{"product_id":"interpreting-the-environment-at-museums-and-historic-sites-9781538115497","title":"Interpreting the Environment at Museums and","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eState and local history collections provide a foundation for telling stories of the ways that humans have interacted with their environments over time, changing them, destroying them, conserving them, sustaining them. This book re-focuses thinking about the environment to thinking from the perspective of place and time, and people within that place-time continuum. The book provides a primer on “major problems” in researching and thinking about the environment. It addresses human perspectives on land distribution (Indian compared to English, Spanish, French approaches), the range of land use from conservation to exploitation, the disconnect between garbage and reduce-reuse-recycle campaigns; the histories of environmental movements and back to the land movements and their consequences, and the different experiences that become evidence when research documents race, class, gender and ethnicity in one place over time. The book moves beyond “nature,” distinguishing between natural environments and human-manipulated environments and ecosystems. Both have relevance to \"interpreting the environment at museums and historic sites.\"  It proposes a multi-disciplinary approach that requires expertise in the Humanities as well as the sciences and social sciences to best understand space and place over time.  It incorporates case studies of the theory and method in relation to human goals – creating working environments, getting water, growing food, traveling and trading, building things, and preserving remarkable natural landscapes.   Interpreting the Environment at Museums and Historic Sites is for anyone who wants to better understand the environment that surrounds us and sustains us, who wants to become a better steward of that environment, and who wants to share lessons learned with others. The process starts by focusing attention on the environment – the physical space that constitutes the largest three-dimensional object in museum collections. It involves conceptualizing spaces and places of human influence; spaces that contain layer upon layer documenting human struggles to survive and thrive. This evidence exists in natural environments as well as the city center. The process continues by adopting an environment-centric view of the spaces destined to be interpreted. This mind-set forms the basis for devising research plans to document the ways humans have changed, destroyed, conserved and sustained spaces over time, and the ways that the environment reacts. Interpretation built on evidence, then becomes the basis for cross-disciplinary engagement with the environment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe excellent work of Dr. Reid and Dr. Vail advocates for interpretive engagement resulting in stewardship. It relates conditions of the past to the world of today resulting from the creation of working environments. The book shows how arts and sciences may work together to provide a holistic approach to understanding our environment. -- Jim Lauderdale Lauderdale, Certified Interpretive Trainer, Museum Supervisor, Fort Nisqually Living History Museum\u003cbr\u003eInterpreting the Environment offers context, case studies, and an extensive bibliography that museums and historic sites can employ at this imperiled moment. Reid and Vail make a 'call to arms' to public history professionals to catalyze stories of human use and misuse of the environment--so that our visitors might confront one of the most pressing issues of our age. -- Julia Brock, History Department, University of Alabama\u003cbr\u003eThe role of the environment as a critical actor and object in history is an important foundation for a more inclusive, engaging, and complex historical interpretation. Reid’s and Vail’s writings help readers make this shift by emphasizing interdisciplinary research and historical thinking. If you are new to interpreting the environment, then their tool-kit is a guide to planning research and collection development; if you are not new to this, then their field overview and bibliographic essay are a treasure trove of resources to broaden or deepen your story. -- Sarah Sutton, Principal, Sustainable Museums\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eContents  Foreword by John C.F. Luzader  Preface  Acknowledgments   Part 1: A Primer on the Environment, Cultural Heritage, and History Interpretation  Chapter 1: Exploring Environmental History  Chapter 2: Thinking Historically about the Environment  Chapter 3: Constructing Stories about Humans and the Environment   Part 2: Telling Stories about Humans and Their Environments: Topics and Practice    Chapter 4: Creating Working Environments              Chapter 5: Getting Water              Chapter 6: Generating and Harnessing Power  Chapter 7: Growing Food  Chapter 8: Traveling and Trading  Chapter 9: Building Things  Chapter 10: Preserving and Conserving Natural Landscapes   Conclusion   Bibliographic Essay  Timeline of Environmental Ideas, Policies, and Legislation  About the Authors","brand":"Rowman \u0026 Littlefield","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51041127137623,"sku":"9781538115497","price":36.1,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781538115497.jpg?v=1750949040","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/interpreting-the-environment-at-museums-and-historic-sites-9781538115497","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}