To the Last Smoke – serie

Early descriptions of the Great Plains often focus on a vast, grassy expanse that was either burnt or burning. The scene continued to burn until the land was plowed under or grazed away and broken by innumerable roads and towns. Yet, where the original landscape has persisted, so has fire, and where people have sought to restore something of that original setting, they have had to reinstate fire. This has required the persistence or creation of a fire culture, which in turn inspired schools of science and art that make the Great Plains today a regional hearth for American fire.Volume 5 of To the Last Smoke introduces a region that once lay at the geographic heart of American fire and today promises to reclaim something of that heritage. After all these years, the Great Plains continue to bear witness to how fires can shape contemporary life, and vice versa. In this collection of essays, Stephen J. Pyne explores how this once most regularly and widely burned province of North America, composed of various sub-regions and peoples, has been shaped by the flames contained within it and what fire, both tame and feral, might mean for the future of its landscapes.Included in this volume:How wildland and rural fire have changed from the 19th century to the 21st centuryHow fire is managed in the nation’s historic tallgrass prairies, from Texas to South Dakota, from Illinois to NebraskaHow fire connects with other themes of Great Plains life and cultureHow and why Texas has returned to the national narrative of landscape fire

Fire is special. Even among the ancient elements, fire is different because it alone is a reaction. It synthesizes its surroundings; it takes its character from its context. It varies by place, by culture, and by time. It has no single expression. There is no single way to understand it. The latest book in the To the Last Smoke series, Here and There explores how singular moments create prisms by which to understand fire. In this collection of essays, historian and renowned fire expert Stephen J. Pyne offers his reflections on national and global wildland fire management, explains how fire policy has changed within the United States and how it differs from other countries, muses on the next wave of fire research, explains the history of one of the most famous fire paintings of all time, and distills the long saga of fire on Earth and its role in underwriting an Anthropocene that might equally be called a Pyrocene. Presented through a mixture of journalism, history, and literary imagination, Here and There moves the discussion of fire beyond the usual formations of science and policy within a national narrative to one of thoughtful interpretation, analysis, and commentary. Centered on the unique complexities of fire management in a global world, Here and There offers a punctuation point to our understanding of wildfire.

From boreal Alaska to subtropical Florida, from the chaparral of California to the pitch pine of New Jersey, America boasts nearly a billion burnable acres. In nine previous volumes, Stephen J. Pyne has explored the fascinating variety of flame region by region. In To the Last Smoke: An Anthology he selects a sampling of the best from each.To the Last Smoke offers a unique and sweeping view of the nation's fire scene by distilling observations on Florida, California, the Northern Rockies, the Great Plains, the Southwest, the Interior West, the Northeast, Alaska, the oak woodlands, and the Pacific Northwest into a single, readable volume. The anthology functions as a color-commentary companion to the play-by-play narrative offered in Pyne's Between Two Fires: A Fire History of Contemporary America. The series is Pyne's way of 'keeping with it to the end,' encompassing the directive from his rookie season to stay with every fire 'to the last smoke.'