Download or read book The Agony of an American Wilderness written by Samuel A. Macdonald and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is a forest? What are forests for? Who should control them? These are familiar questions, but the Allegheny casts them in a new light. The national environmental movement has become less willing to compromise since its victories in the Pacific Northwest, and the Allegheny is its newest proving ground. This book explains what activists are after, how the struggle differs from more familiar environmental battles and what it means for the future of the American landscape.
Download or read book American Environmental History written by Carolyn Merchant and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By studying the many ways diverse peoples have changed, shaped, and conserved the natural world over time, environmental historians provide insight into humanity's unique relationship with nature and, more importantly, are better able to understand the origins of our current environmental crisis. Beginning with the precolonial land-use practice of Native Americans and concluding with our twenty-first century concerns over our global ecological crisis, American Environmental History addresses contentious issues such as the preservation of the wilderness, the expulsion of native peoples from national parks, and population growth, and considers the formative forces of gender, race, and class. Entries address a range of topics, from the impact of rice cultivation, slavery, and the growth of the automobile suburb to the effects of the Russian sea otter trade, Columbia River salmon fisheries, the environmental justice movement, and globalization. This illustrated reference is an essential companion for students interested in the ongoing transformation of the American landscape and the conflicts over its resources and conservation. It makes rich use of the tools and resources (climatic and geological data, court records, archaeological digs, and the writings of naturalists) that environmental historians rely on to conduct their research. The volume also includes a compendium of significant people, concepts, events, agencies, and legislation, and an extensive bibliography of critical films, books, and Web sites.
Download or read book America s Natural Places 5 volumes written by Stacy S. Kowtko and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-11-25 with total page 1039 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely set invites readers to celebrate the most beautiful and environmentally important places in the United States. Each of the United States boasts numerous special places that are significant for their biodiversity, ecology, habitats for rare and endangered species, or other qualities that make them unique and worthy of preservation. These sites range from nature preserves to state and national parks, wildlife areas, ecosystems that provide a home to diverse flora and fauna, and even scenic vistas. The five volumes of America's Natural Places examine over 200 of the most spectacular and important of these places, with each entry describing the importance of the area, the flora and fauna that it supports, threats to the survival of the region, and what is being done to protect it. Organized by state within regional volumes, this encyclopedia both informs the reader about the wide variety of natural areas across the country and identifies places nearby that demonstrate that preserving such treasurers is of immediate importance to every U.S. citizen.
Download or read book America s Natural Places East and Northeast written by Donelle Nicole Dreese and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2009-11-25 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Maine's Acadia National Park to Kentucky's Natural Bridge State Park Nature Preserve, this volume provides a snapshot of the most spectacular and important natural places in the East and Northeast. America's Natural Places: East and Northeast examines over 50 of the most spectacular and important areas of this region, with each entry describing the importance of the area, the flora and fauna that it supports, threats to the survival of the region, and what is being done to protect it. Organized by state within the volume, this work informs readers about the wide variety of natural areas across the east and northeast and identifies places that may be near them that demonstrate the importance of preserving such regions.
Download or read book Where We Live written by Randy Cunningham and published by The Pilgrim Press. This book was released on 2024-06-01 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on extensive interviews he conducted with environmental activists across rural and urban Appalachia and the Midwest, Randy Cunningham analyzes what motivates activists, how they strategize, and what issues they encounter. An indispensable guide to the on-the-ground realities of environmental activism in contemporary America. Randy Cunningham's Where We Live analyzes key aspects of environmental activism through the perspectives of those who know the field best: activists themselves. Each chapter grapples with a different topic. Readers thus come to know not only the stories of individuals and groups in their specific struggles. Cunningham's sharp analysis also enables readers to grasp how their struggles are related to one another. This book will be invaluable to activists looking for a better understanding of their own work as well as to historians, sociologists, and anthropologists conducting research on environmentalism in the contemporary United States. The book includes extensive documentation and endnotes.
Download or read book The Herbaceous Layer in Forests of Eastern North America written by Frank Gilliam and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-04 with total page 689 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most comprehensive existing volume of multidisciplinary research by top ecologists on the herbaceous layer of forests.
Download or read book The Young John Muir written by Steven Jon Holmes and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As a founder of the Sierra Club and promoter of the national parks, as a passionate nature writer and as a principal figure of the environmental movement, John Muir stands as a powerful symbol of connection with the natural world. But how did Muir's own relationship with nature begin? In this pioneering book, Steven J. Holmes offers a dramatically new interpretation of Muir's formative years, one that reveals the agony as well as the elation of his earliest experiences of nature. From his childhood in Scotland and Wisconsin through his young adulthood in the Midwest and Canada, Muir struggled--often without success--to find a place for himself both in nature and in society. Far from granting comfort, the natural world confronted the young Muir with a full range of practical, emotional, and religious conflicts. Only with the help of his family, his religion, and the extraordinary power of nature itself could Muir in his late twenties find a welcoming vision of nature as home--a vision that would shape his lifelong environmental experience, most immediately in his transformative travels through the South and to the Yosemite Valley. More than a biography, The Young John Muir is a remarkable exploration of the human relationship with wilderness. Accessible and engaging, the book will appeal to anyone interested in the individual struggle to come to terms with the power of nature.
Download or read book Nature s Burdens written by Daniel Nelson and published by University Press of Colorado. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nature’s Burdens is a political and intellectual history of American natural resource conservation from the 1980s into the twenty-first century—a period of intense political turmoil, shifting priorities among federal policymakers, and changing ideas about the goals of conservation. Telling a story of persistent activism, conflict, and frustration but also of striking achievement, it is an account of how new ideas and policies regarding human relationships to plants, animals, and their surroundings have become vital features of modern environmentalism. In the 1960s and 1970s, Congress embraced the largely dormant movement to preserve distinctive landscapes and the growing demand for outdoor recreation, establishing an unprecedented number of parks, monuments, and recreation areas. The election of Ronald Reagan and a shift to a Republican-controlled Senate brought this activity to an abrupt halt and introduced a period of intense partisanship and legislative gridlock that extends to the present. In this political climate, three developments largely defined the role of conservation in contemporary society: environmental organizations have struggled to defend the legal status quo, private land conservation has become increasingly important, and the emergence of potent scientific voices has promoted the protection of animals and plants and injected a new sense of urgency into the larger cause. These developments mark this period as a distinctive and important chapter in the history of American conservation. Scrupulously researched, scientifically and politically well informed, concise, and accessibly written, Nature’s Burdens is the most comprehensive examination of recent efforts to protect and enhance the natural world. It will be of interest to environmental historians, environmental activists, and any general reader interested in conservation.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues 4 volumes written by Michael Shally-Jensen and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-12-22 with total page 1988 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This single-source reference will help students and general readers alike understand the most critical issues facing American society today. Featuring the work of almost 200 expert contributors, the Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues comprises four volumes, each devoted to a particular subject area. Volume one covers business and the economy; volume two, criminal justice; volume three, family and society; and volume four, the environment, science, and technology. Coverage within these volumes ranges from biotechnology to identity theft, from racial profiling to corporate governance, from school choice to food safety. The work brings into focus a broad array of key issues confronting American society today. Approximately 225 in-depth entries lay out the controversies debated in the media, on campuses, in government, in boardrooms, and in homes and neighborhoods across the United States. Critical issues in criminology, medicine, religion, commerce, education, the environment, media, family life, and science are all carefully described and examined in a scholarly yet accessible way. Sidebars, photos, charts, and graphs throughout augment the entries, making them even more compelling and informative.
Download or read book Saints of the American Wilderness written by John Anthony O'Brien and published by Sophia Institute Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John A. O'Brien has crafted the terrifying, inspiring, and true tale of the struggles of the Jesuit missionaries seeking to bring Catholicism to the new world.
Download or read book For Want of Wings written by Jill Hunting and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2022-02-24 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1872, a young graduate of Yale University named Thomas Russell unearthed the bones of an 83,000,000-year-old dinosaur in western Kansas. The rare fossil, an avian dinosaur with teeth and flightless wings, proved that birds evolved from reptiles. More than a century later, Russell’s great-granddaughter set out to retrace her ancestor’s forgotten expedition. Part detective history, part memoir, For Want of Wings is Jill Hunting’s captivating account of her journey into prehistory, national history, and family history. In her quest to piece together fragments of her family’s past, Hunting ends up crisscrossing the United States, from California to Connecticut. On her first trip across the Colorado Rockies to the fossil bed site near Russell Springs, Kansas, Hunting brings along her then twenty-six-year-old daughter. When the book opens, mother and daughter are both at crossroads, each seeking to understand the impact of personal decisions on the landscape of her life. As Hunting ventures forward, she encounters unexpected resources, such as ten-year-old triplets who converse with her about dinosaurs and a Connecticut museum where portraits of her ancestors hang on the walls. Through lively descriptions of these visits, Hunting advances a view of history as nonlinear and full of unlikely coincidences. For Want of Wings is also the carefully researched story of the least known of Yale’s four expeditions into the American West, led by eminent paleontologist O. C. Marsh; the friendship between Russell’s father and abolitionist John Brown; a portrait of a mother and daughter evolving in self-understanding; and an inquiry into matters of race in American history and the author’s own family. In the end, all these pieces converge, like fragments of a fossil, to form an exquisitely patterned work of historical exploration.
Download or read book Talking Appalachian written by Amy D. Clark and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-08-29 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tradition, community, and pride are fundamental aspects of the history of Appalachia, and the language of the region is a living testament to its rich heritage. Despite the persistence of unflattering stereotypes and cultural discrimination associated with their style of speech, Appalachians have organized to preserve regional dialects -- complex forms of English peppered with words, phrases, and pronunciations unique to the area and its people. Talking Appalachian examines these distinctive speech varieties and emphasizes their role in expressing local history and promoting a shared identity. Beginning with a historical and geographical overview of the region that analyzes the origins of its dialects, this volume features detailed research and local case studies investigating their use. The contributors explore a variety of subjects, including the success of African American Appalachian English and southern Appalachian English speakers in professional and corporate positions. In addition, editors Amy D. Clark and Nancy M. Hayward provide excerpts from essays, poetry, short fiction, and novels to illustrate usage. With contributions from well-known authors such as George Ella Lyon and Silas House, this balanced collection is the most comprehensive, accessible study of Appalachian language available today.
Download or read book Wilderness and the American Mind written by Roderick Frazier Nash and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-28 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DIVRoderick Nash’s classic study of changing attitudes toward wilderness during American history, as well as the origins of the environmental and conservation movements, has received wide acclaim since its initial publication in 1967. The Los Angeles Times listed it among the one hundred most influential books published in the last quarter century, Outside Magazine included it in a survey of “books that changed our world,” and it has been called the “Book of Genesis for environmentalists.” For the fifth edition, Nash has written a new preface and epilogue that brings Wilderness and the American Mind into dialogue with contemporary debates about wilderness. Char Miller’s foreword provides a twenty-first-century perspective on how the environmental movement has changed, including the ways in which contemporary scholars are reimagining the dynamic relationship between the natural world and the built environment./div
Download or read book Eco Freaks written by John Berlau and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2006-11-26 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tree-huggers may actually be squeezing the life out of the environment. In a book that is alternately alarming, enlightening, ironic, and entertaining, award-winning journalist John Berlau explores the myriad ways in which shortsighted environmentalism actually endangers trees, wildlife, and people. In chapter after chapter, Berlau debunks myths and libels about: global warming and climate change the dangers of pesticides like DDT trees and pollution fuel economy and the auto industry the threat posed by asbestos the lifesaving role of dams and levees plans to "rewild" America Mother Nature is not a gentle person, and Berlau's pointed reporting reveals the very real dangers to people and their environments when Eco-Freaks prevent us from restraining her. "Berlau makes a powerful case. . . . Thinking environmentalists who read this book will be forced to revisit at least some of their most deeply held beliefs." -Joel Himelfarb, Washington Times "Berlau says a lot of things that are not generally known that needed to be said." -Bruce N. Ames, recipient, National Medal of Science, 1998 Save the Planet . . . and Ourselves In Eco-Freaks, award-winning journalist John Berlau provides a much needed and startling exposé about how the environmental movement with its radical, shortsighted eco-activists has actually helped amplify the dangers of natural disasters and destroyed the lives and property of millions of Americans. As Berlau writes, "America . . . is still mighty prosperous, but environmentalism is putting us on the brink of danger as well. As technology after technology that our grandparents put in place is being banned, and new technologies never even come to market, we risk a public-health disaster. Environmentalists have promoted all sorts of doomsday scenarios about population explosions and massive cancer crises from pesticides that have been shown to be false. But now, because we have done away with so many useful products based on those scares, we are in danger of an old-fashion doomsday returning, because we've lost what protected us from the wrath of nature. Indeed, as we will see throughout this book, public health hazards caused by environmental policies are already on the scene."
Download or read book Geographical Perspectives on Sustainable Rural Change written by and published by Rural Development Institute. This book was released on 2010 with total page 523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book focuses on three multi-faceted aspects of rural sustainability: farms and farming, the remaking of rural communities and rural spaces, and policy and action in rural development. The research is focused on three global regions: North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and Australia."--back cover.
Download or read book Rural written by Michael Woods and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-10-18 with total page 585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The division of ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ is one of the oldest ideas in Geography and is deeply engrained in our culture. Throughout history, the rural has been attributed with many meanings: as a source of food and energy; as a pristine wilderness, or as a bucolic idyll; as a playground, or a place of escape; as a fragile space of nature, in need of protection; and as a primitive place, in need of modernization. But is the idea of the rural still relevant today? Rural provides an advanced introduction to the study of rural places and processes in Geography and related disciplines. Drawing extensively on the latest research in rural geography, this book explores the diverse meanings that have been attached to the rural, examines how ideas of the rural have been produced and reproduced, and investigates the influence of different ideas in shaping the social and economic structure of rural localities and the everyday lives of people who live, work or play in rural areas. This authoritative book contains case studies drawn from both the developed and developing world to introduce and illustrate conceptual ideas and approaches, as well as suggested further reading. Written in an engaging and lively style, Rural challenges the reader to think differently about the rural.
Download or read book American Postmodernist Fiction and the Past written by T. Savvas and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-10-24 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a close-reading of the work of five prominent American postmodernist writers, this book re-evaluates the role of the past in recent American fiction, outlines the development of the postmodernist historical novel and considers the waning influence of postmodernism in contemporary American literature.
