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Nature Next Door

Cities and Trees in the American Northeast

By Ellen Stroud. Foreword by William Cronon

The once denuded northeastern United States is now a region of trees. Nature Next Door argues that the growth of cities, the construction of parks, the transformation of farming, the boom in tourism, and changes...

George Perkins Marsh

Prophet of Conservation

By David Lowenthal. Foreword by William Cronon

George Perkins Marsh (1801–1882) was the first to reveal the menace of environmental misuse, to explain its causes, and to prescribe reforms. David Lowenthal here offers fresh insights, from new sources, into Marsh’s career and...

The Republic of Nature

An Environmental History of the United States

By Mark Fiege. Foreword by William Cronon

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...

Wilderness Forever

Howard Zahniser and the Path to the Wilderness Act

By Mark W. T. Harvey. Foreword by William Cronon

Winner of the Forest History Society's 2006 Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Book Award

As a central figure in the American wilderness preservation movement in the mid-twentieth century, Howard Zahniser (1906-1964) was the person most responsible for the...

The Rhine

An Eco-Biography, 1815–2000

By Mark Cioc. Foreword by William Cronon

The Rhine River is Europe’s most important commercial waterway, channeling the flow of trade among Switzerland, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. In this innovative study, Mark Cioc focuses on the river from the moment when...

Where Land and Water Meet

A Western Landscape Transformed

By Nancy Langston. Foreword by William Cronon

Water and land interrelate in surprising and ambiguous ways, and riparian zones, where land and water meet, have effects far outside their boundaries. Using the Malheur Basin in southeastern Oregon as a case study, this...

Driven Wild

How the Fight against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement

By Paul S. Sutter. Foreword by William Cronon

In its infancy, the movement to protect wilderness areas in the United States was motivated less by perceived threats from industrial and agricultural activities than by concern over the impacts of automobile owners seeking recreational...

Faith in Nature

Environmentalism as Religious Quest

By Thomas Dunlap. Foreword by William Cronon

The human impulse to religion--the drive to explain the world, humans, and humans’ place in the universe – can be seen to encompass environmentalism as an offshoot of the secular, material faith in human reason...

A Storied Wilderness

Rewilding the Apostle Islands

By James Feldman. Foreword by William Cronon

The Apostle Islands are a solitary place of natural beauty, with red sandstone cliffs, secluded beaches, and a rich and unique forest surrounded by the cold, blue waters of Lake Superior. But this seemingly pristine...

Making Salmon

An Environmental History of the Northwest Fisheries Crisis

By Joseph E. Taylor III. Foreword by William Cronon

Winner of the George Perkins Marsh Award, American Society for Environmental History

Irrigated Eden

The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West

By Mark Fiege. Foreword by William Cronon

Irrigation came to the arid West in a wave of optimism about the power of water to make the desert bloom. Mark Fiege’s fascinating and innovative study of irrigation in southern Idaho’s Snake River valley...

The Fishermen's Frontier

People and Salmon in Southeast Alaska

By David F. Arnold. Foreword by William Cronon

In The Fishermen's Frontier, David Arnold examines the economic, social, cultural, and political context in which salmon have been harvested in southeast Alaska over the past 250 years. He starts with the aboriginal fishery, in...

Plowed Under

Agriculture and Environment in the Palouse

By Andrew P. Duffin. Foreword by William Cronon

In Plowed Under, Andrew P. Duffin traces the transformation of the Palouse region of Washington and Idaho from land thought unusable and unproductive to a wealth-generating agricultural paradise, weighing the consequences of what this progress...

Land Use, Environment, and Social Change

The Shaping of Island County, Washington

By Richard White. Foreword by William Cronon

Whidbey and Camano, two of the largest of the numerous beautiful islands dotting Puget Sound, together form the major part of Island Country. Taking this county as a case study and following its history from...

Seeking Refuge

Birds and Landscapes of the Pacific Flyway

By Robert M. Wilson. Foreword by William Cronon

Each fall and spring, millions of birds travel the Pacific Flyway, the westernmost of the four major North American bird migration routes. The landscapes they cross vary from wetlands to farmland to concrete, inhabited not...

Quagmire

Nation-Building and Nature in the Mekong Delta

By David Biggs. Foreword by William Cronon

Winner of the 2012 George Perkins Marsh Prize for Best Book in Environmental History

In the twentieth century, the Mekong Delta has emerged as one of Vietnam’s most important economic regions. Its swamps, marshes, creeks, and...

The Lost Wolves of Japan

By Brett Walker. Foreword by William Cronon

Many Japanese once revered the wolf as Oguchi no Magami, or Large-Mouthed Pure God, but as Japan began its modern transformation wolves lost their otherworldly status and became noxious animals that needed to be killed....

Landscapes of Promise

The Oregon Story, 1800-1940

By William G. Robbins. Foreword by William Cronon

Landscapes of Promise is the first comprehensive environmental history of the early years of a state that has long been associated with environmental protection. Covering the period from early human habitation to the end of...

Forest Dreams, Forest Nightmares

The Paradox of Old Growth in the Inland West

By Nancy Langston. Foreword by William Cronon

Across the inland West, forests that once seemed like paradise have turned into an ecological nightmare. Fires, insect epidemics, and disease now threaten millions of acres of once-bountiful forests. Yet no one can agree what...

Car Country

An Environmental History

By Christopher W. Wells. Foreword by William Cronon

For most people in the United States, going almost anywhere begins with reaching for the car keys. This is true, Christopher Wells argues, because the United States is Car Country—a nation dominated by landscapes that...