The age of wood: our most useful material and the construction of civilization

Prologue: The road to nowhere

Wood and human evolution. Our arboreal inheritance ; Coming down from the trees ; Losing our hair ; Tooling up

Building civilization. Clearing the forest ; Melting and smelting ; Carving our communities ; Supplying life's luxuries ; Supporting our pretensions ; Limiting our outlook

Wood in the industrial era. Replacing firewood and charcoal ; Wood in the nineteenth century ; Wood in the modern world

Facing the consequences. Assessing our impact ; Mending our strained relationship.