Mobilizing Nature: The Environmental History of War and Militarization in Modern France

摘要

Military landscapes have begun to figure in the numerous studies embracing a wide array of highly modified ecosystems - 'hybrid' landscapes often being the term of choice, suggesting the entangled agencies of humanity and nature - and the circulation of organic and inorganic elements, as well as human practices and institutions, among them. The very notion of a militarised landscape connotes a depth of control and often destruction so as to neutralise nature's autonomy. In his new study, however, Chris Pearson shows the manifold ways in which natural agency can be teased from historical evidence to reveal how military systems have influenced and been influenced by the landscapes they have sought to control.