What Is Environmental History?

by Hughes, J. D.

• ISBN13: 9780745631899
• ISBN10: 0745631894
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-08
• Publisher: Polity Pr

Summary

What is environmental history? It is a kind of history that seeks understanding of human beings as they have lived, worked and thought in relationship to the rest of nature through the changes brought by time. In this seminal student textbook, J. Donald Hughes provides a masterful overview of the thinkers, topics and perspectives that have come to constitute the exciting discipline that is environmental history. He does so on a global scale, drawing together disparate trends from a rich variety of countries into a unified whole, illuminating trends and key themes in the process. Those already familiar with the discipline will find themselves invited to think about the subject in a new way. Students and scholars new to environmental history will find the book both an indispensable guide and a rich source of inspiration for future work

Author Biography

J D Hughes is John Evans Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Denver, Colorado.

Table of Contents

Defining Environmental History	1	(17)
Introduction	1	(2)
The Themes of Environmental History	3	(5)
Among the Scholarly Disciplines	8	(7)
Environmental History and the Older History	15	(3)
Forerunners of Environmental History	18	(18)
Introduction	18	(1)
The Ancient World	18	(8)
Medieval and Early Modern Environmental Thought	26	(6)
The Early Twentieth Century	32	(4)
The Birth and Growth of Environmental History in the United States	36	(17)
Introduction	36	(1)
American History from Conservation to Environment	37	(4)
Strands of Environmental History in the United States	41	(7)
Collaborators with Environmental History	48	(5)
Local, Regional, and National Environmental Histories	53	(24)
Introduction	53	(2)
Canada	55	(1)
Europe	56	(6)
The Mediterranean	62	(2)
India, South and Southeast Asia	64	(2)
East Asia	66	(1)
Australasia and the Pacific Islands	67	(4)
Africa	71	(1)
Latin America	72	(2)
The Ancient World and the Middle Ages	74	(1)
Conclusion	75	(2)
Global Environmental History	77	(17)
Introduction	77	(1)
Books on World Environmental History	78	(8)
Topics of Global Importance	86	(4)
Environmental Movements	90	(1)
World History Texts	91	(1)
Conclusion	92	(2)
Issues and Directions in Environmental History	94	(20)
Introduction	94	(1)
Professionalism	94	(1)
Advocacy	95	(2)
Environmental Determinism	97	(1)
Presentism	98	(1)
Declensionist Narratives	99	(2)
Political-Economic Theory	101	(1)
The Next Issues	102	(11)
Conclusion	113	(1)
Thoughts on Doing Environmental History	114	(13)
Introduction	114	(1)
Guidance in Methodology	114	(4)
The Search for Sources	118	(3)
Resources	121	(3)
Conclusion: The Future of Environmental History	124	(3)
Notes	127	(33)
Select Bibliography	160	(8)
Index	168