The Corrupting Sea

The Corrupting Sea: A Study of Mediterranean History is a book written by Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell and published in 2000. The book is regarded as revolutionizing Mediterranean studies, introducing important concepts such as micro-ecologies and 'history of,' rather than 'history in'.
Environmental historian J. Donald Hughes, a prominent researcher on deforestation during the Roman period, cited The Corrupting Sea amongst the milder challengers of the scholarly consensus that human activity in the ancient Greco-Roman Mediterranean world led to severe deforestation and soil erosion: "hile admitting that forests were destroyed by factors such as overgrazing and mining, opine that such damage was rare and localized, and that deforestation was seen as a "Good Thing" because it improved the landscape for agriculture."