Environmental Anthropology: A Historical Reader is a collection of historically significant readings, dating from early in the twentieth century up to the present, on the cross-cultural study of relations between people and their environment.

Environmental Anthropology: A Historical Reader is a collection of historically significant readings, dating from early in the twentieth century up to the present, on the cross-cultural study of relations between people and their environment. Like the focus of many environmental movements, much recent work in ecological anthropology has been crisis-driven, with a focus on the here and now. Often missing from this work is a wider perspective-including the context in which the research itself is being done. Current work on the human dimensions of deforestation or global climate change, for example, can be informed and strengthened by an understanding of the century-old intellectual lineage of the underlying issues.

Divided into five thematic sections, this collection provides rare insight into the evolution of environmental anthropology specifically and environmental studies more generally. These selections, along with extensive commentary by the volume's editors, offer a unique perspective on current interest in cross-cultural environmental relations.