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2,800 oaks per warship

Human impact on French land
by
April 2025, no. 474

An Environmental History of France: Making the landscape, 1770-2020 by Peter McPhee

Bloomsbury, $35.99 pb, 224 pp

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2,800 oaks per warship

Human impact on French land
by
April 2025, no. 474

In a mountain area of south-eastern France that I know well, the locals will often respond to a comment on the beauty of the valleys by remarking glumly that they are not what they were: the forest is expanding, they say. We might see reforestation as a good thing, restoring hillsides devegetated and exposed to erosion by goats and sheep, but to them it marks the loss of a beloved familiar landscape. This bears out a point that Peter McPhee makes throughout his engaging new book, An Environmental History of France: that people have an idealised image of French landscapes, perceiving them as beautiful and timeless. In fact, he shows, they are the product of human activity, most markedly over the past 150 years. In that time, the bay around Mont-Saint-Michel has been largely reclaimed for farming, the hedgerows of Normandy have been destroyed, and freeways and fast train lines have sliced through the countryside.

An Environmental History of France: Making the landscape, 1770-2020

An Environmental History of France: Making the landscape, 1770-2020

by Peter McPhee

Bloomsbury, $35.99 pb, 224 pp

Buy this book

ABR receives a commission on items purchased through this link. All ABR reviews are fully independent.

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