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Cycle of Fire
Vestal Fire: An Environmental History, Told through Fire, of Europe and Europe's Encounter with the World
Stephen Pyne has been described as having a consciousness "composed of equal parts historian, ecologist, philosopher, critic, poet, and sociologist." At this time in history when many people are trying to understand their true relationship with the natural environment, this book offers a remarkable contribution―breathtaking in the scope of its research and exhilarating to read.
Pyne takes the reader on a journey through time, exploring the terrain of Europe and the uses and abuses of its lands as well as, through migration and conquest, many parts of the rest of the world. Whether he is discussing the Mediterranean region, Russia, Scandinavia, the British Isles, central Europe, or colonized islands; whether he is considering the impact of agriculture, forestry, or Enlightenment thinking, the author brings an unmatched insight to his subject.
Vestal Fire takes its title from Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth and keeper of the sacred fire on Mount Olympus. But the book's title also suggests the strengths and limitations of Europe's peculiar conception of fire, and through fire, of its relationship to nature. Between the untamed fire of the wilderness and the tended fire of the hearth lies a never-ending dialectic in which human beings struggle to control natural forces and processes that in fact can sometimes be directed but never wholly dominated or contained.
Pyne takes the reader on a journey through time, exploring the terrain of Europe and the uses and abuses of its lands as well as, through migration and conquest, many parts of the rest of the world. Whether he is discussing the Mediterranean region, Russia, Scandinavia, the British Isles, central Europe, or colonized islands; whether he is considering the impact of agriculture, forestry, or Enlightenment thinking, the author brings an unmatched insight to his subject.
Vestal Fire takes its title from Vesta, Roman goddess of the hearth and keeper of the sacred fire on Mount Olympus. But the book's title also suggests the strengths and limitations of Europe's peculiar conception of fire, and through fire, of its relationship to nature. Between the untamed fire of the wilderness and the tended fire of the hearth lies a never-ending dialectic in which human beings struggle to control natural forces and processes that in fact can sometimes be directed but never wholly dominated or contained.
672 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 28, 2012
I promise you that this environmental history of Europe focusing on cultural use and attitudes towards fire is interesting and as easy to read as a book on such a bizarrely specific topic could be. The author seems to have read and cited every single book ever written about fire and forestry, but even better, he's read books about other stuff and peppers the narrative (yes there is a story) with references to mythology and literature.
June 21, 2010
An academic work with entertaining prose. Who woulda thunk? If you're into Daniel Quinn's work, this book details how totalitarian agriculture started and its various forms.
October 15, 2022
Exceptionally well researched and comprehensive, as Pyne's works always are.
Vestal Fire tells the story of fire in Europe, serving as something of a counterpoint to the American context in which we find the majority of Pyne's oeuvre. It's a landscape where fire is domesticated, controlled, made 'servant rather than master,' and otherwise enlisted into a project of exclusion and subjugation into particular approved roles. But, try as they might, these efforts are always partial, as Pyne reminds us:
As always, Pyne offers up some profound and profoundly lyrical moments. For example,
There's also a passage (p. 318-319) about the values, politics, and competing priorities of fire in Russia (and then again on p. 362 for Britain) that encapsulates better than any writing I've seen elsewhere the way that fire becomes a proxy battle for other values.
All of this, of course, comes with the proviso that this book is classic Pyne - over five hundred pages of dense, literary fire history. It's not a casual page turner. I wish Pyne could go back and rewrite this as a country-by-country history in the vein of his To The Last Smoke series... it's a series that is much more accessible, with a format of short bursts that is amenable to both broad sketches and deep dives in a way that would enhance the richness of the content here. But, still, Pyne has offered gift upon incredible gift to our community of historical documentation of fire, and this is a rich tome of resources and analysis.
Vestal Fire tells the story of fire in Europe, serving as something of a counterpoint to the American context in which we find the majority of Pyne's oeuvre. It's a landscape where fire is domesticated, controlled, made 'servant rather than master,' and otherwise enlisted into a project of exclusion and subjugation into particular approved roles. But, try as they might, these efforts are always partial, as Pyne reminds us:
But Nature is not so easily reconstructed as city blocks, the plastic arts, and printed texts. It exists apart from humanity. Its fires have a logic and imperative of their own. At best all anthropogenic fire is a hybrid, a dialectic, a pyric double. Europe's fire is no exception. (p. 6)
As always, Pyne offers up some profound and profoundly lyrical moments. For example,
The choices people made about how to use and interpret fire transcended the biotic arrangement of combustibles and the diurnal rush of mountain winds. They became, in a profound sense, moral questions for which the richness of fire's symbolism was as significant as the moisture content of its fuels. The cycle of fire went beyond the circuitry of carbon and phosphorus and entered a mythic, ultimately moral universe that it has never since left. (p. 49)
There's also a passage (p. 318-319) about the values, politics, and competing priorities of fire in Russia (and then again on p. 362 for Britain) that encapsulates better than any writing I've seen elsewhere the way that fire becomes a proxy battle for other values.
All of this, of course, comes with the proviso that this book is classic Pyne - over five hundred pages of dense, literary fire history. It's not a casual page turner. I wish Pyne could go back and rewrite this as a country-by-country history in the vein of his To The Last Smoke series... it's a series that is much more accessible, with a format of short bursts that is amenable to both broad sketches and deep dives in a way that would enhance the richness of the content here. But, still, Pyne has offered gift upon incredible gift to our community of historical documentation of fire, and this is a rich tome of resources and analysis.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews