The ideas and practices that comprise "conservation" are often assumed
to have arisen within the last two centuries. However, while
conservation today has been undeniably entwined with processes of
modernity, its historical roots run much deeper. Considering a variety
of preindustrial European settings, this book assembles case studies
from the medieval and early modern eras to demonstrate that practices
like those advocated by modern conservationists were far more widespread
and intentional than is widely acknowledged. As the first book-length
treatment of the subject, Conservation's Roots provides broad social,
historical, and environmental context for the emergence of the
nineteenth-century conservation movement.