"Simmons draws on the work of philosophers, artists, and literary figures to provide insight into society's points of view as it transformed its landscape. . . . By emphasizing these aspects of society and its relationship to nature, he truly humanizes this work. This volume would be ideal to help frame either an undergraduate or graduate course on environmental history of historical geography of the environment. . . . Specialists in the evironmental sciences would benefit from Simmons' longer-term and humanistic perspective."
— Craig E. Colten, Environment
"The entire volume emphasizes the counterpoint between material changes in the biosphere and societies' changing notions about the natural world and its human uses. Of all the recent surveys, this is the most intriguing, for its explicit characterization of humanity's working assumptions about our needful or rightful place in the biosphere."
— Richard Tucker, Environmental History
"Global Environmental History, which is aimed at general readers and students, emphasizes the empirical evidence for climatic change during the past 10,000 to 12,000 years. Simmons is as concerned with humans’ ideas about the planet and their place within it as he is with climatic shifts…the book presents an enormous panoply of facts, theoretical concepts, and trends, all of which speak well to the author’s erudition."
— Brian Fagan, Journal of Interdisciplinary History