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A remarkable and fascinating book. I thought that Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel" had created the gold standard for ecological history, but Flannery gives him a run for his money and, in some respects, surpasses him. While Diamond's scope and goals are more grandiose (to explain from first principles why Europeans ended up ruling the world, if only for a while), Flannery's analysis of the ecological history of Australasia is more detailed and left me with a much better understanding of and appreciation for the complex networks of cause and effect that define and influence ecological systems as they change over time.

I also felt like, after reading "The Future Eaters", I understood much better the intellectual challenge of piecing together thousands of disparate clues from many fields of study to derive a big picture explanation of why things are the way they are. Flannery knows a vast number of facts, but he thinks in terms of systems, and this allows him to arrive at convincing explanations of what must have happened in the past based on not only what exists now and in the fossil record, but also on the gaps, on what is missing.

The conclusions he reaches have relevance not only for those who are interested in Australasia's past and the present, but also for those who would understand what sorts of futures are possible for the region. In particular, his observations about the limited carrying capacity of the Australian ecosystem should be required reading for all Australians and their political representatives who advocate continued immigration. It may be a huge and sparsely settled country, but from an ecological perspective it is probably already overpopulated.