By Mink, Nicolaas Agrarianism and the Good Society: Land, Culture, Conflict, and Hope. By Eric T. Freyfogle. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2007. Culture of the Land Series. 183 pp. Notes and index. Cloth $30.00.

By Swidler, Eva After The Ice: A Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC. By Steven Mithen. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003. xiii + 622 pages. Includes illustrations, notes, bibliography and index. Paper $18.95.

WHAT IS the future of environmental history? It will be what the next generation of practitioners make of it. It will emerge from their felt sense of nature, and it will arise out of the urgings, overt or implied, of their professional colleagues. I can't speak for the first.

FUTURE AGENDAS in environmental history will be set fairly democratically, by the hundreds of scholars deciding what to work on and how to do it. To some extent, of course, those decisions will be shaped by the examples of admired scholars or by the siren call of paths of least resistance.

ENVISIONING FUTURE directions for environmental history presents little difficulty; rather, the challenge lies in elucidating the details of the routes it will travel and the setbacks it might encounter. Environmental history will become increasingly interconnected with other disciplines.