Mark Stoll – författare

Historians of American environmentalism have long given religion either a negligible role or a negative one in the development of the field. According to the standard view, Christianity fostered attitudes hostile or indifferent to nature, with Protestantism the worst offender. While virtually all leading environmental figures did eventually leave organized religion, a large majority however had religious childhoods, usually in Reformed Protestant churches, and often counted clergy as close relatives. And although popular support for conservation and environmentalism was relatively non-denominational, Congregationalists provided the foundational ideas of conservation, while the rise and decline of environmentalism as a powerful national movement coincided with the prevalence of Presbyterian leadership.By tracing the history of American environmentalism from a perspective that puts religion at the center rather than the margins, Mark Stoll opens up a fundamentally new and much needed narrative in environmental studies. Inherit the Holy Mountain argues against the divide between religion and American environmentalism, demonstrating how religion necessarily provided environmentalists with deeply-embedded moral and cultural ways of viewing the world giving content, direction, and tone to the environmental causes they espoused. The book demonstrates how individuals' denominational origins corresponded with characteristic sets of ideas about nature and the environment, with each denomination fostering a distinctive culture with its own moral framework and its own placement of humans within the natural world. Stoll also demonstrates how each denomination also fostered a distinctive aesthetic reaction to nature, beginning each chapter of the book with an analysis of a representative work of art.Inherit the Holy Mountain also provides insight into the possible future of environmentalism in the United States, concluding with an examination of the current religious scene and consideration of what it may tell us. Whatever form the response to these problems will take in the twenty-first century, Stoll says, it will look very different, with different values, goals, and styles of leadership, than it did when the children of the Reformed churches created and led it.

In Inherit the Holy Mountain, historian Mark Stoll introduces us to the religious roots of the American environmental movement. Religion, he shows, provided environmentalists both with deeply-embedded moral and cultural ways of viewing the world and with content, direction, and tone for the causes they espoused.Stoll discovers that specific denominational origins corresponded with characteristic sets of ideas about nature and the environment as well as distinctive aesthetic reactions to nature, as can be seen in key works of art analyzed throughout the book. Stoll also provides insight into the possible future of environmentalism in the United States, concluding with an examination of the current religious scene and what it portends for the future. By debunking the supposed divide between religion and American environmentalism, Inherit the Holy Mountain opens up a fundamentally new narrative in environmental studies.

“To Love the Wind and the Rain” is a groundbreaking and vivid analysis of the relationship between African Americans and the environment in U.S. history. It focuses on three major themes: African Americans in the rural environment, African Americans in the urban and suburban environments, and African Americans and the notion of environmental justice. Meticulously researched, the essays cover subjects including slavery, hunting, gardening, religion, the turpentine industry, outdoor recreation, women, and politics. “To Love the Wind and the Rain” will serve as an excellent foundation for future studies in African American environmental history.

Profit — getting more out of something than you put into it — is the original genius of homo sapiens, who learned how to unleash the energy stored in wood, exploit the land, and refashion ecosystems. As civilization developed, we found more and more ways of extracting surplus value from the earth, often deploying brutally effective methods to discipline people to do the work needed.Historian Mark Stoll explains how capitalism supercharged this process and traces its many environmental consequences. The financial innovations of medieval Italy created trade networks that, with the European discovery of the Americas, made possible vast profits and sweeping cultural changes, to the detriment of millions of slaves and indigenous Americans; the industrial age united the world in trade and led to an energy revolution that changed lives everywhere. But when efficient production left society awash in goods, a new sort of capitalism, predicated on endless individual consumption, took its place.This story of incredible ingenuity and villainy begins in the Doge’s palace in medieval Venice and ends with Jeff Bezos aboard his own spacecraft. Mark Stoll’s revolutionary account places environmental factors at the heart of capitalism’s progress and reveals the long shadow of its terrible consequences.