The themes of War & Peat were addressed at a major international conference in 2013, and the expanded papers are presented here as chapters with an introduction by Ian D. Rotherham. The papers are grouped around several themes: Military Landscapes; Battles and Battlefields; The Impacts of Conflict and War; War & Peat in the Peak District; and Non-military Campaigns.
The conference and book are mostly focused on temperate environments, but the interactions of peatlands and conflicts are more global and wetlands have been hugely influential globally in tropical conflicts too. As we approach the centenary of the Great War (WW1), matters of landscape, terrain, resources and strategies become increasingly topical and relevant. The relationships of people and landscapes, of economies and conflicts, and ecology and history, are complex and multi-faceted. For peatlands, including bogs, fens, moors, and heaths, the interactions of people and nature in relation to history and conflicts, are both significant and surprising.