'Changes in the Land, Revised Edition: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England' by William Cronon - Poetry Connection

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Books : Changes in the Land, Revised Edition: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England

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by: William Cronon See Larger Image List Price: $14.00 Amazon.com's Price: $12.60 You Save: $1.40 (10%) Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 304.20974 EAN: 9780809016341 ISBN: 0809016346 Label: Hill and Wang Manufacturer: Hill and Wang Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 242 Publication Date: September 01, 2003 Publisher: Hill and Wang Sales Rank: 29605 Studio: Hill and Wang Related Items: Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River (Critical Issue Book) Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature Down to Earth: Nature's Role in American History see more Editorial Review: Product Description: The book that launched environmental history now updated. Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize In this landmark work of environmental history, William Cronon offers an original and profound explanation of the effects European colonists' sense of property and their pursuit of capitalism had upon the ecosystems of New England. Reissued here with an updated afterword by the author and a new preface by the distinguished colonialist John Demos, Changes in the Land, provides a brilliant inter-disciplinary interpretation of how land and people influence one another. With its chilling closing line, 'The people of plenty were a people of waste,' Cronon's enduring and thought-provoking book is ethno-ecological history at its best. Amazon.com Review: Much historical writing is far more concerned with the players than the stage: narratives of kings and cabbage-merchants, although acted out in fields and forests, typically include nature only as a convenient prop to provide the occasional splash of color. In Changes in the Land, Cronon treats the land of New England with the same sensitivity and attention to detail as the lives of the American natives and the colonists--he depicts the effects of changing land-use patterns on the texture of the New England landscape, and gives voice to the changing communities of trees, rock walls, and rivers. The chapter on the effects of changing notions of 'property' on the ecology of New England are especially strong. Changes in the Land is almost the equal of Cronon's masterpiece, Nature's Metropolis, a monumental study of the ecological effects of Chicago on the entire central portion of the United States in the 1800s. Highly Recommended to specialists and general readers alike. Customer Reviews Average Rating: Rating: - The Live it Up Now, Pay for it Later Approach to the Environment in the Colonial Period William Cronon's book Changes in the Land illuminates the relationship and impact the European colonial settlers had with their environment in New England. The main premise for this book is that different human cultures interact with their environment according to their cultural norms and subsequently have varying effects upon their surrounding environment as a result. Furthermore, Cronon illustrates that these effects created by humans on the environment have consequences which in turn affect ... Read More Rating: - Good piece of work This is a very good piece of work. Cronon manages to keep all possible biases aside. He attributes ecological changes or problems to both natives and colonists. However, he argues that English Colonists were responsible for the greatest amount of damage. It was not a 200 page book on Europe ruined America but a well written analysis on European, in particular England, ways of life and how they dramatically altered the face of America. Natives and Europeans has two completely different ideas of property, ... Read More Rating: - Want to know how ecology can help us to understand history? This is not so much a book about New England per se as on how ecology should mould our understanding of history. For too long historians have ignored the ecological/environmental dimension to history, especially colonial history; and Cronon's book is one among a number of path-breaking works that serves to redress the balance. As Cronon convincingly argues, the strength of ecological analysis in writing history lies in its ability to uncover processes and long-term changes which might otherwise ... Read More Rating: - A seminal work William Cronon's book was a seminal effort in 1983 that established a new way of thinking about history. It has stood the test of time. The book describes the modes and manner of the ecological impacts that English settlers had on the New England landscape in the colonial era. Some impacts were intentional, others not so much. For example, by the time first permanent settlements were established beginning at Plymouth in 1620, many Indian villages had already been devastated by European diseases (Europeans, especially ... Read More Rating: - A New Perspective This text was assigned as part of a college history course. As part of my initial reading I found the text to be wordy, indirect and a little overly complicated. However, after reviewing the test for an essay it became far more easily to take meaningful information from. Cronon does an excellent job explaining the transition of Indian culture and society. He also does a very good job of explaining the complex interaction between Indians and European settlers and the American wilderness. In my opinion Cronon focuses ... 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