The Human Footprint A Global Environmental History

The Human Footprint is a global, thematic, and multi-disciplinary history of the planet, from its earliest origins to its current condition. Avoiding conventional narratives and using the latest research in a diverse range of fields, Penna brings harmony to human history and ecology and provides a fresh, much-needed narrative of world history. Provides a comprehensive, global look at the history of the earth from the Paleolithic to the present era Uses a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on the most recent research in geology, climatology, evolutionary biology, archeology, anthropology, history, demography and the social and physical sciences Each chapter expands on a single theme, including human evolution, the invention of agriculture and its global impact, population growth, urbanization, manufacturing, consumption, industrialization, and energy use

Anthony N. Penna has taught at Carnegie-Mellon University and Northeastern University, where he has been teaching North American and Global Environmental history courses since 1990. He is the author of Nature’s Bounty: Historical and Modern Environmental Perspectives (1999), a text on the impact of humans on forests, wildlife and wildlife habitat, and water and air quality in the continental United States since European exploration; and he is coeditor of the forthcoming Remaking Boston: An Environmental History of the City and Its Surroundings (2009).