Humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a global economy? Now, in The Age of Wood, Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been our relationship with wood. Brilliantly synthesizing recent research with existing knowledge in fields as wide-ranging as primatology, anthropology, archaeology, history, architecture, engineering, and carpentry, Ennos reinterprets human history and shows how our ability to exploit wood's unique properties has profoundly shaped our bodies and minds, societies, and lives. He takes us on a sweeping sixty-million-year journey from Southeast Asia and West Africa, where the brains of great apes were stimulated by the need to navigate within trees and fashion tools; to China and Japan, where wooden temples and palaces were constructed; to Europe, where wood first was transformed into violins and pianos and provided paper for books and newspapers; to England, which built an empire with wooden ships; and to nineteenth-century America, where the young nation depended upon the great forests for houses, railroad ties, stockyards, and bridges. Addressing the effects of industrialization-including the use of fossil fuels and other energy-intensive materials to replace timber-The Age of Wood not only shows the essential role that trees play in the history and evolution of human existence but also argues that for the benefit of our planet we must return to more traditional ways of growing, using, and understanding trees. A winning blend of history and science, this is a fascinating and authoritative work for anyone interested in nature, the environment, and the making of the world as we know it. Book jacket.