Fire: A Brief History

What does a full-blown Fire Age look like? We are about to find out, and Australia will feel the looking-glass transition from an ice world to a fire world more fully and suddenly than elsewhere.

Over vast expanses of time, fire and humanity have interacted to expand the domain of each, transforming the Earth and what it means to be human.

In this concise yet wide-ranging book, Stephen J. Pyne – named by Science magazine as 'the world's leading authority on the history of fire' – explores the surprising dynamics of fire prior to humans, fire and human origins, hunting and foraging, agricultural and pastoral uses of fire, fire ceremonies, fire as an idea and a technology, and industrial fire. 

'Stephen Pyne is a brilliant historian – not only of fire, but of culture. His writing illuminates Australia because he sees the world through our primary element. We are lucky to have the gift of his extraordinary storytelling and scholarship.' — Professor Tom Griffiths, AO