A groundbreaking examination of the role that wood and trees have played in our global
ecosystem-including human evolution and the rise and fall of empires-in the bestselling
tradition of Yuval Harari's Sapiens and Mark Kurlansky's Salt. As the dominant species on Earth
humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did
the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright become top predators and populate
the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a globalized economy? Now
in The Age of Wood Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been
our relationship with wood. Brilliantly synthesizing recent research with existing knowledge in
fields as wide-ranging as primatology anthropology archaeology history architecture
engineering and carpentry Ennos reinterprets human history and shows how our ability to
exploit wood's unique properties has profoundly shaped our bodies and minds societies and
lives. He takes us on a sweeping ten-million-year journey from Southeast Asia and West Africa
where great apes swing among the trees build nests and fashion tools to East Africa where
hunter gatherers collected their food to the structural design of wooden temples in China and
Japan and to Northern England where archaeologists trace how coal enabled humans to build an
industrial world. Addressing the effects of industrialization-including the use of fossil fuels
and other energy-intensive materials to replace timber-The Age of Wood not only shows the
essential role that trees play in the history and evolution of human existence but also argues
that for the benefit of our planet we must return to more traditional ways of growing using
and understanding trees. A winning blend of history and science this is a fascinating and
authoritative work for anyone interested in nature the environment and the making of the
world as we know it.
