire: A Brief History is the sixth title in Pyne's "Cycle of Fire" suite of books that collectively narrate the story of how fire and humanity have interacted to shape the earth. The author hoped to achieve "at least a degree of condensation" (p. ix) to his series, but this little book is no mere abridgement for it stands on its own as an important contribution to the understanding of fire on earth. Its 205 pages are tightly edited and superbly crafted. There is no fat, no wasted words. This book is a joy to read. 1

Pyne begins by showing how fire came to be and how life accommodated it. He then explains what he calls "fire regimes." First Fire involved natural fire regimes not influenced in any way by humans, and Second Fire is anthropocentric fire influenced in one way or other by human action or inaction. Third Fire is industrial and defined by its reliance on fossil fuels. This regime "can only occur with humans as agents. If people leave the scene, the principles of industrial fire leave with them" (p. 158). Pyne explores how industrial combustion has added enormously to the Earth's fire load and how it has substituted for Second fire and suppressed both Second and First Fire. . . .

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