So Great a Vision: The Conservation Writings of George Perkins Marsh

by Marsh, George P.; Trombulak, Stephen C.

• ISBN13: 9781584651307
• ISBN10: 158465130X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-09-01
• Publisher: Univ Pr of New England

Summary

Diplomat, linguist, politician, and naturalist, Vermonter George Perkins Marsh was a 19th-century polymath who is now widely considered the father of the modern conservation movement. Marsh was the first man to recognize the extent and destructiveness of the human impact on the environment, and his 1864 book, Man and Nature; or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, has been described by the Washington Post as "the wellspring of the environmental movement." While Man and Nature continues to be cited and read, Marsh's earlier, groundbreaking writings on environmental topics have been unavailable (even though they may be more accessible to modern readers than his sometimes obtuse magnum opus). In an invaluable service to those interested in the development of environmental thought, Stephen C. Trombulak has gathered into a single volume Marsh's most significant conservation writings -- including key passages from Man and Nature -- and has annotated them in the light of contemporary conservation thinking. These speeches, letters, and reports not only document the development of Marsh's own ideas, they also offer insight into the state of conservation thinking in the early 19th century.

Author Biography

Born in Vermont and educated at Dartmouth College, GEORGE PERKINS MARSH (1801 - 1882) was a lawyer, politician, and linguist. He wrote an important work on the origins of the English language and was widely recognized as the greatest Scandinavian scholar in North America. Representing Vermont in the US Congress, he served on the committee that organized the Smithsonian Institution and made substantial donations to its holdings throughout his life. He served as US Minister to Turkey, and later as the first US Minister to Italy, a post he held for the last 21 years of his life.

STEPHEN C. TROMBULAK, Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, is coauthor of The Story of Vermont (1999) and coeditor of The Future of the Northern Forest (1994). He is a member of the Board of Editors for Northeastern Naturalist and of the Board of Directors for Vermont Family Forests.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
John Elder
Introduction	ix
Address Delivered before the Agricultural Society of Rutland Country (September 30, 1847)	5	(19)
Lectures Delivered before the Smithsonian Institution, No. 1---The Camel (1855)	24	(10)
Oration before the New Hampshire State Agricultural Society (October 10, 1856)	34	(28)
Report, Made under Authority of the Legislature of Vermont, on the Artificial Propagation of Fish (1857)	62	(11)
The Study of Nature (1860)	73	(25)
Irrigation: Its Evils, Remedies, and the Compensations (1874)	98	(25)
MAN AND NATURE; OR, PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AS MODIFIED BY HUMAN ACTION (1864)
Introductory	123	(17)
Transfer, Modification, and Extirpation of Vegetable and of Animal Species	140	(19)
The Woods	159	(28)
The Waters	187	(20)
The Sands	207	(10)
Projected or Possible Geographical Changes by Man	217	(10)
Suggested Readings	227