Description: By and large, Brazil's forests were not simply harvested by the Portugese colonists, but rather annihilated, and relatively little was extracted for the benefit of Brazilians, a tragedy perhaps worse than deforestation alone. Fruitless Trees aims to make sense of what at first glance appears to be the senseless destruction of Brazil's incomparable timber as a result of Portuguese colonial policies.
Review Quotes: "Miller's fascinating and original comparative study of the colonial Brazilian timber industry . . . is an important contribution to the almost virgin field of Brazilian environmental history in the colonial period."--Luso-Brazilian Review