List of Illustrations, Tables, and Figures
List of Maps
Preface

Introduction: Finding the "Latin American" in Latin American Environmental History
John Soluri, Claudia Leal, José Augusto Pádua

Chapter 1. Mexico's Ecological Revolutions
Chris Boyer and Martha Micheline Cariño Olvera

Chapter 2. The Greater Caribbean and the Transformation of Tropicality
Reinaldo Funes Monzote

Chapter 3. Indigenous Imprints and Remnants in the Tropical Andes
Nicolás Cuvi

Chapter 4. The Dilemma of the "Splendid Cradle": Nature and Territory in the Construction of Brazil
José Augusto Pádua

Chapter 5. From Threatening to Threatened Jungles
Claudia Leal

Chapter 6. The Ivy and the Wall: Environmental Narratives from an Urban Continent
Lise Sedrez and Regina Horta Duarte

Chapter 7. Home Cooking: Campesinos, Cuisine, and Agrodiversity
John Soluri

Chpater 8. Hoofprints: Cattle Ranching and Landscape Transformation
Shawn Van Ausdal and Robert W. Wilcox

Chapter 9. Extraction Stories: Workers, Nature, and Communities in the Mining and Oil Industries
Myrna I. Santiago

Chapter 10. Prodigality and Sustainability: The Environmental Sciences and the Quest for Development
Stuart McCook

Chapter 11. A Panorama of Parks: Deep Nature, Depopulation, and the Cadence of Conserving Nature
Emily Wakild

Epilogue: Latin American Environmental History in Global Perspective
J.R. McNeill

Selected Bibliography
Index

Though still a relatively young field, the study of Latin American environmental history is blossoming, as the contributions to this definitive volume demonstrate. Bringing together thirteen leading experts on the region, A Living Past synthesizes a wide range of scholarship to offer new perspectives on environmental change in Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean since the nineteenth century. Each chapter provides insightful, up-to-date syntheses of current scholarship on critical countries and ecosystems (including Brazil, Mexico, the Caribbean, the tropical Andes, and tropical forests) and such cross-cutting themes as agriculture, conservation, mining, ranching, science, and urbanization. Together, these studies provide valuable historical contexts for making sense of contemporary environmental challenges facing the region.

José Augusto Pádua is Professor of Environmental History at the Institute of History, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where he is also coordinator of the Laboratory of History and Nature. From 2010 to 2015, he was President of the Brazilian Association of Research and Graduate Studies on Environment and Society.