"Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada"--Title page verso. Includes bibliographical references (pages 280-307) and index.

Part I. Air, Water, Earth: In the beginning ... ; Worshipping the elements; The Medieval warm period; Harnessing the elements; Collaboration, or exploitation?; The little Ice Age; Earth, wind, and death; Environmental causes of the plague; Man-made pollution of the environment; The poison thesis; Weather magic -- Part II. Forest: Pre-Christian tree cults; Surviving wildwood at the start of the Middle Ages; The early Medieval woodland; An era of "great clearances"?; A brief history of the royal forest of England; The evidence of the eyre rolls; Managing the king's woods; Disafforestment and the rise of private woodland; The management of woods elsewhere; Shaping the idea of wilderness; A renaissance in regrowth of the forest? -- Part III. Beast: Animals on the farm: the early Middle Ages; Animals on the farm: the high and late Middle Ages; Animals as pets and companions; Animals of the hunt: origins of Medieval hunting; Animals of the hunt : deer and other game; Animals of the hunt: romance vs. reality; Animals of the hunt: falconry and fishing; Animals and disease; Animals on trial; Animals in the bed; Animals and magic. "The Middle Ages was a critical and formative time for Western approaches to our natural surroundings. An Environmental History of the Middle Ages is a unique and unprecedented cultural survey of attitudes towards the environment during this period. Humankind's relationship with the environment shifted gradually over time from a predominantly adversarial approach to something more overtly collaborative, until a series of ecological crises in the late Middle Ages. With the advent of shattering events such as the Great Famine of 1315-22 and the Black Death of 1348-49, medieval people began to think of and relate to their natural environment in new and more nuanced ways. They now were made to be acutely aware of the consequences of human impacts upon the environment, anticipating the cyclical, "new ecology" approach of the modern world. Exploring the entire medieval period from 500 to 1500, and ranging across the whole of Europe, from England and Spain to the Baltic and Eastern Europe, John Aberth focuses his study on three key areas: the natural elements of air, water, and earth; the forest; and wild and domestic animals. Through this multi-faceted lens, An Environmental History of the Middle Ages sheds fascinating new light on the medieval environmental mindset."--Publisher's description.