For thousands of years, humans have been the architects of the natural world. Our activities have permanently altered the environment – for good and for bad. This book examines how the planet would have looked before humans scrubbed away its diversity: from landscapes carved out by megafauna to the primeval forests that emerged following the last Ice Age, and from the eagle-haunted skies of the Dark Ages to the flower-decked farms of more recent centuries. It uncovers the stories of the people who have helped to shape the landscape, seeking out their footprints even where it seems there are none to be found. And it explores the timeworn knowledge that can help to fix our broken relationship with the earth. Along the way it recounts the environmental detective work – archaeological, cultural and ecological – that has allowed us to reconstruct, in stunning detail, the landscapes we have lost.