Companion to American Environmental History

Douglas Cazaux Sackman is Professor of History at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. His publications include Wild Men: Ishi and Kroeber in the Wilderness of Modern America (2010) and Orange Empire: California and the Fruits of Eden (2005), winner of the 2006 Martin Ridge Award. His next book, Pacific Passages, will explore transpacific exchanges of culture and nature, focusing on the traffic in otters, whales, and trees.

“A Companion to American Environmental History gathers together a comprehensive collection of over 30 essays that examine the evolving and diverse field of American environmental history.”  (Native American Encyclopedia, 8 January 2014)“No short review can do justice to the richness and variety of the essays contained in this lengthy volume, which will prove useful to advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and seasoned scholars alike.”  (Journal of the History of Biology, 2011)"The volume admirably covers material and cultural approaches to environmental history... I was impressed with the thoroughness and clarity of almost all the entries. (Environmental History, 1January 2012)The American Society for Environmental History was organized in 1976, and this companion volume celebrates its members' achievements during the past one-third century. The book presents diverse perspectives and topics in 32chapters, including "Fire," "Air," "Race and US Environmental History," "Class," "Gender," "Flora," "Fauna," "Cities and Suburbs," "Who Cares about Forests?" and "Oceans." No individual chapter focuses on pollution or environmental degradation, though these topics appear in several contexts. Many chapters offer revisionist history, bypassing traditional environmental heroes or emphasis on wilderness, conservation, and preservation. Instead, they discuss Indians, herdsmen, lumbermen, and farmers. Indians, not invariably stewards of the environment, became part of European trade networks and were favorably impacted by the introduction of horses. Dams improved economies but also degraded fisheries. All but one chapter have excellent bibliographies. Most bibliographies emphasize books, and the Society's journal, Environmental History, does not receive any special attention. Anyone who wishes to study or research a topic in American environmental history can quickly learn from one or more chapters what has already been written on the subject and how environmental historians evaluate that particular literature. Although there are no illustrations, diagrams, or maps, this volume is a critical acquisition for all academic library reference collections." (CHOICE, December 2010)

• Notes on Contributors viiiIntroduction xiiiPart I The Elements of Environmental History 11 Paths Toward Home: Landmarks of the Field in Environmental History 3Louis S. Warren2 Air 33Nancy Langston3 The Living Earth: History, Darwinian Evolution, and the Grasslands 51Donald Worster4 Fire 69Stephen J. Pyne5 Water 92Rebecca SolnitPart II Nature and the Construction of Society and Identity 976 Race and US Environmental History 99Colin Fisher7 Gender 116Susan R. Schrepfer and Douglas Cazaux Sackman8 Class 146Chad Montrie9 Body Counts: Tracking the Human Body Through Environmental History 163Neil M. MaherPart III The Nature of American Culture 18110 From Wilderness to Hybrid Landscapes: The Cultural Turn in Environmental History 183Richard White11 American Indian Environmental Relations 191David Rich Lewis12 Cultures of Nature: To ca. 1810 214Matthew Dennis13 Cultures of Nature: Nineteenth Century 246Aaron Sachs14 Cultures of Nature: Twentieth Century 266Finis Dunaway15 From Wilderness Prophets to Tool Freaks: Post-World War II Environmentalism 285Andrew Kirk16 The Black Box in the Garden: Consumers and the Environment 304Tom McCarthyPart IV Contact Zones: Americans Conjoining the Natural World 32517 Flora 327Frieda Knobloch18 Fauna: A Prospectus for Evolutionary History 345Edmund Russell19 Water Development: The Plot Thickens 375Patty Limerick20 Rich Crevices of Inquiry: Mining and Environmental History 394Katherine G. Morrissey21 Who Cares About Forests? How Forest History Matters 410Ellen Stroud22 Cultivating an Agro-Environmental History 425Sara M. Gregg23 Oceans: Fusing the History of Science and Technology with Environmental History 442Helen M. Rozwadowski24 Cities and Suburbs 462Chris Sellers25 Energy and Transportation 482Brian Black26 The Global Ecological Reach of the United States: Exporting Capital and Importing Commodities 505Richard P. Tucker27 Food 529Douglas Cazaux SackmanPart V Outside of the Grid: Place, Borders, and Scale 55128 Blinded by History: The Geographic Dimension of Environment and Society 553Richard Walker and Sarah Thomas29 The Northeastern Pacifi c Basin: An Environmental Approach to Seascapes and Littoral Places 579David Igler30 Earthlings: Evolution and Place in Environmental History 595Dan Flores31 "Most Fruitful Results": Transborder Approaches to Canadian-American Environmental History 615Ted Binnema32 Seeing Beyond Our Borders: US and Non-US Historiographies 635Paul SutterIndex 653