American Environmental History

With this book, discover how the peoples of America perceived and changed their environments and, in the process, re-made their politics, culture, and societies.


The thoroughly revised and newly updated Second Edition of American Environmental History delivers a comprehensive exploration of how the peoples of the United States have perceived, and made changes to, the natural world around them. It also describes how nature has changed in response to humanity, from the pre-Columbian era to the present, and how Americans have fought with one another over how best to live in the earth's natural systems.


Accomplished professor and author Louis Warren offers readers examinations of crucial topics, including Native American landscapes and relations with nature, virgin soil epidemics, colonial invasion, American slavery through environmental history and the nexus of race and environmental peril, market economies and the destruction of bison, passenger pigeons, whales, and other creatures, industrial development and its hazards, urbanization and calls for pollution control, conservation in the Progressive Era, wilderness and national parks, the rise of environmentalism, the birth of the environmental justice movement, consumerism and its environmental impact, the conservative backlash against environmentalism, and histories of ozone depletion, acid rain, overpopulation, and climate change. This book invites readers to weigh the distinctive experiences of different people-white, Black, and Native American-to environmental change and environmental threats from the colonial period to COVID-19.


You'll benefit from an insightful editorial introduction to each chapter, as well as interpretive interventions that add scholarly value to each reading and document. The author includes selections from amongst the most exciting scholarship and seminal essays on the subject of environmental history in the United States.


American Environmental History, 2nd Edition provides readers with:





Over twice as many primary documents as the First Edition

Perspective on a time period spanning from the pre-Columbian era to the present day

The incorporation of insights from several fields, including Native American history, African American history, environmental justice, and geography

A chapter dedicated to the environmental history of American slavery

Clarifying insights into the creation and impact of the New Deal on the American environment

Guidance for students on thinking about climate change in historical perspective



Perfect for undergraduate and graduate students studying American Environmental History, the book is also ideal for anyone with even a passing interest in American natural history and the impact of her peoples on the natural world around them.