Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England by William Cronon

Jan 28, 2009 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: personal-collection

I used this text and compared to Crosby's "Ecological Imperialism." This text offers a different approach to environmental hsitroy, once that is much more "homo-centric" if you will. Whereas Crosby discusses humans as being a small part of the bursting dam that is nature, Cronon argues that human beings are the chief agents of environmental change. I personally side with Crosby on this one, and as a result, I like Cronon's work less. But it is still a solid piece of writing in a field starving f...more

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Apr 16, 2013 David Bates rated it 4 of 5 stars

William Cronon’s Change in the Land made a simpler case for the close relationship between culture and land use. “I have tried in this book to write an ecological history of colonial New England,” Cronon wrote. “By this I mean a history which extends its boundaries beyond human institutions – economies, class and gender systems, political organizations, cultural rituals – to the natural ecosystems which provide the context for those institutions.” From the first accounts of New England forests a...more William Cronon’s Change in the Land made a simpler case for the close relationship between culture and land use. “I have tried in this book to write an ecological history of colonial New England,” Cronon wrote. “By this I mean a history which extends its boundaries beyond human institutions – economies, class and gender systems, political organizations, cultural rituals – to the natural ecosystems which provide the context for those institutions.” From the first accounts of New England forests and wildlife in the seventeenth century to Thoreau’s review of the same in the nineteenth, many things had changed. Bears, mouse, deer, porcupines, wolves, beavers and martens were gone. The bass and alewives in the rivers were less abundant. Eagles, pigeons, heath cocks, turkeys – all gone. “Is it not,” Thoreau asked his journal, “a maimed and imperfect nature that I am conversant with?” The change, Cronon argued, was in the differing ways that Indians and Europeans had shaped the landscape. Pre-colonial New England was not a virgin landscape but rather one “whose essential characteristics were kept in equilibrium by the cultural practices of its human community.” The Indians of southern New England burned the undergrowth of the forests twice yearly to keep the ground clear for game hunting, and depended on a mix of planting, gathering and fishing that avoided resource depletion by relocating villages. The agricultural patterns that English colonists brought worked a transformation in the landscape. Working much larger fields with the help of animals and remaining settled year after year led to soil depletion. Animals that threatened fields, like beavers, or livestock, like wolves, were hunted out. Some species of trees such as oaks and white pines were logged out of the forests, and clear cutting gave an advantage to previously marginal species which could grow quickly, from stumps, or better in the drier, hotter topsoil of a deforested area. The seasons themselves shifted, as deforested areas were hotter in the summer and colder in the winter. Soil frozen to a greater depth could not absorb runoff in the spring and flooding increased. Ultimately, Cronon argues, the extent of the change to New England’s eco-system in the two centuries after European settlement had not come only from different agricultural practices, but from cultural practices. “English property systems encouraged colonists to regard the products of the land – not to mention the land itself – as commodities . . . New England ecology was transformed as the region became integrated in the emerging capitalist economy of the North Atlantic. Capitalism and environmental degradation went hand in hand.” (less)

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Jan 13, 2010 Abraham rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-british, history-united-states-colonial, ecology

William Cronon’s work, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England seeks to look at the reorganization of the New England landscape. Cronon attempts to show more than a change in the land. From the beginning of Changes in the Land, Cronon states that the land had changed. He quotes from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, showing Thoreau’s lament of the change in the landscape. As a counter, Cronon brings to the surface earlier writings on observations of the New England ec...more William Cronon’s work, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England seeks to look at the reorganization of the New England landscape. Cronon attempts to show more than a change in the land. From the beginning of Changes in the Land, Cronon states that the land had changed. He quotes from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, showing Thoreau’s lament of the change in the landscape. As a counter, Cronon brings to the surface earlier writings on observations of the New England ecology, where the authors show they understood the changes going on in the environment and actually desired the changes, so as to recreate the pastoral English countryside. Changes in the Land argues that these changes occur in a multifaceted process, from shifts in culture and economics, to subtle shifts in the ecology of the area. Changes in the Land is not limited to a single national historiography and tries to work outside the “nation” when possible. This is an extra-national work, concerned with how multiple cultures and modes of economic and political life affect and are affected by the changing face of New England.
Cronon divides this monograph into three sections. The first section, "Looking Backward," defines the problems associated with this ecological history. The first major problem is that of sources. Cronon must make many inferences into the colonial period because of many gaps in records. Many records did not survive into the modern era. Of these sources, the majority were western accounts. These accounts must be viewed with some skepticism due to the author’s bias and agenda. Cronon attempts to work with sources beyond the traditional historical sources because of the gaps and because this work is looking at our history from a radically different angle. Cronon employs geological surveys and archeological evidence to supplant traditional evidence. The next big challenge that Cronon outlines in this section is the use of the post hoc ergo proptor hoc fallacy. Throughout the remaining sections of the book, we see Cronon struggling with this fallacy and in some of the more linear sections, coming close to falling into this type of argument.
Part Two, "The Ecological Transformation of Colonial New England," outlines two conflicting cultures and conflicting methods in relation to change in New England’s natural settings. In this section, Cronon take an intimate look at how the two different peoples were affected by the environment and what effect the environment had on them as it was changing. Cronon gives an overview of the environments, looks at the ideas of wealth and property, the enclosure of the land and the effects of animals. Each section within Part Two contains a dialectic discussion of these ideas. How did the Indians and the colonists view wealth? How did the different ideas of property affect the environment? How did the environment affect the way the Indians and the colonists viewed property and wealth? This book in itself contains a duality, where Cronon explores the preceding ideas from multiple points of view.
In the third section, "Harvests of Change," Cronon uses the discussions in Part Two to bring together his thesis that the ecological, cultural and economic changes were all interlinked in a complex relationship. It is easy, if just reading the middle section of this book to see the change in New England a unicausal: “Capitalism and environmental degradation went hand in hand” (Cronon, William, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England (New York: Hill and Wang, 2003) 161.). The Europeans had great effects on the ecology, but it was a combination of economics, politics, biology and other facts. But Cronon makes sure to show that the Indians helped cause the changes in the environment as they were affected by the evolving global system they had fallen into. The Indians were not passive in response to the changes but Cronon is not sure that the Indians exhausted all possible resources dealing with the situation. In the end, Cronon comes back to on theme which ran throughout the book: the opposing views of the Indians and the colonists on various constructs, from resources to the market. The Indians had to react to changing economies based on landed property and wealth as opposed to subsistence and the communal use of land. But the colonists struggled with this as well. Seeing the Indians devoid of wealth in a limitless sea of resources, the colonists used the resources according to their own views of the constructs of property, wealth and resources. Throughout Changes in the Land, Cronon gives a multi-faceted and extra-national view of why changes began and occurred in New England and how this “dynamic and unstable process” changed the cultures, politics and economics (Ibid, 170). This work acts not only as a document telling how the environment can change and to what effect, but is also a warning to future generations about how easily a small change can have a large effect on the world.(less)

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Jun 18, 2009 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very good Marxist-influenced historical anthropology of the ecological changes wrought upon Native lands by European occupation. Written not theoretically, but with lots of detail from first-hand sources (colonial land records, memoirs, Native testimonials, etc.).

Particularly fascinating are discussions of differences in land rights between Natives and colonists - the Natives did have notions of property and rights, sovereignty over the land being identified with a sachem (which referred both t...more Very good Marxist-influenced historical anthropology of the ecological changes wrought upon Native lands by European occupation. Written not theoretically, but with lots of detail from first-hand sources (colonial land records, memoirs, Native testimonials, etc.).

Particularly fascinating are discussions of differences in land rights between Natives and colonists - the Natives did have notions of property and rights, sovereignty over the land being identified with a sachem (which referred both to a specific leader and the whole community). But this sovereignty meant rights for the whole community over specific USES of the land. The mercantile colonists, on the other hand, enforced (through combination of 'legal' and dubious devices) notions of abstract, alienable property rights 'owned' to an individual land-holder. The landholder did not own the land in specific relation to its use, but abstractly, that is regardless of the character or relationship to the function of the land. The Natives did 'own' the land in different ways, but had no 'market' associated with it.

Cronon relates differences in how the land was named and bounded by Native and colonist to demonstrate this: Natives used specific-use names like "place-to-rest-between-the-waters" or "maize-growing-land", while the colonists employed names of the landholder (Williamsbridge) or referring back to English towns (New Hempstead). Native land boundaries often attached to specific features in the landscape, a vale or ridge or forest edge; colonial boundaries referred to abstract quantitative measurement (so many kilometers from such and such).

Cronon's great eye for ecological detail and relationship comes through in a later chapter on the destructive effects of animal husbandry and pasturage in New England. Cattle roaming literally stamped down on the earth, limiting its ability to recycle water and nutrients; rampant forest clearing (to clear pasture for cattle and pigs and sell timber for a terribly expanding market in wood), produced lands susceptible to drought and flood, where once before were steady streams. (Native used wood for fires, and lots and lots of fires, which awed the colonialists. But this dwindles in comparison to the colonialist's insatiable demand for it wood, both in manufacture and in home-building - Natives lived much in thatch houses, small enough to dissemble and move around in a few hours time; colonialists built big houses from large wood planks.)

This is not a book about Native resistance, although Cronon relates evidence more and more acknowledged now that European transmitted diseases killed, in many places, 90-95% of the Native population in a generation in waves of epidemics in the 1600's. This calamity and the psycho-social-economic disruption of Native societies it caused, relates to the relative speed of European colonization and weakness of Native resistance. Many communities simply lacked the labor to work the lands to sustain themselves and provide enough security and resources to fight.

The book also has a thorough bibliographic essay at the end; something not done much in great short treatises like this one. (less)

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Dec 24, 2012 William Kerrigan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, agriculture, colonial, nature

William Cronon begins Changes in the Land with a discussion of a journal entry Henry David Thoreau made in January of 1855. Thoreau, a keen observer of the natural landscape, had just finished reading William Wood's New England's Prospect, a 17th century tract in which Englishman Wood describes his visit to New England in 1633. Thoreau reflects on the radical transformations that have occurred to the environment of New England since Wood's time. Thoreau concludes "When I consider . . . the theno...more William Cronon begins Changes in the Land with a discussion of a journal entry Henry David Thoreau made in January of 1855. Thoreau, a keen observer of the natural landscape, had just finished reading William Wood's New England's Prospect, a 17th century tract in which Englishman Wood describes his visit to New England in 1633. Thoreau reflects on the radical transformations that have occurred to the environment of New England since Wood's time. Thoreau concludes "When I consider . . . the thenobler animals have been exterminated here,--the cougar, panther, lynx, wolverene, wolf, bear, moose, deer, the beaver, the turkey, etc., etc.,--I cannot but feel as if I lived in a tamed, and, as it were, emasculated country."

It is hard to believe that Changes in the Land was published thirty years ago. It seems as fresh today as it did when I first opened it shortly after its publication. It was my first introduction to something called "environmental history," and while it may not have invented the field, it was certainly critical in popularizing it and expanding its boundaries.

Changes in the Land is not simply about the ecological transformation of the New England landscape. It is a history of European and Native American early encounters in New England that puts the natural world at the center. It was not until I read this book that I really understood that the contest between Europeans and Native Americans for control of the Americas was not so much a war waged with varied weapons technology, but a contest between to conflicting and largely incompatible ways of getting a living from the land. Ecological factors, including the introduction of Old World plants, animals, and pathogens, and well as European practices of environmental transformation, were critical in determining how this contest played out. That might seem obvious today, especially in the wake of best-selling books like Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel. But it was not so obvious when Changes in the Land was first published. And for those who have not read it, Cronon's Changes in the Land is still a worthwhile counter-perspective to the broad, sweeping strokes painted by Diamond and others. By taking a micro-approach, and focussing exclusively on one small region, Cronon avoids the sweeping declarations that made Diamond's work so popular.

By placing environment at the center of the story, Cronon has influenced a generation of historians in varied ways. One of those ways has been to elevate the role the Euro-American farmer played in the transformation of North America over that of the role of the soldier. Had changes in the land not blazed a trail, works like Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America, The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord, and my own work,Johnny Appleseed and the American Orchard: A Cultural History, would not have followed. But ultimately, you shouldn't simply read this book because of its influence. You should read it because it is a very good read.

To learn more about the history of apples in America, check out my blog, http://americanorchard.wordpress.com (less)

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Feb 19, 2013 Patrick rated it 2 of 5 stars

I must explain my rating for this book. I first of all must say that Cronon's book is an excellent example of scholarship. Changes in the Land stands out as a fine piece of scholarship. I have no qualms with his method or workstyle. I gave the book only a 2-star rating because I simply was not interested in the subject matter much at all. I found the book to be painfully boring to read at times. I read it for a course on U.S. environmental history. Cronon's book is one of the first in the field...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Jeremy Jackson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Well written, concise, free of jargon, insightful, and illuminating, Changes in the Land is as good as its reputation suggests. Cronon's levelheaded, bias-free approach to the differing relationships the New England Indians and the early colonists had to the land and its resources recalibrated the way I understand the early European presence in America. For instance, Cronon explains how the land that the colonists found was far from an "untouched wilderness," but had been manipulated by generati...more

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Jun 22, 2011 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is another of those that is only really going to be interesting to people who are already interested in the topic; if you ARE interested in the changes to New England's ecology in the century or two after Europeans arrived, however, this really should be the first book you turn to. It's not too long, less than two hundred pages, it doesn't delve into too much complexity. It is still a little dry in certain parts, but it shouldn't be hard for a lay reader to understand.
What is fascinating t...more This is another of those that is only really going to be interesting to people who are already interested in the topic; if you ARE interested in the changes to New England's ecology in the century or two after Europeans arrived, however, this really should be the first book you turn to. It's not too long, less than two hundred pages, it doesn't delve into too much complexity. It is still a little dry in certain parts, but it shouldn't be hard for a lay reader to understand.
What is fascinating to me is the extent of change and how quickly it happened. It is easy to think of Thoreau, in his little woodsy cabin, living in basically untouched nature in the 1850s, but Cronon starts out this book by quoting Thoreau on how drastically the flora and fauna of New England had changed since colonial times. Understanding stuff like this really requires the modern reader to puncture his or her assumptions. For one thing, Thoreau's Massachusetts wasn't very woodsy. There are plenty of trees today, so it is easy for us to just think of it as always having been this way, but not so. New England wasn't just deforested by the 19th Century, it was deforested by the mid 18th Century. The European colonists cut down trees to build homes, to heat homes, to build fences, to sell lumber to England, to plant crops, to build ships, and on and on and on. Cronon writes that before 1800, New England settlers had already consumed more than 260 million cords of firewood. That's just the firewood! One cord is a pile of wood measuring 4x4x8 feet. Cripes!
Cronon goes from there to the repercussions of these changes, some of which are not so obvious. Felling the trees doesn't just mean there are no more trees. Often, the land under the trees was very fertile. The settlers didn't always realize, however, that is was fertile BECAUSE of the trees, rather than having trees on it because it was fertile. Cut the trees down and plant crops, and in a couple years the soil is worthless. Not having trees also means that the ground freezes deeper and longer in the winter, which means less water soaks in, which means the spring runoff is faster and shorter, which means floods in spring and dry streams in summer. Which means useless mills.
Maybe this sounds wicked boring to most people, but I thought it was interesting. I am a dork, though. (less)

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Jan 26, 2013 Vincent rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: america-to-1865, science-and-maths, native-american-studies

William Cronon’s Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England is a landmark in environmental history. When published in 1983 it served to legitimize the interdisciplinary study, weaving history, ecology, anthropology and various other disciplines into an easily accessible narrative the main focus of which was not the human agency so often the subject of historical analysis, but the ecology in which they operated, interacted, and effected. The thesis is simple, yet comp...more William Cronon’s Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England is a landmark in environmental history. When published in 1983 it served to legitimize the interdisciplinary study, weaving history, ecology, anthropology and various other disciplines into an easily accessible narrative the main focus of which was not the human agency so often the subject of historical analysis, but the ecology in which they operated, interacted, and effected. The thesis is simple, yet compelling: that the shift from an Indian to European way of life, and the vastly differing ways in which those two communities viewed property, had incredible impacts on the very landscape and ecology of New England. That to view the ecology of pre-colonial New England to that which was present at the dawn of the early republic is to view two very different environments in terms of plants, animals, terrain, and in some parts even climate, nearly all of which can be traced to being the result of the paradigm shift which occurred as European colonists came to dominate the area and brought with them their ideas of fixed property and mercantilism (which the author calls “capitalism,” though this is debatable), facilitated by the destruction of Indian society through disease, conquest, and the shifting environment.

Cronon writes with brevity and clarity as he lays out his narrative. He begins with quoting Thoreau, who had lamented the changes that had occurred to the environment by his own time, and yet unlike Thoreau Cronon succeeds in not falling into the trap of the “myth of fallen humanity” (4) in his own analysis of Indians and the loss of their society and habitat, which can at least partly be attributed to their own actions. He makes a clear effort to present colonists and Indians in an objective, unbiased arena, which is a considerable feat when one takes into account the dearth of Indian documents available to historians as compared to that of colonists, who by virtue of sheer volume tend to dominate as the voices of the past in this era.

Cronon convincingly reveals how the history of a location can be read by the plants, trees and animals present at a given time, providing evidence as to whether the land had been used for grazing, for example, and what types of animals would have been present, what effect they would have had depending upon the elevation of the land or the direction of a hillside, or whether soil erosion might have been a contributing factor. The list goes on. He also gives compelling examples of how markets affected the terrain, such as how the over-hunting of beavers led to the destruction of dams and the drying of ponds, which then became fertile meadows by the time colonists arrived to make their settlement (107).

Though Cronon’s thesis takes into account many factors, it is only nearly comprehensive. While he speaks extensively of the colonists’ and Indians’ views of property and wealth, nothing is said of their religion. Especially when considering a people like the Puritans, no account could be said to be complete without addressing how religion played a role in forming their worldview, particularly as it directly informed how they would have viewed the environment and their relation to it. Cronon himself addresses this omission in the afterward to the twentieth-anniversary edition and concludes that to delve into such a complicated topic would have taken away from the smooth flow of the narrative (184). This is likely so, but the absence remains glaring.

Other more admittedly minor additions to the book would have improved the reader’s experience. Cronon assumes in the reader a fairly intimate knowledge of New England geography, frequently mentioning rivers and towns extending from southern Connecticut to the reaches of Maine. The inclusion of maps would not only be helpful, but may serve visually to reinforce the thesis by further emphasizing changes over time. Likewise, species of trees and plants are listed extensively, though only a botanist or an arborist is likely to be acquainted with the majority of them, and without an internet search engine or a natural history tome readily accessible most readers will not recognize them. Other visuals that would be of service to the lay reader include depictions of Indian and colonial villages, the stark contrasts of which would again reinforce the thesis. Nevertheless, such grievances are minor and do nothing to damage Cronon’s argument; rather, their inclusion would only enrich it.

Perhaps the most dramatic impression of Changes in the Land is the lesson it leaves with today’s readers, that while not explicit, is certainly implied. Humans have profound impacts on ecology, and such impacts can sometimes be devastating, not only to the environment but to people’s own long-term interests. Cronon quotes Benjamin Lincoln who laments that in his own time people’s short-term interests allow cattle to roam and tear up the soil, killing trees and vegetation, on land that would have been better used for crops, thereby preserving more of the soil while also providing more food (146). Similarly, the modern American obsession with meat consumption, and the resources required to fulfill it, have long shown their adverse effects, whether by pollution or the disappearance of fresh water reservoirs. This is but one example.

Another is curiously revealed by strange serendipity, for as I write this Michael Feldman’s “Whad’Ya Know?” is broadcasting in the background on NPR, and his guest is University of Wisconsin-Madison wildlife ecologist professor Stanley Temple, a colleague of Cronon, who is discussing the state’s early bloom. In his afterward Cronon credits as an intellectual predecessor Aldo Leopold, also a UW professor, who in 1949 published, posthumously, the influential A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There, which described in straight-forward detail the land around the author’s home. Professor Temple, in his interview with Feldman, is currently describing how Leopold’s descriptions have allowed them know when spring flowers bloomed in his time, and at what temperatures, and how human-influenced climate change has now brought earlier blooms to Wisconsin. The effects of warmer temperatures have had devastating effects on many of the state’s industries, including its cherry harvests and the making of maple syrup. It does not take a great stretch of the imagination to see the analogous relation to colonial New England’s beaver pelt trade or lumber industry, both of which were exhausted and had dramatic consequences on the local ecology. Even after three decades Cronon’s thesis remains potent because it has proved consistently topical and ever more relevant, and we continue to see evidence of its validity everywhere, in our time.(less)

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Oct 08, 2012 Timothy Hill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An excellent and fascinating study. My only quibbles would be:

(1) The book is somewhat dated; while I'm not an ecologist or biologist, I feel reasonably certain our scientific knowledge and ability to reconstruct past ecosystems has improved in the last thirty years. It's time for a second, updated edition!

(2) The author to my mind struggles excessively not to portray the Native Americans as victims of European expansionism. At several points he states explicitly that Native Americans were not s...more

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Jan 05, 2012 Andrew added it

Shelves: history, environmental-history

The story of Changes in the Land is nowhere near as deep as that of Nature’s Metropolis. I’m a sucker for environmental history, but this wasn’t terribly enlightening. Yes, American colonists sucked at land management, squandered resources, and introduced invasive species and diseases. I certainly was aware of that. Really, I was far more interested in the descriptions of Indian lifeways, and how they sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally established sustainable patterns of existenc...more

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Jul 31, 2011 ☯Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science

This was required reading in an environmental history class. It was readable and enjoyable. This will supplement any Colonial history you already know about New England. It begins with a description of the New World land and its abundant animals before the Pilgrims came. Within a century the abundance was gone, the land "tamed" and the Indians forced off the land. Cronon gives a balanced analysis of why these changes occurred. Surprisingly, all these changes occurred before the Industrial Revolu...more

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Dec 14, 2010 Jacob rated it 4 of 5 stars

As an ecological history this is probably one of the best out there. Cronon's writing is concise and insightful. Even if you don't agree with all of his points he makes well-reasoned arguments and provokes a lot of thought for the attentive reader. He concentrates mostly on Southern New England from 1500-1800 although there is a decent amount of material on Northern New England as well. It covers both indigenous environmental alterations before and after contact with Europeans, as well as Europe...more

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Feb 21, 2013 stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: chronological, nonfiction

I quite liked this book, which I think succeeds at providing an ecological history of colonial New England. In particular it does a good job of explaining the differences in land use by the Indians and Colonists, both of which -- somewhat surprisingly -- are similarly alien to today's New England.

However, given my layman's interest, I did slowly start to lose patience with the book, which can feel redundant given it's narrow focus, and sometimes seems lazy in its consideration of capitalism. Th...more

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Apr 24, 2012 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars

An amazing book. You learn about the social relations, injustices, and cultural misunderstanding between the colonists and Native Americans during the settlement of New England. You also learn about the ecology of the land and the changes that occurred in the environment as a result of settlement and biological imperialism on the part of the Europeans. If you are into political ecology and history or would just like to know more about the natives of this land and how they lived, I recommend read...more

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Feb 12, 2012 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: colonial-history, environmental-history, history, native-american-history, world-nature-exploration, my-buddies

How wonderfully enjoyable and informative this compact book turned out to be! Though I'm sure environmental history doesn't elicit much excitement from most people in general, I could see how most anyone could enjoy this book, at least anyone who has some curiosity as to the chain of events in nature in some fundamental ways or anyone who has an interest in the Indians' versus the settlers' ways with the land.

This book starts out describing the Native American Indians’ relationship with their e...more How wonderfully enjoyable and informative this compact book turned out to be! Though I'm sure environmental history doesn't elicit much excitement from most people in general, I could see how most anyone could enjoy this book, at least anyone who has some curiosity as to the chain of events in nature in some fundamental ways or anyone who has an interest in the Indians' versus the settlers' ways with the land.

This book starts out describing the Native American Indians’ relationship with their environment (in this case, the New England environment) which is very interesting in itself because of how cleverly in sync they were with what the land had to offer - that is the way they molded their way of life to fit what nature had to offer them as opposed to molding nature to fit their way of life. It reminded me of things I'd read in the books 1491 by Charles Mann and American Colonies by Alan Taylor, the first of which disappointed me due to its confusing and semi-hostile delivery, and the latter which I appreciated very much. This book greatly complimented both for me by honing in on some interesting environmental details. It was great at telling the why and how of what it told you, such as the influence of the old world system on the settlers ways of using the land and how deforestation changed soil composition in crucial ways.

I learned so much from this book. I learned what trees were valued for what such as white pines being valued for their height and straightness and their use to build ship masts. I learned that black oak worked best for the bottom of ships because it was more resistant to some of the sea life that would bore into the hulls of ships. I learned how deforestation specifically affected the soil and subsequently water shedding and flooding. I learned how livestock too wreaked havoc on the soil. In sum, I learned what occurred to the New England environment from the beginning of the settlers’ arrival with reasoning as to why it happened, whether that reasoning was good or bad, and I learned how and why the land was used in ways unique to both the Indians and the Europeans. With all the details given in this book, one clearly sees how the land was depleted and drastically changed from what it had been and one sees why this happened from both cultural and economic standpoints.

I have to admit that I occasionally ponder the idea of existing in nature a little more like how the Indians did, especially in the way that they placed a priority on mobility as opposed to accumulation of things. And I guess you could say that our world is, in its own way, evolving to a style reminiscent of this, for example, streamlining of goods & entertainment through technology, the increase in renters versus home owners, organic diets, etc. (less)

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Jan 16, 2011 Isabel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction, ecology

I thought this book was incredible. After reading it, I can't stop looking at things around me differently, so automatically it got a 5 star from me. Some of the material can get a little dense, but the author breaks it down and analyzes it regularly and walks the reader along in his conclusions, most of which I was formulating at the time, anyway.

The final chapter was a great cap to the whole book. His ultimate conclusion, which was the one I was coming to terms with bit by bit through the page...more I thought this book was incredible. After reading it, I can't stop looking at things around me differently, so automatically it got a 5 star from me. Some of the material can get a little dense, but the author breaks it down and analyzes it regularly and walks the reader along in his conclusions, most of which I was formulating at the time, anyway.

The final chapter was a great cap to the whole book. His ultimate conclusion, which was the one I was coming to terms with bit by bit through the pages is that even though we believe environmental degradation started in the 1800s with the Industrial Revolution, it was actually well on its way when the first English settler imported land grazing animals and their economic way of life into a land that was not initially suited to it. The ramifications continue to effect us today.

I had always associated the colonies with self sufficiency and independence, but in reality, it was an offshoot of an economy that had already ground up its natural and human resources. In order to "prosper" the English colonists continued to interface with English markets and commodification in a proto-global economy.

The author addresses alien species (animal, vegetable, and mircroorganism), societal conflice, legal mismatches, economic imbalance... all of it!

I'm still sorting out how the impact of English settlement altered the landscape, which in turn irrevocably changed the entire lifestyle of the Native Americans who had established a symbiotic relationship with it. The environmental balance was tipped and to this day our settlement patterns, politics and economy spill over and tumble chaotically in a direction that has led to environmental degradation, climate change, poverty, food shortages... the list goes on and on. How strange to be able to trace it back over 500 years...

"The colonial interaction of forests, furbearers, hunters, axes, grazing animals, plows, crops, weeds--and the rival ways of owning and selling these things--all contributed to a redrawn map of New England." W. Cronan. Not sure if that constitutes a "spoiler," but that, in a sentence is what this book sets out to illustrate and it did an awesome job of it.

Fact: corroborated that an Indian (I've already forgotten the name) was essentially orphaned when his entire village died due to illness brought by the English. This left him in receptive to joining the English and assisting them.(less)

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Sep 26, 2010 Ken-ichi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: learning, history, environmental-history, ecological-history

As a (very amateur) student of American environmental thought and admittedly inexperienced when it comes to history, it's difficult to view this book critically. Cronon argues so clearly and so thoroughly, and so concordantly with my ecologically-informed mindset, that it's easy to forget he's arguing at all, rather than simply stating the facts. But he is trying to make a point: that the ecological changes in New England during the colonial period were largely due to the cultures of the people...more

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Oct 24, 2010 Billy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: environmental-history-and-lit

William Cronon’s Changes in the Land compares Europeans’ and Native Americans’ impacts on the ecology of colonial New England. He argues that the European worldview and lifestyle did not just affect native peoples, but New England’s ecology as well. New methods of farming, hunting, and gathering prompted this ecological system to respond to colonists’ “changes in the land.” In making this argument, Cronon gives nature itself agency. This paradigm shift away from human agency and towards nature’...more William Cronon’s Changes in the Land compares Europeans’ and Native Americans’ impacts on the ecology of colonial New England. He argues that the European worldview and lifestyle did not just affect native peoples, but New England’s ecology as well. New methods of farming, hunting, and gathering prompted this ecological system to respond to colonists’ “changes in the land.” In making this argument, Cronon gives nature itself agency. This paradigm shift away from human agency and towards nature’s role in the past signifies a broad theme of environmental history. Traditionally human institutions—such as economy, government, class, and gender—are the subject of historical study. With environmental history, ecology gains equal prominence in its ability to explain historical changes. For this reason, Cronon’s work has gained a prominent place in American environmental historiography. His investigation into a changing New England ecology adds new dimensions to our colonial past. His arguments, however, are based upon a dichotomy between Anglos and Indians; capitalism and sustainability; both false dichotomies that form the basis of this critique.
Cronon’s two other notable works include Nature’s Metropolis, which tells of Chicago’s emerging economy, and Uncommon Ground, a collection of essays on contemporary environmental issues. In each of these works a common theme emerges: nature and humanity are seen by historical actors as standing in binary opposition to each other. For example, in his article entitled “The Trouble with Wilderness,” Cronon describes the problems with any dichotomy that sees humanity and nature as polar opposites. He points out that such binaries make any idealized place for humans within nature impossible and that humans are “unlikely to make much progress in solving [environmental] problems if we hold up to ourselves as the mirror of nature a wilderness we ourselves cannot inhabit.” The theme of binaries continues in Nature’s Metropolis. In this book, Cronon argues that participants in the windy city’s economy viewed nature and city as separate spheres. Regardless the hinterland and urban center shaped each other equally. Cronon’s first attempt with they type of dichotomous paradigm of environmental history, however, came in 1983 with Changes in the Land.
Cronon’s first book compares “New England ecosystems in 1600 with those in 1800 as if examining two snapshots—New England before the Europeans and New England after.” Anglos brought a new economic worldview across the Atlantic, one that vastly differed from the ideas of Native Americans. This argument is nothing new. Previous scholars have also attributed the shifts in New England’s environment with the onset of a European capitalist economy. But Cronon’s approach is slightly different. He shows that environmental factors themselves played a significant role in the shifting power structure of colonial New England. Power shifted away from Indians and towards Anglos. European conceptions of land use, especially the Old World practice of pastoralism, a practice that “antedates capitalism by four of five thousand years,” played a huge role in helping colonists conquer the land.
Pastoralism forced Anglos to shape New England’s ecology to fit their animals’ needs. Imported animals overgrazed on abundant fields, but over time pastorialism caused wear and tear took its toll on the land. Animals forced Europeans to create new pastures. Animals also exerted tremendous influence in changing New England’s ecology. To Cronon, colonists exerted ecological pressures because their “livestock—whether raised for market or for home consumption—were themselves a major reason for the dispersal of colonial settlements.” These “hordes of European grazing animals…constituted a heavier burden on New England plants and soils” than the New England’s ecology had previously experienced.
Anglo settlers and Indian inhabitants stood in ideological opposition to one another. Chapter seven, entitled “A World of Fields and Fences,” dissects the opposing views Anglos and Indians had of the land. It investigates the man-made boundaries that Europeans superimposed onto the landscape and reveals how their conceptions of land were based on Old World traditions. To settlers, land was owned precisely because it held property value and could create wealth. Colonists “brought with them concepts of value and scarcity which had been shaped by the social and ecological circumstances of northern Europe, and so perceived New England as a landscape of great natural wealth.” Native Americans, however, had a different view of the land. They endorsed a “usufruct” conception that viewed land not as something to be owned or quartered off. Instead, land was a common ground onto which all parties could take what they needed. These divergent worldviews led to an inevitable “conflict between the land uses of the colonists and those of the Indians.”
Indians’ place in their environment, to Cronon, was natural, while European’s uses of the land were not. Native Americans attained equilibrium with their surroundings, only taking what they needed when they needed it, even at the risk of going hungry. One Native American reflected on long bouts of hunger by stating “it is all the same to us, we shall stand it well enough; we spend seven and eight days, even ten sometimes, without eating anything, yet we do not die.” Europeans scoffed at such practices. They clung to their commodity-driven worldview and spent much of their energy commodifying nature. Anglos ultimately induced Indians to convert to a commodity driven worldview. Soon, Indians were using wampum for currency; they became relegated to manmade borders. Confined to lands outside well-defined grazing pastures, they sold beaver furs and excess crops for profit, just like Anglos. This dichotomy between necessity (Indian) and commodity (Anglos) driven economies reveals Cronon’s disdain for capitalism. On page 161, he bluntly states that in colonial New England “capitalism and environmental degradation went hand in hand.”
There are a few problems with this binary view of colonial New England. First, by separating its inhabitants into separate spheres—Anglo/Indian, Capitalist/Usufruct—Cronon makes value judgments of neatly divided groups. Anglos come across as being capitalistic and ecologically unfriendly. He states that “the colonists’ economic relations of production were ecologically self-destructive.” Conversely, Cronon sees Native Americans as being un-capitalistic, and therefore ecologically friendly. “Indians held their demands on the ecosystem to a minimum by moving their settlements from habitat to habitat [and] made sure that no single species became overused.” His distinction is clear: Anglos are ecologically destructive while Indians are in equilibrium with their surroundings. But this distinction between Anglo and Indian is a false dichotomy. Native American scholars, and many Native Americans themselves, might view Changes in the Land and its binary categorization as shortsighted. Native Americans did not view themselves as a large, coherent group which stood in opposition to Whites. In the colonial period, Indians belonged to distinct tribes, each with a unique culture and dialect.
Not all Indian tribes approached the environment in a similar fashion. Shepard Krech’s 1999 book The Ecological Indian explains that many Indian tribes endorsed ecologically harmful practices. Widespread burns and mass slaughter of animals were in no way uncommon. Not all Native Americans acted in similar ways, nor did they all follow environmentally-friendly practices. When Cronon does recollect Indian’s practice of mass burnings, he touts the ecological benefits of these actions--ecological benefits that were lost on Europeans. They “failed to see its subtler ecological effects. In the first place, it increased the rate at which forest nutrients were recycled into the soil [as well as] promoted the mosaic quality of New England ecosystems.” Cronon has no Native American written documentation to back his ecological insights. Native Americans might take issue with a white scholar appropriating their culture simply to endorse modern day environmentalism.
Cronon’s binary groups of Anglo/Indian and Capitalist/Usufruct are a little too neat. While he explains the roots of these two views of land use and economy, Cronon still underscores the nuances of European economic worldviews. For example, his contention that European settlers endorsed a “capitalist” worldview might be better articulated. The term “capitalism” gets his point across—certainly Europeans sought to commodify nature. But these colonists were not “capitalist” in a strict sense. They arrived under the auspices of a Mercantilist government and a Mercantilist worldview. Mercantilism emphasized both resource extraction and the systematic creation of markets via government intervention. It also helped colonists rationalize global confrontation and domination. Cronon’s “capitalism” is a loaded term. He uses it to set up a dichotomy between Native American usufruct ideology and European worldview. In the process creates a tension that he never really resolves with a term that he never actually articulates. Arguing that “economic and ecological imperialisms reinforced each other,” is not wrong, but colonial New England is not the place to view “capitalism” and ecological destruction going hand in hand.
For all of his digs against capitalism, Changes in the Land never sets forth any viable alternative. Not to say that historians need put on paper how they think the past should have played out, but keep in mind that the book is, at its core, a political work. First published in 1983, the book stood as a polemic against the ultra-conservative Reagan administration. Cronon’s continued bashing of “capitalism” speaks to his political stance of the early 1980s. He calls into question capitalism’s effects on ecology at the peak of Reagan’s anti-big government rhetoric. Reagan’s de-emphasis of environmental policies would not sit well with most avowed environmentalists. Cronon’s rant against capitalism is not necessarily unwarranted, but if he is going to write a book degrading an ecologically devastating economic system, he might also want to provide an alternative.
Within this “capitalist/usufruct” dichotomy environmentalists have only two options: capitalist devastation or pre-capitalist sustainability. This false dichotomy mimics the sentiments of Deep Ecologists, a radical sect of ecological theology that believes nature cannot co-exist with mankind. They maintain that these two entities need to remain separate and argue that humanity does not hold dominion over nature. Essentially, humans must treat nature as a separate entity. Cronon argues against deep ecologists in his article “The Trouble with Wilderness.” In it, he finds false the premise that these radical environmentalists “express the popular notion that our environmental problems began with the invention of agriculture.” Yet much of Changes in the Land focuses on agriculture’s role in New England’s ecological devastation.
Deep Ecologists’ views of a clear separation between man and nature are eerily similar to 1983s Changes in the Land, even if Cronon has eased his stance since the Reagan administration.
More moderate environmentalists take issue with Deep Ecologists and William Cronon for similar reasons. Environmental historian Samuel P. Hays contests Cronon’s dichotomy by calling such arguments elitist. To Hays, environmentalists need not be a separate group from working class people who view wilderness as separate. Nor does wilderness need to represent a sphere apart from work or home. Hays argues that the environment’s boundaries are more fluid—perhaps including one’s own backyard. French philosopher Luc Ferry also took issue with these binaries in his book The New Ecological Order. Ferry argued that binary separations between man and nature could ultimately lead to eco-fascism. This is not to say that Cronon is a radical by any means; educated at Yale and Oxford, Cronon might not necessarily fit into that political category. This critique simply suggests that Cronon’s tendency to setup dichotomies in one book and then criticize groups who endorse them in an article twelve years later are worth examining.
Changes in the Land remains an important work in the field of environmental history. It maintains its popularity because of its clear prose and modest length of 170 pages. The book provides students with an excellent introduction to environmental history and gives scholars ammunition for debate and discussion. Cronon was one of the first to incorporate ecology into the greater historical framework of American history. For these reasons, Changes in the Land promises to intrigue scholars for some time.
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Aug 23, 2007 Cat rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: historical ecologists

Shelves: culturalhistory, americanhistory

Even though I live in San Diego, I found this book to be well worth the read. Dense but short, "Changes in the Land" gives a close reading to the ecological impact of British colonization in New England. As Cronon states in his conclusion, this transformation has ramifications far outside New England, since the environmental degradation that accompanied early colonization forced settlers farther and farther afield.
Twenty years after it was published, the scholarship is still, what I would consid...more

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Dec 31, 2011 Thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, economics, science, environment

30 years later, it's hard to fully appreciate this book, as its point of view has been adopted by many others. Nevertheless, it remains a great starting point. Changes in the Land is brief; it provides the most important source material in the text; it is accessible to all adults; it presents a comprehensive and compelling theory; and it sports one of the best bibliographies of any popular work. (Really, I've never seen better.)

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Mar 01, 2013 Josh rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was a very interesting, very informational read about the ecology of the North American colonies. I really enjoyed learning about the impact that English settlers and Native Americans had on the land, and how thier impact shaped America into what it today is like.

I will warn, that it's more for people interested in History or Ecology. This book packs in a lot of facts in a very short amount of pages so if it's not a passion, it might become a sleeping pill. Overall, I really enjoyed it and w...more

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Mar 30, 2011 David Monroe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: faves, history, environmental-history

The book that helped redefine the environmental message for a new generation by the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies prof at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, William Cronon. Cronon is currently under fire by ultra-conservative Koch/Walmart funded Mackinac Center for Public Policy. I read this in college at IU in 1986. Changed my life.

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Jan 06, 2013 Dan Allosso rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

A core environmental history text that smashes myths about the pristine wilderness, the empty state of New England when the British colonists arrived, and the relationship between the natives and the colonists. Cronon shows that native American land and resource use was deliberate and organized, and that English colonists benefited greatly from these native practices even when they didn't understand them.

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May 09, 2010 Sara rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a great ecological history of the transitions that occurred in the ecology of New England when colonists settled the land. Cronon does a great job of including human decisions, deliberate and unintended, in the narrative. There was a lot of interesting information here, and it's presented in a readable and thought-provoking way.

The dynamics of human interaction with ecosystems, both by Indians and British, are explored in detail and he carefully refutes the concept that any of the descri...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Brian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

real interesting look into various effects of cultures on land and views of what would be sound ecology. Chapter on borders and then subsequent references to plague, pelting, wampum inflation,war and legal reddress seem to present the story (from the land's perspective) with an ephemeral objectivity. Having just finished the book I must say that I will be much less mystified by all those beautiful colonial stone walls swallowed up into forests today.

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Jul 04, 2009 Tim rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book changed forever my view of the New England landscape. When the first colonists arrived from Europe, they were surprised at the shear abundance of resources: trees, berries, arable land, fresh water, etc. And, from the very beginning, from day one, the colonists abused these resources, assuming that they would never run out.

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Oct 26, 2011 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: grown-up-books

Perhaps this is written for the non-New Englander. I learned most of this just by going on a few elementary school field trips and generally paying attention to historic sites. There are occasional entertaining stories, and some level of detail was certainly new to me, but mostly, not worth the time for what little new knowledge I gleaned.

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Feb 02, 2012 Rebecca rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Essential reading for anyone interested in environmental history and the relationships among ecology, culture, and economic systems. This was a paradigm-shifting book when it was first published and a breakthrough for me, personally, when I read it after four years of working internationally on environmental issues. It crystallized and made sense of urgent questions about cross-cultural encounters and differing notions of economic productivity and environmental ethics. It's an in-depth look at a...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Excellent academic read, but his ideas, which were once revolutionary, have been so accepted and proliferated into regular histories that I encountered nothing new.

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