This book provides the first comprehensive review of the history of tropical rainforests on a long-term geological time scale, beginning with the origin of the angiosperms over 100 million years ago, which today overwhelmingly dominate these forests. Rainforests are reviewed on a continent-by-continent basis, culminating with a global synthesis of their history in relation to the changing positions of the world's tectonic plates and changing climates. The book establishes the age of the great tropical rainforest blocks and compares 20Th-century rainforest destruction with prehistoric forest clearance in temperate regions.