Arboreal Destiny: The Trees That Shaped the History and Culture of People takes twenty kinds of trees, from figs and olives to oaks, chestnuts, and rubber, and shows how they have steered human history, belief, trade, and even medicine. What first inspired you to explore history through trees?

I realized how little I knew about different trees. Research was a way for me to learn more about different tree species.

You suggest trees are central, not peripheral, to human history. When did that realization click for you?

As I learned more about trees, it became clear that trees played a far more important role in human history than I could have imagined.

What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?

I wanted to show the complexity of the ways trees were viewed and utilized, from a religious object to a source of tools to the material to build boats and buildings to a source of nourishment. Trees offered all of these, among many other contributions to human society.

What is one thing that you hope readers take away from Arboreal Destiny?

Trees are a crucial resource and friend to humanity.  We need them to prosper not just in the past days, but now and in the future.

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