The republic of nature : an environmental history of the United States

Summary: "In the dramatic narratives that comprise The Republic of Nature, Mark Fiege reframes the canonical account of American history based on the simple but radical premise that nothing in the nation's past can be considered apart from the natural circumstances in which it occurred. Revisiting historical icons so familiar that schoolchildren learn to take them for granted, he makes surprising connections that enable readers to see old stories in a new light.

Record details

ISBN: 9780295991672
ISBN: 0295991674
ISBN: 0295993294
ISBN: 9780295993294
Physical Description: print
xii, 584 pages : illustrations, plans ; 24 cm.
Publisher: Seattle, Wash. : University of Washington Press, ©2012.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 509-556) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Foreword : Environmental history comes of age / William Cronon -- Land of Lincoln -- Satan in the land : nature, the supernatural, and disorder in colonial New England -- By the laws of nature and of nature's God: Declaring American independence -- King cotton: the cotton plant and southern slavery -- Nature's nobleman: Abraham Lincoln and the improvement of America -- The nature of Gettysburg: environmental history and the Civil War -- Iron horses: nature and the building of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad -- Atomic sublime: toward a natural history of the bomb -- The road to Brown v. Board: an environmental history of the color line -- It's a gas: the United States and the oil shock of 1973-1974 -- Paths that beckon.