By far the world's largest river, the Amazon flows through the greatest expanse of tropical rain forest on earth. Human beings settled in Amazonia ten thousand years ago and learned to live well on its bounty. Europeans first saw it around 1500 and started settling there in the seventeenth century. By the nineteenth century, Amazonian natives had almost been destroyed by diseases and slavery. Although the rubber industry created huge fortunes, it was at a fearful cost in human misery. In the last hundred years, the Amazon has seen intrepid explorers, entrepreneurial millionaires, and political extremists; alongside them, scientists, anthropologists, and archaeologists have sought to discover its secrets. Today, the world's appetite for timber, beef, and soya is destroying this great tropical forest. Hemming explains why the Amazon is environmentally crucial and describes the passionate struggles to exploit and to protect it.