The Firth of Forth: An Environmental History

by T.C. Smout, Mairi Stewart

A rare portrait of one of Scotland’s major firths, this book shows how man has interacted with the environment throughout thousands of years. Combining a rich wildlife with a history of long and intense human activity around the estuary's shores and in its waters, this captivating exploration of the Firth of Forth considers a wide range of questions, including: How have people affected and exploited the wildlife, and how, in turn, has it determined the lives of people? What changes to the biodiversity of the firth have taken place as a result of human interference? Why has pollution been easier to control than over-fishing? and What role has conservation had in bringing about changes?

240 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2012

About the author

Thomas Christopher Smout CBE, FBA, FRSE, FSA Scot, FRSGS is a Scottish academic, historian, author and Historiographer Royal in Scotland.

He has written extensively on demographic history and many aspects of economic history. Since the mid-1990s, he has developed the new discipline of environmental history in Scotland, giving the Ford Lectures in Oxford in 1999, published under the title of Nature Contested, Environmental History in Scotland and Northern England since 1600. His most recent publications in this field have been in woodland history and an environmental history of the Firth of Forth.

Reviews

[Kathrin Passig]

Der emeritierte schottische Historiker Smout stellt fest, dass er von seinem Fenster in Anstruther aus mehr Basstölpel, Robben und anderes Meeresgetier sehen kann als früher. Das ist der Ausgangspunkt dieses Buchs, in dem um die Frage geht, welche Umweltangelegenheiten in der Region besser und welche schlechter geworden sind und vor allem: verglichen mit welcher anderen Zeit. Das ist inhaltlich interessant, unlangweilig aufgeschrieben, erfreulich komplex, und das Buch enthält trotz aller Unerfreulichkeiten (ausgestorbene Fischerei im Firth of Forth wegen dauerhaft ausgestorbener Fische) nicht nur schlechte Nachrichten.