January 15, 2024
Marrin (A Light in the Darkness) breaks down the history of wildfires and their place in the cycle of nature in this thorough work. Beginning in the Ice Age and traveling forward in time through the birth of natural forests into contemporary America, the author explains that forests need fire, a phenomenon, the creator suggests, that many Americans know very little about. Fire “removes aged and unhealthy trees and clears the forest floor of fallen branches,” Marrin notes in plain text, and goes on to say that it wasn’t until humans began interfering in this natural process by clear cutting areas for farms, lumbering entire forests, and utilizing incorrect forestry practices, that wildfires became uncontrollable. Citing incidents such as the 1871 Peshtigo Fire, the Great Hinckley Fire in 1894, and the Big Blow Up of 1919, which “incinerated more than three million acres of private and national forests,” the creator implies that humankind’s attempts to eliminate forest fires created inevitable disasters that are now “larger, hotter, and costlier that they would have been if allowed to burn according to nature’s timetable,” and posits that without intervention and education of past mistakes, these events will only become more frequent. Diagrams depicting environmental processes such as photosynthesis, archival images, and b&w photographs feature throughout; notes, selected sources, and an index conclude. Ages 10–up. (Mar.) ■
Starred review from January 1, 2024
Grades 8-12 *Starred Review* This engrossing book documents how wildfires shaped North America, from prehistoric times through contemporary headlines. The content weaves in elements of geography, geology, botany, and physics with political, social, economic, and cultural history. The chronological approach is especially effective when describing the vast forests that awed European colonists arriving from land-depleted areas in Europe, as well as the systematic clearing, burning, and consumption of these natural resources over the ensuing centuries. There are unromanticized descriptions of the impact these settlers had on the landscape, native species, and Indigenous populations, along with accounts depicting the harsh realities of logging camps and the greed of lumber barons. The most compelling parts record the unfolding events of forest fire-related calamities from the nineteenth-century Peshtigo and Hinckley disasters to the Big Idaho Blowout of 1910 and twenty-first-century tragedies in Yarnell and Paradise. There's ongoing emphasis on how human actions contribute to such events, such as indiscriminate encroachment and climate change; conservationists, environmentalists, and firefighters are all celebrated. Graphics include archival photos and artifacts, and there are extensive chapter notes and a bibliography. This overview offers a tremendous amount of accessible information for both researchers and general-interest readers and fills a gap in current literature for this age group.
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Starred review from January 1, 2024
Scorching case studies of the United States' mismanagement of its natural resources. Marrin has plenty to say about how passenger pigeons were driven to extinction and bison nearly so. But he reserves his choicest language for recording how huge swaths of North American forest were left vulnerable to massive, uncontrollable firestorms, first by loggers who swept in, ignoring the management practices of Indigenous populations, and then by racist preservationists and conservationists, led by John Muir and Gifford Pinchot, who misguidedly decided that all forest fires were bad. In chapters with titles such as "Peshtigo: The Night Hell Yawned," the author describes the horrific results of those practices and policies in vivid detail: "Fire had transformed some of the dead into tiny heaps of gray ash; others, still recognizable as human, lost fingers, ears, and arms when burial parties touched their remains." Along with saluting the work of modern wildland firefighters, Marrin covers eye-opening topics ranging from how the U.S. military studied natural firestorms in order to create artificial ones in enemy cities in World War II to the toxic environmental effects of modern fire-retardant chemicals dropped on forests. The book closes with ominous evidence that climate change is bringing increasingly less controllable conflagrations. Though spare and dark, the photos add memorable contemporary and historical images of fires and their aftermaths, as well as of a diverse range of firefighters. Vivid, wide angled, and all too timely. (notes, sources, picture credits, index) (Nonfiction. 11-16)
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Starred review from October 18, 2024
Gr 6 Up-Humanity's relationship to the natural world is a complex topic, and Marrin (Flesh & Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy) pays due attention to its multiple facets. With a focus on the history of forest fires in the United States, from the Ice Age to the present, he illustrates how the entanglements of people and nature impact everyone, for better or for worse. Comparing and contrasting European and First Nations attitudes toward forest management, he shows how the clash of cultures has contributed to the issue of forest fires. Detailed recounting of historic forest fires quote original sources to illustrate the harrowing toll on people, animals, and the environment. The science of climate change and its impact on the issue is presented in a factual, evenhanded manner. Plentiful photographs, illustrations, charts, and maps enhance the narrative. A full index, source notes, and bibliography help make this an excellent resource for research. VERDICT An in-depth look that is thought-provoking and comprehensive on a complex and timely topic.-Shannon Titas
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