James C. Scott
"Mirroring what the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz famously said about war, McElwee shows us that ‘environmental rule’ is politics by other means. Deeply informed by archival knowledge, intensive fieldwork, a knowledge of elite discourse, and a gift for theory, McElwee is, by turns, a consummate historian, botanist, sociologist, economist, and anthropologist. Inspiring, path-breaking, and sophisticated, Forests Are Gold will make big waves in Vietnam and in political ecology more generally"
Tim Forsyth
"Very interesting and thought provoking, Forests Are Gold presents fascinating details about forest politics in Vietnam. This book will be a source of reference on Vietnam for some years."
Timothy Forsyth
Forests Are Goldpresents fascinating details about forest politics in Vietnam.
Nancy Lee Peluso
"Forests Are Gold takes us on a historical trek through different eras of 'environmental rule' influencing Vietnam’s little-known forest histories. McElwee deftly demonstrates the articulations of local and transnational forest imaginaries, socio-natural histories, and entanglements of culture, nature, and power."
Erik Harms
"This meticulously documented and groundbreaking study reveals the ways in which the classification of forests is tied in to regimes of power, which in turn frames the political and economic meaning of what we so often assume are righteous ecological and environmental improvement projects."