Deeply considered and engagingly written, Anthony J. Amatos environmental history of the Hutsul region in the northeastern Carpathians offers new vistas on the development of a remote, but by no means isolated, mountain area. Amatos highly learned study offers a rich, multi-layered portrait of how the herders and swidden cultivators residing here made their livings during the nine decades after 1848 in a challenging natural environment and amidst changing biologic, economic, social, and political conditions. Anyone interested in the relationship of mountain communities to their environment will learn much from this book. -- Gary B. Cohen, University of Minnesota
