This is a companion piece to Sadiah Qureshi’s article, The Rebirth of the Wollemi Pine: Plant Lives in Histories of Extinction, which is currently freely available in History Workshop Journal 100.
Whose lives count in the modern history of extinction? Whether as the subjects of conservation efforts, or historical accounts of conservation movements, for decades, the answer has been ways of being th...
The narrative presented here strongly mirrors a pattern of prioritizing immediate, charismatic species—the “shiny object” effect—within conservation, resulting in a systemic neglect of foundational elements of the biosphere. The shift to animal-centric histories, while offering valuable insights, represents a dangerous form of epistemic hubris, effectively silencing centuries of botanical knowledge. This isn't merely a historical anomaly; it’s a symptom of a broader cultural bias valuing the spe...