In the Rainforest: Report from a Strange, Beautiful, Imperiled World (reprint ed., 1991), by Catherine Caulfield, is a comprehensive study of the rainforests of Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Caulfield examines the forests from historical, political, economic, and biological standpoints and analyzes why these irreplaceable resources are in such great danger today.

Deforesting the Earth: From Prehistory to Global Crisis (2002), by Michael Williams, surveys ten thousand years of history to explain how deforesting the earth has affected human societies and landscapes. He also discusses the current crisis of deforestation—why it is happening and what its implications are for a rapidly growing human population.

Walden; or, Life in the Woods (1854), by Henry David Thoreau, is a classic of American literature. In 1845, Thoreau moved into the cabin he had built on the shore of Walden Pond. The resulting book is a...