false 270443 3 "This book will try to change the way you think about American history," writes Ted Steinberg in the opening line of <I>Down to Earth</I>. That's an ambitious claim, but not far off the mark. His fascinating book is essentially an environmental history of the United States, with the author paying particular attention to how elements of nature became commodities and thereby isolated Americans from the natural world. Readers don't have to subscribe to this neo-Marxist concept in order to appreciate Steinberg's observations about everything from the old-time urban problem of horse excrement ("the nineteenth-century equivalent of auto pollution") to the massive amounts of garbage produced by fast-food chains (McDonald's, he says, requires "an area equivalent in size to more than 450,000 football fields" to supply its paper needs). He also tells what may be the first-ever natural history of the Civil War. This may sound idiosyncratic, and to some extent it is, yet Steinberg weaves it all together and makes the underappreciated point that "it is quite simply wrong to view the natural world as an unchanging backdrop to the past." It changes all the time, he writes, and it has shaped Americans in ways that few of them understand. <I>--John Miller</I> 262175 11 10 2002 Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History total:30|5:14|4:12|3:4|2:0|1:0| 30 130 48 5 4 0 false false Sat Apr 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 18 06:09:06 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 18 06:10:36 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Sep 14 18:33:28 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 14 18:37:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Jul 12 06:25:26 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 06:32:18 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sat Dec 29 09:31:24 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 29 09:31:24 -0800 2007 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Mon Feb 18 13:45:21 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 18 13:46:11 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Thu Nov 05 16:18:22 -0800 2009 Wed Sep 02 17:33:43 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 17:34:12 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Aug 31 18:34:54 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 31 18:34:59 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Aug 25 22:02:04 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 22:02:04 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Aug 22 22:16:06 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 22 22:16:19 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Aug 19 13:34:23 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 19 13:37:12 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Aug 02 18:01:25 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 02 18:01:25 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jul 17 13:23:25 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 17 13:23:25 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Jun 24 11:11:03 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 11:11:04 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jun 01 06:01:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 01 06:01:17 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat May 30 14:05:38 -0700 2009 Sat May 30 14:08:06 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue May 12 19:57:33 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 19:57:36 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Apr 25 05:27:27 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 05:27:27 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Apr 13 18:25:57 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 13 18:25:57 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Apr 04 22:01:02 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 04 22:01:02 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Feb 18 21:55:09 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 18 21:55:14 -0800 2009