American Environmental History Bibliography

This bibliography was compiled Dan Flores, who is now Professor of History at the University of Montana, he passed it out to graduate reading seminars while at Texas Tech University in 1991. It does not encompass all the books or even all the possible topics in American Environmental History, but it is a good starting place for people interested in environmental history. As you puruse it, you will notice that its geographical focus is largely American West. It is included here to provide a beginning point for the development of an introductory bibliography in the field. Suggestions for additions, deletions, or replacements are welcome. I would especially welcome suggestions of other topics and the standard, good works in them, that need to be included in a good starting bib. Ideally a good bibliography for this page should be comprehensive, but not exhaustive. Please contact Dennis Williams (dwilliam@snu.edu)

I. Native Americans and American Nature


Donald Hughes, AMERICAN INDIAN ECOLOGY (1983)

Calvin Martin, KEEPERS OF THE GAME: INDIAN-ANIMAL RELATIONSHIPS AND THE FUR TRADE (1978)

Shepard Krech, ed., INDIANS, ANIMALS, AND THE FUR TRADE: A CRITIQUE OF CALVIN MARTIN'S KEEPERS OF THE GAME (1981)

Richard White, ROOTS OF DEPENDENCY: SUBSISTENCE, ENVIRONMENT, AND SOCIAL CHANGE AMONG THE CHOCTAWS, PAWNEES, AND NAVAJOS (1983)

Richard Nelson, MAKE PRAYERS TO THE RAVEN: A KOYUKON VIEW OF THE NORTHERN FOREST (1983)

J. Douglas Hurt, INDIAN AGRICULTURE IN AMERICA: PREHISTORY TO THE PRESENT (1987)

Gary Nabhan, ENDURING SEEDS: NATIVE AMERICAN AGRICULTURE AND WILD PLANT CONSERVATION (1988)

Richard White, guest editor, Special Issue of the ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY REVIEW on Native Americans the environment (Summer 1985).

Christopher Vecsey and Robert Venables, eds., AMERICAN INDIAN ENVIRONMENTS: ECOLOGICAL ISSUES IN NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY (1980)

Paul Martin and Richard Klein, eds., QUATERNARY EXTINCTIONS (1985).


II. European Antecedents

Clarence Glacken, TRACES ON THE RHODIAN SHORE: NATURE AND CULTURE IN WESTERN THOUGHT FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE END OF THE 18TH CENTURY (1967)

Donald Hughes, ECOLOGY AND ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS (1975)

Alfred Crosby, THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE: BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL CONSEQUENCES OF 1492 (1972)

Alfred Crosby, ECOLOGICAL IMPERIALISM: THE BIOLOGICAL EXPANSION OF EUROPE, 900-1900 (1985)

Immanuel Wallerstein, THE MODERN WORLD SYSTEM: CAPITALIST AGRICULTURE AND THE ORIGINS OF THE EUROPEAN WORLD ECONOMY IN THE 16TH CENTURY (1974)

________. THE MODERN WORLD SYSTEM II: MERCANTILISM AND THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE EUROPEAN WORLD ECONOMY, 1600-1750 (1980)

Walter Prescott Webb, THE GREAT FRONTIER (1

Keith Thomas, MAN AND THE NATURAL WORLD (1983)

Iris Engstrand, SPANISH SCIENTISTS IN THE NEW WORLD: THE 18TH CENTURY EXPEDITIONS (1981)

Kirkpatrick Sale, THE CONQUEST OF PARADISE (1990)

Max Oelschlaeger, THE IDEA OF WILDERNESS: FROM PREHISTORY TO THE AGE OF ECOLOGY (1991)

Ian Barbour, WESTERN ATTITUDES TOWARDS NATURE

Fernand Braudel, THE MEDITERRANEAN and THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN THE AGE OF PHILIP II (2 vols., 1949)

LeRoy LaDurie, CLIMATE HISTORY OF EUROPE

Andrew Vayda, ed., MAN, CULTURE, AND ANIMALS: THE ROLE OF ANIMALS IN HUMAN ECOLOGICAL ADJUSTMENTS (1965)


III. American Exploration and Natural History

David Wilson, IN THE PRESENCE OF NATURE (1978)

William Goetzmann, EXPLORATION AND EMPIRE: THE EXPLORER AND THE SCIENTIST IN THE WINNING OF THE WEST (1966)

Charlotte Porter, THE EAGLE'S NEST: NATURAL HISTORY AND AMERICAN IDEAS, 1812-1842 (1986)

Dan Flores, ed., JEFFERSON & SOUTHWESTERN EXPLORATION: THE FREEMAN & CUSTIS ACCOUNTS OF THE RED RIVER EXPEDITION OF 1806 (1984)

Donald Jackson, THOMAS JEFFERSON & THE STONY MOUNTAINS: EXPLORING THE WEST FROM MONTICELLO (1983)

Paul Cutright, LEWIS AND CLARK: PIONEERING NATURALISTS (1969)

Henry Savage, DISCOVERING AMERICA, 1700-1875

Richard Bartlett, GREAT SURVEYS OF THE AMERICAN WEST (1962)

George Daniels, AMERICAN SCIEMCE IN THE AGE OF JACKSON (1968)

John Greene, AMERICAN SCIENCE IN THE AGE OF JEFFERSON (1984)

Marion Tinling, WOMEN INTO THE UNKNOWN: A SOURCE-BOOK ON WOMEN EXPLORERS AND TRAVELERS (1989)

William Goetzmann and Kay Sloan, LOOKING FAR NORTH: THE HARRIMAN EXPEDITION TO ALASKA, 1899 (1986)

Paul Cutright, ELLIOTT COUES: NATURALIST AND FRONTIER HISTORIAN (1981)

Joseph Kastner, A SPECIES OF ETERNITY (1977)

?, THE WILKES EXPEDITION


IV. The Romantic Age and the Cult of Nature

Barbara Novak, NATURE AND CULTURE: AMERICAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING, 1825-1875 (1980)

Cecelia Tichi, NEW WORLD, NEW EARTH: ENVIRONMENTAL REFORM IN AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM THE PURITANS THROUGH WHITMAN (1979)

Edward Foster, THE CIVILIZED WILDERNESS: BACKGROUND TO AMERICAN ROMANTIC LITERATURE, 1817-1860 (1975)

Peter Hassrick and Patricia Trenton, THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS: A VISION FOR ARTISTS IN THE 19TH CENTURY (1984)

James McIntosh, THOREAU AS ROMANTIC NATURALIST: HIS SHIFTING STANCE TOWARD NATURE (1974)

Leo Marx, THE MACHINE IN THE GARDEN (1964)

Hans Huth, NATURE AND THE AMERICAN (1957)

George Bons, ROMANTICISM IN AMERICA (1940)

Ellen Lawrence, 1800-1874: EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN LANDSCAPE: TO LOOK ON NATURE (1972).

Frederick Sweet, THE HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL AND EARLY AMERICAN LANDSCAPE TRADITION (1945)

Lee Clark Mitchell, WITNESS TO A VANISHING AMERICA: THE 19TH CENTURY RESPONSE (1981)


V. Environment and the Frontier

William Cronon, NATURE S METROPOLIS: CHICAGO AND THE GREAT WEST (1991)

Donald Worster, RIVERS OF EMPIRE: WATER, ARIDITY, AND THE GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN WEST (1985)

Davis Wishart, THE FUR TRADE OF THE AMERICAN WEST, 1807-1840 (1979)

Wallace Stegner, BEYOND THE HUNDREDTH MERIDIAN: JOHN WESLEY POWELL AND THE SECOND OPENING OF THE WEST (1954)

Duane Smith, MINING AMERICA: THE INDUSTRY AND THE ENVIRONMENT (1987)

Walter Prescott Webb, THE GREAT PLAINS: A STUDY IN INSTITUTIONS AND ENVIRONMENT (1931)

Henry Nash Smith, VIRGIN LAND: THE AMERICAN WEST IN SYMBOL AND MYTH (1950)

Roy Robbins, OUR LANDED HERITAGE: THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, 1776-1970 (1950)

Michael McCarthy, HOUR OF TRIAL: THE CONSERVATION CONFLICT IN COLORADO AND THE WEST, 1891-1907

Michael Smith, CALIFORNIA SCIENTISTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT, 1850-1915 (1988)

James Sherow, WATERING THE VALLEY: THE ARKANSAS VALLEY IRRIGATION FRONTIER (1991)

Donald Pisani, FROM FAMILY FARM TO AGRIBUSINESS (1985)


VI. Regional Ecological Histories

Carolyn Merchant, ECOLOGICAL REVOLUTIONS: NATURE, GENDER, AND SCIENCE IN NEW ENGLAND (1989)

William Cronon, CHANGES IN THE LAND: INDIANS, COLONISTS, AND THE ECOLOGY OF NEW ENGLAND (1983)

Richard White, LAND USE, ENVIRONMENT, AND SOCIAL CHANGE: A HISTORY OF ISLAND COUNTY, WASHINGTON (1979)

James Malin, HISTORY AND ECOLOGY: STUDIES OF THE GRASSLANDS, Robert Swierenga, ed. (1984)

William DeBuys, ENCHANTMENT AND EXPLOITATION: THE LIFE AND HARD TIMES OF A NEW MEXICO MOUNTAIN RANGE (1985)

Robin Doughty, WILDLIFE AND MAN IN TEXAS: ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AND CONSERVATION (1983)

Albert Cowdrey, THIS LAND, THIS SOUTH: AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY (1983)

Philip Scarpino, GREAT RIVER: AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI, 1890-1950 (1985)

Timothy Silver, A NEW FACE ON THE COUNTRYSIDE (1989)

Dan Flores, CAPROCK CANYONLANDS: JOURNEYS INTO THE HEART OF THE SOUTHERN PLAINS (1990)


VII. The Progressive Conservation Movement

Thomas Dunlap, SAVING AMERICA'S WILDLIFE (1988)

James Trefethen, AN AMERICAN CRUSADE FOR WILDLIFE

George Perkins Marsh, MAN AND NATURE (1864)

Donald Worster, ed., AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTALISM: THE FORMATIVE PERIOD, 1860-1915 (1973)

Peter Schmidt, BACK TO NATURE: THE ARCADIAN MYTH IN URBAN AMERICA (1969)

Samuel Hays, CONSERVATION AND THE GOSPEL OF EFFICIENCY: THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATION MOVEMENT, 1890-1920 (1959)

Elmo Richardson, THE POLITICS OF CONSERVATION: CRUSADES AND CONTROVERSIES, 1897-1913 (1962)

James Penick, PROGRESSIVE POLITICS AND CONSERVATION: THE PINCHOT-BALLINGER AFFAIR (1968)


VIII. Conservation in the 20s and New Deal

Donald Worster, DUST BOWL: THE SOUTHERN PLAINS IN THE 19305 (1980)

Richard Lowitt, THE NEW DEAL AND THE WEST (1981)

Donald Swain, FEDERAL CONSERVATION POLICY, 1921-1933 (1963)

John Salmond, THE CCC, 1933-1942 (1967)

Erwin Hargrove and Paul Conkin, eds., TVA: FIFTY YEARS OF GRASS-ROOTS BUREAUCRACY (1983)

Marc Risner, CADILLAC DESERT (1985)

Louise Peffer. THE CLOSING OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN: DISPOSAL AND RESERVATION POLICIES, 1900-1950 (1951)

Don Baldwin, THE QUIET REVOLUTION: GRASS-ROOTS OF TODAY'S WILDERNESS PRESERVATION MOVEMENT (1972)

T. H. Watkins, RIGHTEOUS PILGRIM: THE LIFE ANDHARD TIMES OF HAROLD L. ICKES, 1874-1952 (1990)

John Adams, DAMMING THE COLORADO: THE RISE OF THE LOWER COLORADO RIVER AUTHORITY, 1933-39 (1990)

Donald Swain, CONSERVATION POLICY IN THE NEW DEAL ERA


IX. Parks and Forests

Alfred Runte, NATIONAL PARKS: THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE (1979)

Alston Chase, PLAYING GOD IN YELLOWSTONE (1988)

Joseph Sax, MOUNTAINS WITHOUT HANDRAILS: REFLECTIONS ON THE NATIONAL PARKS (1980)

John Sears, SACRED PLACES: AMERICAN TOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN THE 19TH CENTURY (1989)

Richard Bartlett: YELLOWSTONE: A WILDERNESS BESEIGED (1985)

Alfred Runte, YOSEMITE: THE EMBATTLED WILDERNESS (1990)

Robert Righter, CRUCIBLE FOR CONSERVATION: THE CREATION OF GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK (1982)

John Jameson, BIG BEND ON THE RIO GRANDE: BIOGRAPHY OF A NATIONAL PARK

Susan Schrepfer, THE FIGHT TO SAVE THE REDWOODS (1983)

William Rowley, U.S. FOREST SERVICE GRAZING AND RANGELANDS: A HISTORY (1985)

William Robbins, AMERICAN FORESTRY: A HISTORY OF NATIONAL, STATE, AND PRIVATE COOPERATION (1985)

Hal Rothman, PRESERVING DIFFERENT PASTS (1988)

Michael Williams, AMERICANS AND THEIR FORESTS: A HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY (1989)

Dietmar Schneider-Hector, WHITE SANDS, NEXT RIGHT: A HISTORY OF WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT (1992)


X. Urban and Political Issues Since WWII

Samuel Hays, BEAUTY, HEALTH, AND PERMANENCE: ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS IN THE U.S., 1955-1985 (1987)

Elmo Richardson, DAMS, PARKS, AND POLITICS: RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND PRESERVATION IN THE TRUMAN-EISENHOWER ERA (1973)

Martin Melosi, COPING WITH ABUNDANCE: ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT IN INDUSTRIAL AMERICA (1985)

John Whitaker, STRIKING A BALANCE: ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES IN THE NIXON-FORD YEARS (1976)

Martin Melosi. GARBAGE IN THE CITIES: REFUSE, REFORM, AND THE ENVIRONMENT, 1880-1980 (1981)

Robert Paehlke, ENVIRONMENTALISM AND THE FUTURE OF PROGRESSIVE POLITICS (1989)

C. Brant Short, RONALD REAGAN AND THE PUBLIC LANDS: AMERICA'S CONSERVATION DEBATE, 1979-1984 (1989)

Lynn Jacobs, WASTE OF THE WEST: PUBLIC LANDS RANCHING (1991)

Aldo Leopold, THE RIVER OF THE MOTHER OF GOD AND OTHER ESSAYS, Baird Callicott and Sussan Flader, eds. (1991)

Thomas Dunlap, DDT: SCIENTISTS, CITIZENS, AND PUBLIC POLICY (1981)

Donald Worster, TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH: 20TH CENTURY ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES (1989)


XI. Ecology (the science) and Environmentalism (the social movement)

Barry Commoner, THE CLOSING CIRCLE: NATURE, MAN, AND TECHNOLOGY (1971)

Joseph Petulla, AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTALISM: VALUES, TACTICS, PRIORITIES (1979)

Robert Hunter, WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: A CHRONICLE OF THE GREENPEACE MOVEMENT (1978)

Michael Cohen, A HISTORY OF THE SIERRA CLUB (1991)

Rachel Carson, SILENT SPRING (1962)

Stephen Fox, JOHN MUIR AND HIS LEGACY (1981)

Donald Worster, NATURE'S ECONOMY: THE ROOTS OF ECOLOGY (1973)

Frank Egerton, ed., HISTORY OF AMERICAN ECOLOGY (1976)

Ana Bramwell, ECOLOGY IN THE 20TH CENTURY: A HISTORY (1989)

Susan Flader, THINKING LIKE A MOUNTAIN: ALDO LEOPOLD AND THE EVOLUTION OF AN ECOLOGICAL ATTITUDE . . . (1981)

Bret Wallach, AT ODDS WITH PROGRESS: AMERICANS AND CONSERVATION (1991)


XII. Biography

John McPhee, ENCOUNTERS WITH THE ARCHDRUID [DAVID BROWER] (1971)

Curt Meine, ALDO LEOPOLD (1988)

Alton Lindsey, THE BICENTENNIAL OF JOHN JAMES AUDUBON (1985)

Paul Cutright, THEODORE ROOSEVELT: THE MAKING OF A CONSERVATIONIST (1985)

David Lowenthal, GEORGE PERKINS MARSH (1941)

Nelson Geary, GIFFORD PINCHOT, FORESTER-POLITICIAN

Robert Shankland, STEVE MATHER OF THE NATIONAL PARKS

Frederick Turner, REDISCOVERING AMERICA: JOHN MUIR IN HIS TIME AND OURS (1985)

Peter Wild, PIONEER CONSERVATIONISTS OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA (1978)

Douglas Strong, DREAMERS AND DEFENDERS: AMERICAN CONSERVATIONISTS (1988)

H. Allen Anderson, THE CHIEF: ERNEST THOMPSON SETON AND THE CHANGING WEST (1986)


XIII. Topical Treatments

Arthur McEvoy, THE FISHERMAN S PROBLEM: ECOLOGY AND LAW IN THE CALIFORNIA FISHERIES, 1850-1980 (1986)

Annette Kolodny, THE LAND BEFORE HER (1984)

Stephen Pyne, FIRE IN AMERICA: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF WILDLAND AND RURAL FIRE (1982)

Michael Brown, LAYING WASTE: THE POISONING OF AMERICA BY TOXIC WASTES (1981)

Paul Ehrlich, EXTINCTIONS (1981)

Lisa Mighetts, WILD ANIMALS IN AMERICAN THOUGHT AND CULTURE (1990)

Carolyn Merchant, THE DEATH OF NATURE: WOMEN, ECOLOGY, AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION (1980)

Michael Frome, THE BATTLE FOR THE WILDERNESS

Tim Palmer, ENDANGERED RIVERS AND CONSERVATION (1987)

Stewart Udall, THE QUIET CRISIS AND THE NEXT GENERATION (1988)

William 0. Douglas, FAREWELL TO TEXAS: A VANISHING WILDERNESS (1967)

Roderick Nash, WILDERNESS AND THE AMERICAN MIND (1983)

John Francis, WESTERN PUBLIC LANDS


XIV. Environmental Philosophy

Roderick Nash, THE RIGHTS OF NATURE: A HISTORY OF ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS (1989)

Bill Devall and George Sessions, DEEP ECOLOGY; LIVING AS IF NATURE MATTERED (1985)

Paul Shepard, NATURE AND MADNESS (1982)

David and Eileen Spring, eds., ECOLOGY AND RELIGION IN HISTORY (1974)

Aldo Leopold, A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC (1949)

Paul Shepard, THE TENDER CARNIVORE AND THE SACRED GAME (1973)

Rene Dubose, THE WOOING OF EARTH: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON MAN'S USE OF NATURE (1980)

Michael Cohen, THE PATHLESS WAY: JOHN MUIR AND AMERICAN WILDERNESS (1984)

Garrett Hardin and John Baden, MANAGING THE COMMONS (1977)

Anne Chisolm, PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EARTH: CONVERSATIONS WITH ECOLOGISTS (1972)

Christopher Stone, SHOULD TREES HAVE STANDING? (1974)

J. E. Lovelock, THE AGES OF GAIA: A BIOGRAPHY OF OUR LIVING EARTH (1988)

Yi Fu Tuan, TOPOPHILIA (1974)

Julian Simon, POPULATION MATTERS: PEOPLE, RESOURCES, ENVIRONMENT, AND IMMIGRATION(1989)


XV. American Nature Writing and Literature

Paul Brooks, SPEAKING FOR NATURE: HOW LITERARY NATURALISTS FROM HENRY THOREAU TO RACHEL CARSON HAVE SHAPED AMERICA (1980)

Thomas Lyon, ed., THIS INCOMPERABLE LANDE: A BOOK OF AMERICAN NATURE WRITING (1989)

Daniel Halpern, ON NATURE: NATURE, LANDSCAPE, AND NATURAL HISTORY (1986)

Vera Norwood and Janice Monk, eds., THE DESERT IS NO LADY: SOUTHWESTERN LANDSCAPES IN WOMEN'S WRITING AND ART (1987)

Thomas Lyon, ed., MEETING THE TREE OF LIFE: NEW AMERICAN NATURE WRITING (1992)

Henry David Thoreau, WALDEN (1854)

John Muir, THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA (1894)

John C. Van Dyke, THE DESERT (1901)

Mary Austin, THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN (1904)

Liberty Hyde Bailey, THE HOLY EARTH (1915)

John Burroughs, ACCEPTING THE UNIVERSE (1920)

John Graves, GOODBYE TO A RIVER (1960)

Edward Abbey, DESERT SOLITAIRE: A SEASON IN THE WILDERNESS (1968)

Annie Dillard, PILGRIM AT TINKER CREEK (1974)

Wendell Berry, THE UNSETTLING OF AMERICA (1977)

Edward Abbey, THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG (1977)

Barry Lopez, ARCTIC DREAMS (1986)

William DeBuys, RIVER OF TRAPS (1990)

Edward Abbey, HAYDUKE LIVES (1990)

Terry Tempest Williams, AN UNNATURAL HISTORY OF FAMILY AND PLACE (1990)

William Least Heat Moon, PRAIRYERTH (1991)


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