Theepic, fascinating (Wall Street Journal)story of the planets oldest trees and the making of the modern world

Humans have always revered long-lived trees.Butas historian Jared Farmer reveals inElderflora, our veneration took a modern turn in the eighteenth century, whennaturalists embarked ona questtolocate and precisely date the oldestliving things on earth. The new science of tree time prompted travelers to visit ancient specimens and conservationists to protect sacred groves. Exploitation accompanied sanctification, as old-growth forests succumbed to imperial expansion and the industrial revolution.

Taking us from Lebanon to New Zealand to California, Farmer surveys the complex history of the worlds oldest trees, including voices of Indigenous peoples, religious figures, and contemporary scientists who study elderflora in crisis. In a changing climate, a long future is still possible, Farmer shows, but only if we give care to young things that might grow old.

Winner of the 2023 Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History