Introduces a region that once lay at the geographic heart of American fire and today promises to reclaim something of that heritage. Stephen J. Pyne explores how this once most regularly and widely burned province of North America has been shaped by the flames contained within it and what fire, both tame and feral, might mean for the future of its landscapes.

Stephen J. Pyne is a historian in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. He is the author of more than 20 books, mostly on wildland fire and its history, but also dealing with the history of places and exploration, including The Ice, How the Canyon Became Grand, and Voyager. His current effort is directed at a multivolume survey of the American fire scene, including Between Two Fires: A Fire History of Contemporary America and To the Last Smoke, a suite of regional reconnaissances, all published by the University of Arizona Press.