Description
Book SynopsisThomas Andrews drills deep into the many pressures that have reshaped a small stretch of North America, from the ice age to the advent of the Anthropocene and controversies over climate change. He brings to the surface lessons about the critical relationships to land, climate, and species that only seemingly unimportant places on Earth can teach.
Trade ReviewAndrews has both the broad vision and the penetrating focus that major historians need… Overall a compelling [book]. -- Mark Abley * Times Literary Supplement *
Andrews’s
Coyote Valley is a marvelous example of the intersection not only of agricultural and environmental history but also of public and academic history… Andrews also makes a strong case for a deep-history approach to landscape history. -- Joseph E. Taylor III * Agricultural History *
In this smart and ambitious book, Thomas G. Andrews tries to reconcile large and small by focusing on the Kawuneeche Valley of Colorado (Coyote Valley, as translated from Arapaho), a part of Rocky Mountain National Park… The many successes and occasional shortcomings of Andrews’s efforts underscore the challenges of mastering space and scale. More important, this book is a model for breaking down needless barriers between public history and academic history. -- Matthew Klingle * Journal of American History *
Andrews covers much ground—eons of time, too—from the prehistoric era to the present to offer a ‘deep history’ of a small patch of ground in the Rockies… Those with environmental concerns and others with interests in Native history will derive much from Andrews’ fine book. -- P. D. Travis * Choice *
Andrews has followed up his Bancroft Prize–winning
Killing for Coal with an exquisitely wrought portrait of an out-of-the-way place that must be central to our understanding of the American West’s past, present, and future: the headwaters of the Colorado River in what today is Rocky Mountain National Park.
Coyote Valley is brilliant and beautiful, a must-read for anyone interested in the complex history of the nation’s iconic landscapes. -- Ari Kelman, author of
A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling over the Memory of Sand CreekIn this gracefully written, insightful, deeply researched history of an under-studied part of North America, Andrews tells a story of the fracturing of an environmental order. The chronological scope and interdisciplinary breadth of the work are impressive. This is environmental history at its best. -- Andrew Isenberg, author of
Wyatt Earp: A Vigilante LifeThose interested to learn how historians now write about the ever-changing dynamics among people, nature, and culture need look no further than this book.
Coyote Valley defines the cutting edge of environmental history. -- Pekka Hämäläinen, author of
The Comanche Empire
