Overview

In this ambitious and provocative text, environmental historian Ted Steinberg offers a sweeping history of the United States--a history that places the environment at the very center of the narrative. Now in a new edition, Down to Earth reenvisions the story of America ""from the ground up."" It reveals how focusing on plants, animals, climate, and other ecological factors can radically change the way that we think about the past. Examining such familiar topics as colonization, the industrial revolution, slavery, the Civil War, and the emergence of consumer culture, Steinberg recounts how the natural world influenced the course of human history. From the colonists' attempts to impose order on the land to modern efforts to sell the wilderness as a consumer good, he reminds readers that many critical episodes in U.S. history were, in fact, environmental events. The text highlights the ways in which Americans have attempted to reshape and control nature, from Thomas Jefferson's surveying plan, which divided the national landscape into a grid, to the transformation of animals, crops, and even water into commodities.

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9780190864422

Table of Contents

Reviews

""The reason I assign Down to Earth again and again is that it is simply the best text available--far and away--for American environmental history. Compared to its competitors, it is superior in its writing, its coverage, and its vision--not to mention its cost.""--Adam M. Sowards, University of Idaho

"""The reason I assign Down to Earth again and again is that it is simply the best text available--far and away--for American environmental history. Compared to its competitors, it is superior in its writing, its coverage, and its vision--not to mention its cost.""--Adam M. Sowards, University of Idaho"

The reason I assign Down to Earth again and again is that it is simply the best text available--far and away--for American environmental history. Compared to its competitors, it is superior in its writing, its coverage, and its vision--not to mention its cost. --Adam M. Sowards, University of Idaho

Author Information

Ted Steinberg is Adeline Barry Davee Distinguished Professor of History and Law at Case Western Reserve University.

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