Environmental History and the American South: A Reader

Environmental History and the American South

by Paul S. Sutter (Editor), Christopher J. Manganiello (Editor)

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 Anderson
William Boyd
Lisa Brady
Joshua Blu Buhs
Judith Carney
James Taylor Carson
Craig E. Colten
S. Max Edelson
Jack Temple Kirby
Ralph H. Lutts
Eileen Maura McGurty
Ted Steinberg
Mart Stewart
Claire Strom
Paul Sutter
Harry Watson
Albert G. Way

Genres: Environment, Nature, History, Anthologies

504 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2009