Join explorer and author John Hemming as he talks about his new book: Tree of Rivers: The Story of the Amazon. This is a history of the Amazon, its peoples, and those who have explored the river by an author with unsurpassed knowledge and experience in the region.
By far the world's largest river, the Amazon flows through the greatest expanse of tropical rainforest on earth. Human beings settled in Amazonia 10,000 years ago and learned to live well on its bounty. Europeans first saw the Amazon around 1500 and started settling there in the 17th century. Always in fear or awe of the jungle, they tried in vain to introduce crops and livestock.
John Hemming's account of the river and its history is full of the larger-than-life personalities this unique environment attracted: explorers, missionaries, and naturalists among them. By the 19th century, Amazonian natives had almost been destroyed by alien diseases and slavery, as well as violent class rebellion. Although the rubber industry created huge fortunes, it too was at a fearful cost in human misery.
In the last 100 years, the Amazon has seen intrepid explorers, entrepreneurial millionaires, and political extremists taking refuge in jungle retreats. Alongside them, natural scientists, anthropologists, and archaeologists have sought to discover the secrets of this mighty habitat.
Today, the world's appetite for timber, beef, and soya is destroying this great tropical forest. Hemming explains why the Amazon is environmentally crucial to survival and brilliantly describes the passionate struggles to exploit and to protect it.
John Hemming was director of the Royal Geographical Society, London, 1975-1996. His previous books include The Golden Age of Discovery.
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