Sept 2023

In the beginning, there was no fire on the Earth. Fire had to wait for enough oxygen to enter the atmosphere and for enough biological material to be made available that could burn.

Stephen Pyne tells the history of fire. But, who would have thought that Fire has a history? Not only do you learn that fire has a very involved history, but you learn what evidence he uses to determine that history.

Seldom has a book changed my way of looking at things as much as this book. He begins with how fire came to the Earth and then how the earliest humans used fire to shape the landscape to their needs and continues with a description of mankind's relationship with fire up to the present day. Today, Pyne feels that mankind has cut itself off from fire having hidden it by use of technology. As a result, we are no longer actively using controlled burning in order to tame fire to our needs.

Pyne's writing style is a bit of a challenge since he uses a vocabulary that this reader was not familiar with. The book is nevertheless an engrossing and worthwhile read for anyone interested in the environment, natural history, and early history. ( )