Environmental History and the American South - by Paul S Sutter & Christopher Manganiello (Hardcover)

About the Book

These fifteen important essays provide entrée into the recent literature on the region as it indicates the variety of directions in which the field of environmental history is growing. The writings, which range in setting from the Texas plains to the Carolina Lowcountry, affirm the critical importance of human-environmental interactions.

Book Synopsis

This reader gathers fifteen of the most important essays written in the field of southern environmental history over the past decade. Ideal for course use, the volume provides a convenient entrée into the recent literature on the region as it indicates the variety of directions in which the field is growing. As coeditor Paul S. Sutter writes in his introduction, "recent trends in environmental historiography--a renewed emphasis on agricultural landscapes and their hybridity, attention to the social and racial histories of environmental thought and practice, and connections between health and the environment among them--have made the South newly attractive terrain. This volume suggests, then, that southern environmental history has not only arrived but also that it may prove an important space for the growth of the larger environmental history enterprise."

The writings, which range in setting from the Texas plains to the Carolina Lowcountry, address a multiplicity of topics, such as husbandry practices in the Chesapeake colonies and the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. The contributors' varied disciplinary perspectives--including agricultural history, geography, the history of science, the history of technology, military history, colonial American history, urban and regional planning history, and ethnohistory--also point to the field's vitality. Conveying the breadth, diversity, and liveliness of this maturing area of study, Environmental History and the American South affirms the critical importance of human-environmental interactions to the history and culture of the region.

Contributors: Virginia DeJohn AndersonWilliam BoydLisa BradyJoshua Blu BuhsJudith CarneyJames Taylor CarsonCraig E. ColtenS. Max EdelsonJack Temple KirbyRalph H. LuttsEileen Maura McGurtyTed SteinbergMart StewartClaire StromPaul SutterHarry WatsonAlbert G. Way

Review Quotes

I applaud the editors for their efforts in pulling together this excellent collection. Geographically, chronologically, and topically, it offers good coverage of an incredibly diverse region and should be a boon to the study of southern people and the natural world they inhabit.

--Timothy Silver "author of Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains: An Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in Eastern America"

This book offers an original look, through the lens of environmental history, at what has made the South a unique region and at what has made the South a complicated place, as diverse in its culture and economy as in its climate, terrain, and biota. Well-chosen pieces and an excellent overview will make this volume invaluable to American historians of every region or period.

--Donald Worster "author of A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir"

About the Author

Paul S. Sutter (Editor)
PAUL S. SUTTER is an associate professor of history at University of Colorado, Boulder. He is the author of Driven Wild: How the Fight against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement.

Christopher Manganiello (Editor)
CHRISTOPHER J. MANGANIELLO is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Georgia.