Elderflora: A Modern History of Ancient Trees

The?epic?story of the planet's oldest trees and the making of the modern world

Humans have always revered long-lived trees.?But?as historian Jared Farmer reveals in Elderflora, our veneration took a modern turn in the eighteenth century, when?naturalists embarked on?a quest?to?locate and precisely date the oldest?living things on earth. The new science of tree time prompted travelers to visit ancient specimens and conservationists to protect sacred groves. Exploitation accompanied sanctification, as old-growth forests succumbed to imperial expansion and the industrial revolution.

Taking us from Lebanon to New Zealand to California, Farmer surveys the complex history of the world's oldest trees, including voices of Indigenous peoples, religious figures, and contemporary scientists who study elderflora in crisis. In a changing climate, a long future is still possible, Farmer shows, but only if we give care to young things that might grow old.

Author: Jared Farmer
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 10/18/2022
Pages: 448
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.48lbs
Size: 9.43h x 6.35w x 1.43d
ISBN: 9780465097845


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2022
Publishers Weekly 10/10/2022
Booklist 10/15/2022 pg. 5

About the Author
Jared Farmer is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. A former Andrew Carnegie Fellow, he is the author of?several books, including?On Zion's Mount, which won the Francis Parkman Prize. He lives in Philadelphia.?