Eric Rutkow is a writer, lawyer, and historian. His first book, American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation (Scribner, 2012), received the Association of American Publisher’s PROSE award for U.S. history, was named one of the top twelve books of the year by Smithsonian magazine, and was selected for Oprah’s online book club. His second book, The Longest Line on the Map: The United States, the Pan-American Highway, and the Quest to Link the Americas, was published by Scribner in 2019. He is current working on a global history of American tourism. He taught at Yale University before joining the faculty of the University of Central Florida, where he is an Associate Professor of History. His research and teaching focus on international relations, the environment, political economy, and tourism. Before earning his doctorate, Rutkow practiced as an environmental human rights lawyer in Cambodia and as a junior associate with Latham & Watkins LLC in New York. He received his BA and PhD from Yale and his JD from Harvard.
