Description
Book SynopsisAmerican Georgics takes as its primary problem the question of the human place in nature. By extending our understanding of what counts as environmental literature back before Thoreau, Sweet shows that early texts, while not necessarily green in contemporary terms, can offer important insights into our relationship to the environment.
Trade Review"Sweet offers a wide-ranging examination of the agricultural work of North American men and women as seen through the lens of literature. . . . Sweet's greatest achievement is his ability to integrate hundreds of years of discourse about the North American continent into a cohesive narrative of evolving perceptions of environment and humankind's role in shaping it." *
American Literature *
"Thoughtful, critically intelligent, and well-informed." * Lawrence Buell, Harvard University *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. Economy and Environment in Sixteenth-Century Promotional Literature
2. "God Sells Us All Things for Our Labour": John Smith's Generall Historie
3. "Wonder-Working Providence" of the Market
4. "Admirable Oeconomy": Robert Beverley's Calculus of Compensation
5. Ideologies of Farming: Crevecoeur, Jefferson, Rush, and Brown
6. Cherokee "Improvements" and the Removal Debate
7. "Co-Workers with Nature": Cooper, Thoreau, and Marsh
Notes
Woks Cited
Index
Acknowledgments
