Publisher Description

The field of environmental history emerged just decades ago but has established itself as one of the most innovative and important new approaches to history, one that bridges the human and natural world, the humanities and the sciences. With the current trend towards internationalizing history, environmental history is perhaps the quintessential approach to studying subjects outside the nation-state model, with pollution, global warming, and other issuesaffecting the earth not stopping at national borders. With 25 essays, this Handbook is global in scope and innovative in organization, looking at the field thematically through such categories as climate,disease, oceans, the body, energy, consumerism, and international relations.

Author Biography

Andrew C. Isenberg is Professor of History at Temple University. He is the author of The Destruction of the Bison: An Environmental History, 1750-1920, Mining California: An Ecological History, and Wyatt Earp: A Vigilante Life, and the editor of The Nature of Cities: Culture, Landscape, and Urban Space. Contributors: Thomas Andrews, University of Colorado at Boulder . Emily Brock, University of South Carolina Kathleen A. Brosnan, University of OklahomaMark Carey, University ofOregonConnie Y. Chiang, Bowdoin College Lawrence Culver, Utah State UniversityDiana K. Davis, University of California, DavisWilliam Deverell, University of Southern CaliforniaKurk Dorsey, University of New HampshireAndrew R. Graybill, Southern Methodist UniversityMarcus Hall, University of ZurichAndrew C. Isenberg, Temple UniversityMatthew Klingle, Bowdoin CollegeNancy Langston, Michigan Technological UniversityThomas Lekan, University of South CarolinaMichael Lewis, Salisbury UniversityLinda Nash, University of WashingtonSara B. Pritchard, Cornell UniversitySteven Stoll, Fordham UniversityPaul S.Sutter, University of Colorado at BoulderJames Morton Turner, Wellesley CollegeNancy C. Unger, Santa Clara UniversityBrett Walker, Montana State UniversityLouis Warren, University of California, DavisFrank Zelko, University of VermontThomas Zeller, University of Maryland, College Park

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsContributorsIntroduction: A New Environmental History, Andrew C. IsenbergPart I: Dynamic Environments and Cultures1. Beyond Weather: The Culture and Politics of Climate History, Mark Carey2. Animals and the Intimacy of History, Brett L. Walker3. Beyond Virgin Soils: Disease as Environmental History, Linda Nash4. Deserts, Diana K. Davis5. Seas of Grass: Grasslands in World Environmental History, Andrew C. Isenberg6. New Patterns in Old Places: Forest History for the Global Present, Emily Brock7. The Tropics: A Brief History of an Environmental Imaginary, Paul S. SutterPart II: Knowing Nature8. And All Was Light? Science and Environmental History, Michael Lewis9. Toward an Environmental History of Technology, Sara B. Pritchard10. New Chemical Bodies: Synthetic Chemicals, Regulation, and Human Health, Nancy Langston11. Rethinking American Exceptionalism: Toward a Trans-National History of Parks, Wilderness, and Protected Areas, James Morton Turner12. Restoration and the Search for Counter-Narratives, Marcus Hall13. Region, Scenery, and Power: Cultural Landscapes in Environmental History, Thomas Lekan and Thomas ZellerPart III: Working and Owning14. A Metabolism of Society: Capitalism for Environmental Historians, Steven Stoll15. Owning Nature: Towards an Environmental History of Private Property, Louis Warren16. Work, Nature, and History: A Single Question, that Once Moved Like Light, Thomas G. Andrews17. The Nature of Desire: Consumption in Environmental History, Matthew Klingle18. Law and the Environment, Kathleen Brosnan19. Confluences of Nature and Culture: Cities in Environmental History, Lawrence CulverPart IV: Entangling Alliances20. Race and Ethnicity in Environmental History, Connie Y. Chiang21. Women and Gender: Useful Categories of Analysis in Environmental History, Nancy C. Unger22. Conquest to Convalescence: Nature and Nation in United States History, William Deverell23. Boundless Nature: Borders and the Environment in North America and Beyond, Andrew R. Graybill24. Crossing Boundaries: The Environment in International Relations, Kurk Dorsey25. The Politics of Nature, Frank ZelkoIndex

Review

"The 25 chapters of The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History provide outstanding examples of the penetration of an 'environmental approach' into the mainstream historical discussion." --Conservation Biology"An enormously valuable teaching and research resource for the practitioner of environmental history: many chapters will serve nicely as the first assignment for students working at advanced undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels within the broad thematic and topical areas of individual chapter coverage...Yet this Handbook will be equally valuable as a showcase of what the field has to offer other historians. It will demonstrate with vigour andverve that environmental history, rather than existing out there, somewhere on the margins, sealed off from other fields within historical studies, is actually quite near here, ready, willing and ripe forcross-pollination, and, actually not that strange after all, subject to all the usual trends and turns that shape and reshape historical studies."--Peter Coates, Reviews in History"The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History is a job well done...One can hardly complain about the fresh insights brought here to climate history; animals; disease; grasslands; forests; tropics; science; technology; synthetic chemicals; national parks, wilderness, and protected areas; cultural landscapes; capitalism; private property; work; consumption; law; cities; race and ethnicity; women and gender; borders; and international relations. Theauthors tasked to write these essays are equally impressive and diverse."--Journal of American History"[T]he 25 chapters of The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History provide outstanding examples of the penetration of an 'environmental approach' into the mainstream historical discussion....Turner's chapter on the history of parks, wilderness, and protected areas in the United States is a lucid and brave argument on the nature protection-local people dichotomy in the context of environmental history. The anti-imperialist and anti-elitist perspectiveof the essay, together with its criticism of Americentrism, is a refreshing addition to the conservation literature."--Zsolt Pinke, Conservation Biology

Promotional

Follows the evolution of environmental history from the periphery to the mainstream of academic studies.

Long Description

The field of environmental history emerged just decades ago but has established itself as one of the most innovative and important new approaches to history, one that bridges the human and natural world, the humanities and the sciences. With the current trend towards internationalizing history, environmental history is perhaps the quintessential approach to studying subjects outside the nation-state model, with pollution, global warming, and other issues
affecting the earth not stopping at national borders. With 25 essays, this Handbook is global in scope and innovative in organization, looking at the field thematically through such categories as climate, disease, oceans, the body, energy, consumerism, and international relations.

Review Text

"The 25 chapters of The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History provide outstanding examples of the penetration of an 'environmental approach' into the mainstream historical discussion." --Conservation Biology"An enormously valuable teaching and research resource for the practitioner of environmental history: many chapters will serve nicely as the first assignment for students working at advanced undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels within the broad thematic and topical areas of individual chapter coverage...Yet this Handbook will be equally valuable as a showcase of what the field has to offer other historians. It will demonstrate with vigour andverve that environmental history, rather than existing out there, somewhere on the margins, sealed off from other fields within historical studies, is actually quite near here, ready, willing and ripe forcross-pollination, and, actually not that strange after all, subject to all the usual trends and turns that shape and reshape historical studies."--Peter Coates, Reviews in History"The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History is a job well done...One can hardly complain about the fresh insights brought here to climate history; animals; disease; grasslands; forests; tropics; science; technology; synthetic chemicals; national parks, wilderness, and protected areas; cultural landscapes; capitalism; private property; work; consumption; law; cities; race and ethnicity; women and gender; borders; and international relations. Theauthors tasked to write these essays are equally impressive and diverse."--Journal of American History"[T]he 25 chapters of The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History provide outstanding examples of the penetration of an 'environmental approach' into the mainstream historical discussion....Turner's chapter on the history of parks, wilderness, and protected areas in the United States is a lucid and brave argument on the nature protection-local people dichotomy in the context of environmental history. The anti-imperialist and anti-elitist perspectiveof the essay, together with its criticism of Americentrism, is a refreshing addition to the conservation literature."--Zsolt Pinke, Conservation Biology

Review Quote

"The 25 chapters of The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History provide outstanding examples of the penetration of an 'environmental approach' into the mainstream historical discussion." --Conservation Biology "An enormously valuable teaching and research resource for the practitioner of environmental history: many chapters will serve nicely as the first assignment for students working at advanced undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels within the broad thematic and topical areas of individual chapter coverage...Yet this Handbook will be equally valuable as a showcase of what the field has to offer other historians. It will demonstrate with vigour and verve that environmental history, rather than existing out there, somewhere on the margins, sealed off from other fields within historical studies, is actually quite near here, ready, willing and ripe for cross-pollination, and, actually not that strange after all, subject to all the usual trends and turns that shape and reshape historical studies."--Peter Coates, Reviews in History "The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History is a job well done...One can hardly complain about the fresh insights brought here to climate history; animals; disease; grasslands; forests; tropics; science; technology; synthetic chemicals; national parks, wilderness, and protected areas; cultural landscapes; capitalism; private property; work; consumption; law; cities; race and ethnicity; women and gender; borders; and international relations. The authors tasked to write these essays are equally impressive and diverse."--Journal of American History "[T]he 25 chapters of The Oxford Handbook of Environmental History provide outstanding examples of the penetration of an 'environmental approach' into the mainstream historical discussion....Turner's chapter on the history of parks, wilderness, and protected areas in the United States is a lucid and brave argument on the nature protection-local people dichotomy in the context of environmental history. The anti-imperialist and anti-elitist perspective of the essay, together with its criticism of Americentrism, is a refreshing addition to the conservation literature."--Zsolt Pinke, Conservation Biology

Feature

Follows the evolution of environmental history from the periphery to the mainstream of academic studies.Authors both review past developments in environmental history and project future trends.Original articles by 27 authors.

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