Review : Historical gems

The Celts cured the mad, Anglo-Saxons locked them up. Europeans lost touch
with nature in the 17th century. Modern environmentalism grew out of the
colonial experience on St Vincent in the Caribbean. Didactic or what? The essays
in Nature and Society in Historical Context (edited by Mikulas Teich, Roy Porter
and Bo Gustafsson, Cambridge University Press, £18.95, ISBN 0 521 49881 3)
keep up a blistering pace and throw all caution to the wind. Exhilarating.