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Stephen Pyne

Arizona State University, School of Life Sciences, Emeritus

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I retired from teaching into emeritus status on January 1, 2019. I continue to write and speak, mostly about fire, but also about the history of exploration.

My personal website at www.stephenpyne.com has an update of recent and forthcoming projects.
Phone: +1 602 708 7303
Address: 22238 E Nightingale Dr
Queen Creek, AZ 85142 USA

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Books by Stephen Pyne

Fire in Contemporary America - books.pdf

A suite of books that includes a narrative from 1960-2013 and a complement of regional surveys, s... more

A new guide to writing nonfiction – a complement to Voice and Vision.

To the Last Smoke

To the Last Smoke - series

A series of short (200-page) regional surveys of the American fire scene - the color commentary t... more

Between Two Fires: A Fire History of Contemporary America

A grand narrative of ideas, institutions, and fires since 1960. The story of America's great cul... more

Fire on Earth: An Introduction

Fire: Nature and Culture (Reaktion Books, 2012)

A short, lavishly illustrated survey of fire on Earth and its relationship to its keystone specie... more

The Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene - co-authored with Lydia V. Pyne

" There are two Pleistocenes. The one most people recognize is the geologic epoch just ahead of ... more " There are two Pleistocenes. The one most people recognize is the geologic epoch just ahead of today’s. It’s a world of ice and megafauna, moraine and fossils, extinctions and rebirths; it’s the world that made ours and that made us as a species. The other Pleistocene is the one in our heads. It’s a world of data and ideas, an evolution of understanding that has its own extinctions and creations, of which the idea of a Pleistocene is one.
The Last Lost World traces both lost worlds. Co-written with Lydia V. Pyne, my daughter.

Penguin paperback edition scheduled for spring 2013.

Voyager: Exploration, Space, and the Third Great Age of Discovery

A narrative of the Voyager mission to the outer planets and beyond with constant backsiting to th... more

Voice and Vision: A Guide to Writing History and Other Serious Nonfiction

Papers by Stephen Pyne

Problems, paradoxes, paradigms: triangulating fire research

International Journal of Wildland Fire, 2007

Wildland fire research has historically orbited around a physical paradigm of fire. This strategy... more Wildland fire research has historically orbited around a physical paradigm of fire. This strategy has yielded remarkable results, yet increasingly it cannot speak to the core issues that concern fire management. Two additional paradigms are needed. One would build on fire’s origins in the living world. The other would evolve out of fire’s significance to humanity, and humanity’s unblinking importance to fire’s presence on Earth. Note that each paradigm is coherent in itself, that each is capable of absorbing the others, and that each is insufficient on its own. It is unlikely that a master synthesis of these conceptions will emerge, and is not necessary. The need is to sustain research that addresses how fire really exists, not how select sciences can handle it. This essay sketches what the resulting fire-research triangle might look like.

Fire in the mind: changing understandings of fire in Western civilization

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, Jun 5, 2016

For most of human history, fire has been a pervasive presence in human life, and so also in human... more For most of human history, fire has been a pervasive presence in human life, and so also in human thought. This essay examines the ways in which fire has functioned intellectually in Western civilization as mythology, as religion, as natural philosophy and as modern science. The great phase change occurred with the development of industrial combustion; fire faded from quotidian life, which also removed it from the world of informing ideas. Beginning with the discovery of oxygen, fire as an organizing concept fragmented into various subdisciplines of natural science and forestry. The Anthropocene, however, may revive the intellectual role of fire as an informing idea or at least a narrative conceit.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'.

Big Fire or Introducing the Pyrocene

I present the case for a fire-centric scholarship, and suggest the transition between burning liv... more

Tending Fire: Coping with America's Wildland Fires

Madroño, 2005

''traditional'' practices, to more ecosystem-based concepts, will appreciate this book. The autho... more ''traditional'' practices, to more ecosystem-based concepts, will appreciate this book. The author uses examples and ideas in such a way that the goal of the book: ''to help readers understand the impacts of deliberate human activities on forests and to effect changes that are capable of providing benefits without damaging ecosystems'' is repeatedly emphasized. Upon completing this book, a reader cannot help but step back from a previous mindset and rethink what forests are, how we can sustain them, and how we should consider the future of our forests. In general, this book will make people think harder about what kind of impact they want to have on our forestlands.

Pyromancy: Reading Stories in the Flames

Conservation Biology, 2004

A consensus history of fire in the United States has emerged over the past decade. It correctly i... more A consensus history of fire in the United States has emerged over the past decade. It correctly identifies fire suppression's liabilities, while probably over-enthusing about fire-science capabilities. What it lacks, however, is a context of the subject's larger, braided narratives. There is, first, the grand story of fire on Earth. Quite apart from active suppression, open fire is disappearing in competition with industrial combustion. Second, there is the peculiar narrative of the public lands, the prime domain for wildland fires. These lands, and the institutions for their management, are rapidly changing. They began as "imperial" institutions, but now are devolving, privatizing, and otherwise decolonizing. Fire will change with those reforms. Third, there is a national narrative, currently obsessed with the collision of the wild and the exurban. This will probably pass within 5-6 years. Finally, there is the evolving narrative of how we imagine fire. We need a truly biological theory of fire, one in which we can flourish as unique fire creatures. Piromancia: Leyendo Historias en las Llamas Resumen: En laúltima década ha emergido una historia consensuada del fuego en Estados Unidos. Esta identifica correctamente los riesgos de la supresión del fuego y, probablemente, sobreestima las capacidades de la ciencia de fuego. De lo que carece, sin embargo, es el contexto de aspectos más amplios y entrelazados del tema. En primer lugar, se encuentra la magnífica historia del fuego en la Tierra. Más allá de la supresión activa, el fuego abierto está desapareciendo por competencia con la combustión industrial. En segundo lugar, se encuentran las cuestiones relacionadas con las tierras públicas en particular, donde ocurren principalmente los fuegos no controlados. Estas tierras, y las instituciones que las administran, están cambiando rápidamente. Comenzaron como instituciones "imperiales," pero ahora están delegando, privatizando y descolonizando estas tierras de una manera u otra. El fuego cambiará con esas reformas. En tercer lugar, está la problemática a nivel nacional, actualmente obsesionada con el choque de lo silvestre y lo exurbano. Es probable queésta se supere en los próximos 5-6 años. Enúltimo lugar, existe la problemática de cómo imaginamos el fuego. Nos hace falta una teoría verdaderamente biológica del fuego, una en la que podamos florecer como criaturas de fuegoúnicas.

Fire on Earth: An Introduction

Restoring the Narrative of American Environmentalism - co-authored with Ben Minteer

A reconsideration of the narrative behind American environmentalism, with a plea to restore the p... more

The fires this time, and next

Science, 2001

East of the the Wind and West of the Rain

The extraordinary career of J.G. Goldammer, with the fire experiment at Bor Island, Siberia, as a... more

East of the the Wind and West of the Rain

The extraordinary career of J.G. Goldammer, with the fire experiment at Bor Island, Siberia, as a... more

Fire in our future

Science, 2020

Editorial about contemporary fire scene and ways to cope.

Fire in Contemporary America - books.pdf

A suite of books that includes a narrative from 1960-2013 and a complement of regional surveys, s... more

A new guide to writing nonfiction – a complement to Voice and Vision.

To the Last Smoke

To the Last Smoke - series

A series of short (200-page) regional surveys of the American fire scene - the color commentary t... more

Between Two Fires: A Fire History of Contemporary America

A grand narrative of ideas, institutions, and fires since 1960. The story of America's great cul... more

Fire on Earth: An Introduction

Fire: Nature and Culture (Reaktion Books, 2012)

A short, lavishly illustrated survey of fire on Earth and its relationship to its keystone specie... more

The Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene - co-authored with Lydia V. Pyne

" There are two Pleistocenes. The one most people recognize is the geologic epoch just ahead of ... more " There are two Pleistocenes. The one most people recognize is the geologic epoch just ahead of today’s. It’s a world of ice and megafauna, moraine and fossils, extinctions and rebirths; it’s the world that made ours and that made us as a species. The other Pleistocene is the one in our heads. It’s a world of data and ideas, an evolution of understanding that has its own extinctions and creations, of which the idea of a Pleistocene is one.
The Last Lost World traces both lost worlds. Co-written with Lydia V. Pyne, my daughter.

Penguin paperback edition scheduled for spring 2013.

Voyager: Exploration, Space, and the Third Great Age of Discovery

A narrative of the Voyager mission to the outer planets and beyond with constant backsiting to th... more

Voice and Vision: A Guide to Writing History and Other Serious Nonfiction

Problems, paradoxes, paradigms: triangulating fire research

International Journal of Wildland Fire, 2007

Wildland fire research has historically orbited around a physical paradigm of fire. This strategy... more Wildland fire research has historically orbited around a physical paradigm of fire. This strategy has yielded remarkable results, yet increasingly it cannot speak to the core issues that concern fire management. Two additional paradigms are needed. One would build on fire’s origins in the living world. The other would evolve out of fire’s significance to humanity, and humanity’s unblinking importance to fire’s presence on Earth. Note that each paradigm is coherent in itself, that each is capable of absorbing the others, and that each is insufficient on its own. It is unlikely that a master synthesis of these conceptions will emerge, and is not necessary. The need is to sustain research that addresses how fire really exists, not how select sciences can handle it. This essay sketches what the resulting fire-research triangle might look like.

Fire in the mind: changing understandings of fire in Western civilization

Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, Jun 5, 2016

For most of human history, fire has been a pervasive presence in human life, and so also in human... more For most of human history, fire has been a pervasive presence in human life, and so also in human thought. This essay examines the ways in which fire has functioned intellectually in Western civilization as mythology, as religion, as natural philosophy and as modern science. The great phase change occurred with the development of industrial combustion; fire faded from quotidian life, which also removed it from the world of informing ideas. Beginning with the discovery of oxygen, fire as an organizing concept fragmented into various subdisciplines of natural science and forestry. The Anthropocene, however, may revive the intellectual role of fire as an informing idea or at least a narrative conceit.This article is part of the themed issue 'The interaction of fire and mankind'.

Big Fire or Introducing the Pyrocene

I present the case for a fire-centric scholarship, and suggest the transition between burning liv... more

Tending Fire: Coping with America's Wildland Fires

Madroño, 2005

''traditional'' practices, to more ecosystem-based concepts, will appreciate this book. The autho... more ''traditional'' practices, to more ecosystem-based concepts, will appreciate this book. The author uses examples and ideas in such a way that the goal of the book: ''to help readers understand the impacts of deliberate human activities on forests and to effect changes that are capable of providing benefits without damaging ecosystems'' is repeatedly emphasized. Upon completing this book, a reader cannot help but step back from a previous mindset and rethink what forests are, how we can sustain them, and how we should consider the future of our forests. In general, this book will make people think harder about what kind of impact they want to have on our forestlands.

Pyromancy: Reading Stories in the Flames

Conservation Biology, 2004

A consensus history of fire in the United States has emerged over the past decade. It correctly i... more A consensus history of fire in the United States has emerged over the past decade. It correctly identifies fire suppression's liabilities, while probably over-enthusing about fire-science capabilities. What it lacks, however, is a context of the subject's larger, braided narratives. There is, first, the grand story of fire on Earth. Quite apart from active suppression, open fire is disappearing in competition with industrial combustion. Second, there is the peculiar narrative of the public lands, the prime domain for wildland fires. These lands, and the institutions for their management, are rapidly changing. They began as "imperial" institutions, but now are devolving, privatizing, and otherwise decolonizing. Fire will change with those reforms. Third, there is a national narrative, currently obsessed with the collision of the wild and the exurban. This will probably pass within 5-6 years. Finally, there is the evolving narrative of how we imagine fire. We need a truly biological theory of fire, one in which we can flourish as unique fire creatures. Piromancia: Leyendo Historias en las Llamas Resumen: En laúltima década ha emergido una historia consensuada del fuego en Estados Unidos. Esta identifica correctamente los riesgos de la supresión del fuego y, probablemente, sobreestima las capacidades de la ciencia de fuego. De lo que carece, sin embargo, es el contexto de aspectos más amplios y entrelazados del tema. En primer lugar, se encuentra la magnífica historia del fuego en la Tierra. Más allá de la supresión activa, el fuego abierto está desapareciendo por competencia con la combustión industrial. En segundo lugar, se encuentran las cuestiones relacionadas con las tierras públicas en particular, donde ocurren principalmente los fuegos no controlados. Estas tierras, y las instituciones que las administran, están cambiando rápidamente. Comenzaron como instituciones "imperiales," pero ahora están delegando, privatizando y descolonizando estas tierras de una manera u otra. El fuego cambiará con esas reformas. En tercer lugar, está la problemática a nivel nacional, actualmente obsesionada con el choque de lo silvestre y lo exurbano. Es probable queésta se supere en los próximos 5-6 años. Enúltimo lugar, existe la problemática de cómo imaginamos el fuego. Nos hace falta una teoría verdaderamente biológica del fuego, una en la que podamos florecer como criaturas de fuegoúnicas.

Fire on Earth: An Introduction

Restoring the Narrative of American Environmentalism - co-authored with Ben Minteer

A reconsideration of the narrative behind American environmentalism, with a plea to restore the p... more

The fires this time, and next

Science, 2001

East of the the Wind and West of the Rain

The extraordinary career of J.G. Goldammer, with the fire experiment at Bor Island, Siberia, as a... more

East of the the Wind and West of the Rain

The extraordinary career of J.G. Goldammer, with the fire experiment at Bor Island, Siberia, as a... more

Fire in our future

Science, 2020

Editorial about contemporary fire scene and ways to cope.

Comments on 2020 fires in California

Some of the editorials I've written on the 2020 West Coast fires.

Other contagion

Los Angeles Times, 2020

Wildfire and covid-19 are both contagions and share similar causes and consequences. Fires, howev... more

SPARK AND SPRAWL: A WORLD TOUR

Forest History Today, 2008

An inquiry into the wildland-urban interface

California's last conflagration and thoughts on the Pyrocene

The Conversation, 2019

Fossil fuels affect landscape fires in more ways than through climate change. They alter fire pr... more

Winter Isn't Coming

History News Network, 2019

How can we understand the array of fires splashing across the Earth today, from the Arctic to Ama... more

Like the rest, only more so.pdf

30 years after Yellowstone National Park burned, America's fire scene has worsened. Why?

The two cultures of fire

Big Fire or Introducing the Pyrocene

I present the case for a fire-centric scholarship, and suggest the transition between burning liv... more

Why California fire matters

History News Network; Time, 2017

The oversized influence of California on national fire practices and how that happened.