<P><i>Forests Are Gold</i> examines the management of Vietnam''s forests in the tumultuous twentieth century¿from French colonialism to the recent transition to market-oriented economics¿as the country united, prospered, and transformed people and landscapes. Forest policy has rarely been about ecology or conservation for nature¿s sake, but about managing citizens and society, a process Pamela McElwee terms ¿environmental rule.¿ Untangling and understanding these practices and networks of rule illuminates not just thorny issues of environmental change, but also the birth of Vietnam itself.</P>