Made From This Earth - (Gender and American Culture) by Vera Norwood (Paperback)

About the Book

According to the author, the broad sweep of environmental and ecological history has until now been written and understood in predominantly male terms. Here Norwood seeks to reclaim the contribution American women have made to the study of nature from the early 19th century to the present. 55 illustrations.

Book Synopsis

The broad sweep of environmental and ecological history has until now been written and understood in predominantly male terms. In Made From This Earth, Vera Norwood explores the relationship of women to the natural environment through the work of writers, illustrators, landscape and garden designers, ornithologists, botanists, biologists, and conservationists.

Norwood begins by showing that the study and promotion of botany was an activity deemed appropriate for women in the early 1800s. After highlighting the work of nineteenth-century scientific illustrators and garden designers, she focuses on nature's advocates such as Rachel Carson and Dian Fossey who differed strongly with men on both women's "nature" and the value of the natural world. These women challenged the dominant, male-controlled ideologies, often framing their critique with reference to values arising from the female experience. Norwood concludes with an analysis of the utopian solutions posed by ecofeminists, the most recent group of women to contest men over the meaning and value of nature.

Review Quotes

A valuable and thoroughly interesting exploration of the relationship of women to the natural environment.

"Nineteenth-Century Literature"

A very important contribution to the information available about 'women's place' in the history of our country.

"Bloomsbury Review"

A wide-ranging and ambitious book. . . . Dense with fact and discursive in approach.

"Natural History"

An inventive and wide-ranging work.

"Journal of American History"

Norwood has made a significant contribution to the women's ecology movement.

"Belles Lettres"

About the Author

Vera Norwood, professor of American studies at the University of New Mexico, is coeditor of The Desert Is No Lady: Southwestern Landscapes in Women's Writing and Art.