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A Review of: “Wynn, Graeme. Canada and Arctic North America: An Environmental History.”

In Canada and Arctic North America: An Environmental History, Graeme Wynn has produced a readable, engaging volume that should be of immediate interest to readers, both lay and scholarly, concerned with understanding the historical development of human-environment interactions in North America. A part of ABC-CLIO’s Nature and Human Society series, the book is the first comprehensive treatment of the environmental history of the northern half of the continent. As such, it is a substantial scholarly achievement. Covering millions of square kilometers of ‘‘geography’’ (xv) and ranging in time from the peak of the Wisconsinan Glaciation some 20,000 years ago to the development of resource mega-projects in the last half of the twentieth century, Wynn has taken on an enormous task. In doing so, he has succeeded in his stated aim of ‘‘offer[ing] a new perspective on the past of northern North America’’ (xvii). While paying attention to the broad strokes of social, economic, and political history, he has placed environmental change in the foreground of a single-volume historical treatment of Canada and Alaska. In lucid prose, Wynn lays out what he considers to be the most significant processes and patterns that mark human induced environmental change in the territory now coving Canada and Alaska. The book is divided into six parts, each addressing significant periods of human interaction with the northern North American environment through thematic chapters. Part One traces the ‘‘Deep Time’’ of 20,000 to 1,000 years ago. Focusing on ice retreat, vegetation advance, and the migration and settlement of first peoples, the section describes the formation and initial human settlement of the biophysical terrain that forms the current foundation of the northern half of the continent. With the stage thus set, the remainder of the book deals with the last millennium. Part Two introduces readers to the complex history of the consequences of contact between aboriginal peoples and European newcomers, while Part Three focuses on the experiences of these settlers in making a living from an environment Wynn labels a ‘‘Wooden World.’’ Ranging across time from the eleventh to nineteenth centuries, the combined effect of these two sections is to situate a vast land and its resources as the stuff of increasingly intense contestation and negotiation. In particular, the activities and impacts of traders (Native and European), missionaries, lumbermen, and farmers are accorded detailed treatment in separate chapters. Parts Four and Five consider the nature and environmental Society and Natural Resources, 22:686–690 Copyright # 2009 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0894-1920 print=1521-0723 online DOI: 10.1080/08941920902985070