Awful Splendour: A Fire History of Canada
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by Stephen J. Pyne
UBC Press, Vancouver, 2008
584 pp., illus., $34.95 paperback
Canada is transfixed by fire each summer, consumed with the seemingly destructive nature of forest fires. As part of the excellent Nature, History, Society series from UBC Press, aptly named environmental historian Stephen Pyne explores how people in Canada have shaped the fires that rage through the country’s forests.
Pyne has ignited his full literary and historical flare in Awful Splendour and provides a rich history of Canada’s forests. As he explains, a “red maple leaf may decorate its national flag, but a crimson crown fire swelling through its boreal conifers would be a more apt symbol of what makes Canada biotically majestic.”
An American historian, Pyne has explored fire history around the world. It is timely and fortunate to have such an eminent historian turn his attention north.
— Joel Ralph (Read bio)
Joel Ralph is the director of programs for Canada's History Society.