The Wealth of Nature: Environmental History and the Ecological Imagination

Bancroft Prize-winning historian Worster ( Dust Bowl ) writes with a deep understanding of nature and its place in human affairs. In these lucid, authoritative essays, he ranges through American history to explore the people, ideas and economic developments that have shaped our attitudes and behaviors toward the land. The ecological crisis, he stresses, is `` the crisis of modern culture,'' brought on by modernity's materialism. Several pieces address the roles of population growth, technology and the market economy in the degradation of the environment. Others exhibit a narrower focus, e.g., how Protestantism helped shape John Muir and other environmental reformers. Worster's examinations of the myths and realities behind our interaction with nature provide a needed perspective. (May)