Table of Contents

Foreword by William Cronon

Preface to the 1997 Paperback Edition

SMOKE REPORT

The New World Order on Fire

SIZE-UP

Firestick History; or, How to Set the World on Fire

HOTSPOTTING

Fire Flume (Australia)

Veld Fire (South Africa)

Queimada Para Limpeza (Brazil)

Svedjebruk (Sweden)

Greek Fire (Greece)

La Nueva Reconquista (Iberia)

Red Skies of Irkutsk (Russia)

Nataraja (India)

White Darkness (Antarctica)

CONTROL

American Fire

-- Initial Attac: The U.S. Forest Service Fights Fire

-- Coldtrailing

Wilderness Fire

-- Vestal Fires and Virgin Lands

-- The SUmmer We Let Wild Fire Loose

Intermix Fire

-- The Fire This Time

-- Nouvelle Southwest

MOP-UP

Consumed by Either Fire or Fire

AFTER THE LAST SMOKE

Flame and Fortune

Notes and Additional Reading

Index

Illustration sources and credits

Reviews

"Stephen J. Pyne writes about fire as if he were on fire, with searing, consuming heat and light. When he looks at fire he sees not biological catastrophe but social illumination and natural renewal...This book will change the way you view fire - and the way you see us routinely fighting it." - Seattle Times "Pyne considers the evolution of fire in such diverse regions as Australia, Africa, Brazil, Sweden, Greece, Iberia, Russia, and India and then ponders Antarctica, the land without fire. As he examines changing techniques for and attitudes toward fire control, Pyne challenges our concepts of naturre and wilderness and explains why the study and management of fire have tremendous environmental, cultural, and political implications." -Booklist